30 March - Sunbirds and pomegranates

الرحمن الرحیم بسم الله

In the name of Allah, most gracious most merciful.

30 March.

Alhamdulillah, autumn is marching in with a bit of a chill and some rain but it’s still wonderful weather to be outside.  It’s delightful to be involved with organic gardens, with grooming youth as new leaders and training teachers with iLABS. Every day I see how this actually intertwines like facets of growth.

It was wonderful to meet with one of our students that was on our pilot IHYA course today, to see her development and confidence as she continues her studies in the Adult and Higher Education Department at the University of Cape Town. We work shopped a few teachers who wanted to continue studies in Education and she was the one who took the challenge and accepted the invitation from UCT. This year she will complete her Diploma and get her wings and continue inshaAllah with an Advanced Certificate in Adult Education. So proud!
 
Back on home ground, Sundays are lazy in the late afternoon after have-to-attend functions, marking scripts and picking up everyone. Then we can have a warm cup of tea under canopy. While packeting newly dried pomegranate seeds, Abubakr is busy with his new propagation tray: in ”youth speak” the new cloning device for plants. A rectangular plastic with a lid sommer bought at Osmans, holes the size of R5 coins have been drilled into it and a small fish tank pump with see-through pipe to encourage oxygen inserted inside. A weak solution of Seagrow in the water; some cuttings pushed through and in two weeks’ time it will sprout many roots, thank you Omer for your wonderful idea and assistance.

 In the distance a preacher is screaming and taxis that drive by have the beat on so loud my eardrums protest. One can only wonder what it feels like with that kind of sound vibrating through the seats. I breathe in deeply and stand to look on proudly at how the garden starts to actually look like a garden.  Stone benches standing solidly next to the bougainvillea, a small table close by made of odd bits of wood, a bit distressed but so charming: the handy work of Rameez, the man of many talents.

The trick of an organic farm is to be in action, being busy consistently every day: weeding, staking, tying, watering and mulching (a wonderful analogy for what we like to do and for life itself). The rush for last minute seeding before winter and making new planting beds. Trimming and deadheading summer flowers and of course finding the right spot to plant new strawberry plants. So the mounds are prepared, the potatoes are allowed to create living seed and finally yes, the lemon tree and orange tree will be planted in the barrels maybe tomorrow. I have to think of some protection for them though, because I believe it does not like too much wind but has to be planted in full sun and in rich soil. So I thought to hit in some stakes around them and tie some hessian around like a blanket. Seriously, if the horses (and there are many elegant ones strutting around in Schaapkraal) can walk around with jackets, who says citrus trees may not have blankets?

 The thing about the garden is that it is full of surprises every day. The quince has new growth and the pomegranate is about to open many blossoms. I also realise now that basil is called reygaan in Arabic, makes sense? All the Reygaanah’s that I know have their feet firmly in the ground.  Working in the beds, I get used to wild sparrows fly so low over one’s head. I wish that we had hummingbirds in South Africa to attract to our gardens. Apparently we don’t have hummingbirds but we do have sunbirds, small and beautiful but not as acrobatic. They hover but cannot do it backwards. Insha’Allah nothing happens without the permission of the Almighty, I must plant some red sunbird bush and other nectar producing flowers like firecrackers to lure sunbirds.



Sunbird

Hummingbird

 





Suddenly, the call of the Muathin resounds splendidly and reminds of Allah’s due, so I suspend writing and we decide to throw down mats right here in the fresh air, the sky an endless dome. There is no better refresher than running cold water over you’re the limbs. Later.
And I’m back and I am thinking of weeds. Firstly, I have always had a bad attitude towards them, pulling them out where ever I find them, getting frustrated at their competitiveness with our plants and their ability to disguise themselves so amazingly. Until one day, about 15 years, when we bought a smallholding not too far from here, a friend remarked that the stinging nettle growing in patches were a good indication of the fertility in the soil and that it would be good ground to plant in. We should just hoe them into the ground and they would enrich the soil with iron. What?

Then I started my research and till today I have a very healthy respect for them, the weeds I mean. Actually stinging nettle (the ones who stings our legs and itches for a long time) is dried and used in tea to inhibit cancer. Other weeds that accumulate nutrients and minerals are dandelion, yarrow, wild daisies, fat hen, thistles, sorrel and many many more. When you do pull them out throw them on the compost heap and it will in turn enrich the soil again. So it takes all kinds to make the world go round!

Have a wonderful week those of you who are vacation and those who are at work. Where ever you are happy gardening.

Yasmine