The Schaapkraal Diaries: Broad beans, blue berries and Fennel bulbs

In the name of Allah The most gracious The Most Merciful.

Fennel and beets

Who splits the earth with sprouts and causes within it to grow grain and grapes and herbage, and olives and palm trees, and gardens of dense shrubbery, and fruit and grass as enjoyment for us and our grazing livestock.

Today is the sacred day of Jumuah when Allah (SWT) bestows barakah on the Haramein, the masajid and the dunyah, the plains and the fields, Subhanallah. Today I feel blessed that the organic gardens are doing so well, the extended parts that we started about a month ago are lush and its yields are high. We are eating lettuce, the clean seed from Mexico, I think and the many different varieties – frilly, cos, red and green and a variegated variety, the one sweeter than the other.

braod beans

The fennel are growing up too and I can’t wait for the bulbs to be big enough to slice in the middle and oven roast with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The broad beans are growing bigger and bigger and the beetroot has just formed small beets. The tomatoes are big enough for us to leave the flowers on now, we nipped them off as the bushes were still small. The basil is in the ground and I can proudly say that the peppers (yellow, green and red) are increasing in size. The basil I planted from seed but I bought some peppers plugs as I wanted them to grow quickly.

blue berries

Some of the Russian kale and red mustard are not doing so well and the cabbage leaves look like there are holes punched in them with small flies around them. At the backwall I strew a medley of cucurbit seeds and five different kinds of plants have emerged – makataan melon, red melon, giant pumpkin, squash and butternut. How cool is that? The growth of the tomatoes are phenomenal and the wild dagga is flowering so we hope to see some sunbirds soon inshaAllah. Hope they avoid the blueberries though.

Today we started the Gourmet Garden Project at the Islamic Peace College and it went off so well. We started off with locating the project in a broader environmental frame and discussed the role that the Ambiyaa played and read snippets out of the Islamic Farming Toolkit. Of course the Organic Bible of Bob Flowerdew was right there with us too when we discussed What's organic and what's not.

Students were actually quite eager to get their hands dirty. It took a lot of composting to be dug into the barren soil and watered until it was ready for some planting. Though I like planting out seedlings in the late afternoon, we planted hoping that the shady areas we chose would be good. All the seedlings and herb container soil were full of earthworms which have a new home now. We discussed how we could catch wudhu water for the gardens and it will take some interesting plumbing of course to make it work. This is a personal dream Abubakr and I have to start a project leading wudhu water at mosques into the garden. Anyway so we decided for now maybe to use some buckets. Let’s see who is going to remember.

The students started with one patch planting onion, peppers, lettuce, cucumber and basil. We also planted some English lavender and mints but we have to decide where we want a complete space for herbs. Well done everyone!

As for the kittens – they are so beautiful and lovable. They run around now and are playful, scampering around and mock fighting with one another. No more accidents, they know where the litter box is and when its warm and sunny they are taken outside. They have been introduced to the garden and taken to smell the catnip and a section where they can do their business, But like babies, when they start mewing – dan hardloop almal!

This weekend we are busy transplanting plants that have over grown their pots. I started after Asr with all of the fuchsia plants and separating the iris tubers while the rest of the gang trimmed and repotted fiddlewood, honey suckle and cedars. When we line them up an water them looks like a nursery already.

Later

Grow food and plant all kinds of peppers

Yasmine