Planifolia: Where Sustainability, Family, and Faith Take Root

Every so often, you meet someone whose quiet example rewrites your idea of what hope looks like.

I’ve spent some time with Grounded Roots Farm owners, Joy & Jason, in their newly open store, Planifolia at Station Square. (Where the wine shop was.)

This splendid couple stopped me in my tracks as I listened to the journey they have been on. It has brought them to the opening of this sophisticated and welcoming new plant and tea shop – ‘a way cool’ space they designed and executed.

Part of their journey began with a home garden that failed. Weeks of heavy rain washed away their early effort. But, instead of giving up, they recognized they had a lot to learn and they began to study.

Dissatisfied with grocery produce they wanted to grow better food for their family. They dug deep as students. They found mentors, they started new soil practices.

Joy eventually added flowers to their endeavors. They have become great advocates for a lifestyle that includes leading a sustainable way of living.

Today, their Grounded Roots Farm provides fresh, chemical-free produce to the Rocky Mount Farmers Market. They are local experts in sustainable gardening—farming with practices that restore the land instead of depleting it.

They are known for the plants they sell at the market. (See below)

Their new store, Planifolia, isn’t just a place to shop—it’s a seedbed of values: education, stewardship, nourishment, faith, and self-sufficiency.

Inside the store, you’ll find more than plants. You’ll find thoughtfully curated teas—some traditional, others infused with herbs they grow themselves. The teas are part of their vision to promote wellness from the inside out.

Like everything in the store, each item reflects their belief in a slower, more intentional way of living. And beginning soon, Saturday afternoons they will offer classes—opportunities to learn too.

The plants they sell at the Market and now at Planifolia involve cultivating an ancient Japanese practice called kokedama—a method of growing plants in moss-wrapped balls of soil, rather than pots.

The word literally means “moss ball,” and it transforms a plant into a piece of living art. It’s a philosophy as much as a technique—one that embraces simplicity, care, and the elegance of natural form.

As I listened to Joy and Kevin share their journey, watched them with their children, and felt the calm confidence with which they live, I kept thinking, this is what so many are longing for, a life of purpose, balance, and rootedness.

They are not loud about it. They are not seeking headlines. But what they are doing is radical in the truest, most beautiful sense of the word: they are returning to their roots.

In a time when so much in our nation feels brittle—politics, culture, trust—I found myself drawn to Joy and Kevin’s steadiness. To their example. These two people are the future.

I believe that what they are doing is nothing short of a saving grace. I want you to treat yourself to Planifolia. You may go looking for a plant or having a cup of tea, but I promise, you’ll leave with something more lasting.

You know the line from the song…what the world needs now is love sweet love? The world could use the lifestyle Joy and Kevin and their children are living.

Sometimes we search for answers in headlines or politics, waiting for change to come from the top down. But real restoration often begins at ground level—literally. It starts in soil.

In a seed planted by hand. In a couple choosing to live differently, love deliberately, and teach their children not just to read and write, but to grow and give.

In this quiet shop, Planifolia tea is poured, roots are wrapped in moss, and a future is being shaped with patience and purpose. It doesn’t ask for applause. It simply grows—inch by inch, choice by choice.

And maybe that’s the lesson: that the truest kind of progress is the one that feeds us, steadies us, and brings us back to what really matters.

Planifolia in Rocky Mount, NC, is owned by Grounded Roots Farms, which is a family-owned business. Store Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 11:30-6:30 – At Station Square – 301 S. Church st. Rocky Mount, NC