Overgrown Oasis is a plant-only live selling marketplace built with District, founded by April and Daryk, the couple behind Unsolicited Plant Talks, a collector houseplant business. Where other platforms lacked any real community focus, Overgrown Oasis was built around a simple idea: education, community, and sales — in that order. Today it hosts over 150 sellers, a volunteer team of admins and moderators, and a weekly ritual that has nothing to do with selling at all.

From collectors to founders

Seven years ago, April and Daryk quit their day jobs — April as a nurse, Daryk as a chef — to go all in on plants. What started as a hobby became Unsolicited Plant Talks, a houseplant business specializing in hoyas and other collector genera, shipping across the US.

But the more time they spent in the plant community online, the more clearly they saw what was missing. Facebook groups had warmth but no commerce. Live selling platforms had commerce but the community aspect wasn’t there. And everywhere they went, plants were mixed in with everything else. “Before coming to District, everywhere you go, it’s a mixture of everything,” Daryk says. “We’re plant focused and we truly wanted a safe space for everybody…not only to come hang out and learn, but to know that when you open the app, it’s all just going to be plants.”

As collectors themselves they knew exactly what that space should look like. “We wanted to curate our own market and have what we would prefer to have as consumers, as collectors, as hobbyists,” Daryk says.

Building what they actually wanted

When a seller friend mentioned District, they took a closer look. District gave them the infrastructure to build a curated marketplace — from standard product listings and live selling to community features like chat channels — and get it up and running without a development team or a lengthy build process. District’s live multicasting meant they could reach their existing audiences on Instagram and Facebook at the same time, bringing the plant community they’d already built on those platforms into Overgrown Oasis.

“We wanted a live selling marketplace for all of our sellers to get together in a hub, but we wanted that to be a place where the community could pick each other up and actually uplift one another,” Daryk says.

Live sales sit alongside active chat channels where members post photos of new blooms, troubleshoot problems, and share sourcing tips. For April and Daryk, District brings it all together in one place — and they can build and manage it themselves.

“Our total vision is somewhere between a live selling platform, a Discord group where people can go in and communicate, and an Instagram to show off your plants and your accomplishments,” Daryk says. “A one-stop shop for everybody.”

On Tuesdays We Chore

One of the most popular things on Overgrown Oasis has nothing to do with selling. Every Tuesday, community members go live together to water their plants.

It started as a way to make a routine chore feel less solitary. “It’s like hanging out with a friend on a FaceTime where we’re all going to water our plants together,”  Daryk explains. It became a community staple: someone spots a pest, the whole community starts talking, an expert gets tagged.

“That comes with education,” Daryk says. “Somebody’s encountering pests, so now pests becomes a topic this week and everybody’s talking — what are you doing, what worked for you?”

Designing with District’s AI Builder

April handles most of the technical work. Daryk has, by his own description, zero technical knowledge. District’s AI Builder lets anyone design and build their website using plain English prompts — no coding or developers needed. For April and Daryk it’s been a game changer.

“It gives me more time to be creative rather than being technical,” April says. With AI Builder, April can build and update pages in a fraction of the time. For Daryk it opened up a new way to contribute. “Previously I could say an idea but she would have to actualize the idea and it still takes a long time,” he says. “Now even I’m able to get involved.”

Less time on technical problems means more time on the community they’re trying to build.

Growing every day

For many members Overgrown Oasis becomes more than a place to shop. They come back to chat, help answer questions, organize their own events, and keep the community moving. “Takes community to build a community,” Daryk says.

District gave them the tools to build Overgrown Oasis fast, with the ability to customize and make changes as they grow. In just over a year, they’ve hosted over 1,200 livestreams, grown to nearly 200 sellers, and built a growing community of 3,400 members.

Want to build a marketplace like Overgrown Oasis? Get started with District →