Let nature do her thing

In the name of Allah, the Most gracious, the Most merciful. There is none like unto Him.



molesnake under borage

 25 November 2014

InshaAllah to have a successful garden of fruits and vegetables one has to get the eco balance right. So we do our best to make it easier for nature to do her thing.  In the words of bob flowerdew, “Nature always reaches a balance; we aim to move that point so that it is in our favour and not against us.” So the borage plants and nasturtiums provide not only shade for the plants but are excellent hiding places for insects and of late animals of the slithering kind such as geitjies and snakes.

In the past the use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers have wreaked havoc with not only plants but also to our health and as the world over gardeners and agriculturalists have realized the way to go is hand over to biological control – thus yields are up and we are all invested in using natural processes to our advantage.

Which brings me to encouraging wild life in this harmonious balance. We need to encourage pests as well as predators, pollinators and recyclers. Pests are only pests when they destroy our crops and plants such as an overload of snails but controlled in smaller numbers they feed birds whose droppings make the soil fertile and as a bonus snails eat diseased and waste material too. So before you scream when you see baby toads or frogs remember that they eat other pests. Beetles are friends when they are orange or yellow or red and covered with black spots – yep ladybugs. But the ones who bore into branches and stems are a no no though beetles are great pollinators in winter conditions when other insects can’t fly. Recyclers are insects that convert dead and diseased plant material into plant food both in the soil and on the soil.

Earlier we had a cricket overload and the birds helped to balance the scales again. Of late I see that there are many frogs around the smallholding – green ones and small black ones and I have been wondering which predators it will bring. I did not have too long to wait! Last week I was at a meeting, I noticed that the strawberry patch at the back of wall seemed a bit disheveled with the border onions looking verlep when I got home and did my rounds. Everyone was avoiding my eyes so I thought: “ Ag the boys kicked the ball into the garden again and broke something”.

By Thursday the word was out, “We saw a snake.” “It’s by time”, was my flippant reply. I had seen a molted snake skin and a small red grass snake at the compost heap. Finally I got out the story, no one wanted me to know because they thought it would scare me. How long was it, what kind of snake, what colour, where was it, who found it, who killed it, who buried it? These are the moments when I am not sure who was nearly wetting their pants or really brave, tee hee.

It turned out to be a metre and a bit long probably a mole snake. I think it really scared the boys picking strawberries and as they chased it the snake tried to escape down the rabbit hole, I mean gopher hole. There has been a lot of drilling and commotion on the street pavement and I kind of expected snakes to come and look for safety, which is what happened in Lansdowne when huge machines cut the bushes on the field. We also have lots of frogs and crickets, perfect hors d'oeuvres for snakes. So ha ha, the boys buried the snake and I had a heck of time explaining that snakes have a part to play in the eco system as well, why does everyone see them as evil serpents waiting to bite them? The gopher made holes through the beds and the snakes are subletting from them. Not that it does not make me nervous - just no more sandals in the gardens and knocking out of boots before we put them on. 

So ja, our eco system has developed well and makes for a very healthy environment for humans, plants and wild life and of course our kitties, who mind you are growing up so fast – mice, moles and snakes beware. I shake with laughter as they chase bees and flies and grrp in their mouths. They have extended their playground to the surrounding sections of the house and still dash in when there is an unfamiliar loud noise.

I continue placing logs and make corners of rocks as good hiding places for bugs and other things. I plant very particular plants to lure the pollinators, recyclers and pests and predators such as comfrey, borage, lavender, poppies, artichokes, fuchsias, sweet peas and fox gloves and I do think as city slickers we have to consider wild life more than just reacting to the fear factor. Spiders and wasps are such valuable friends. And one can learn to control ones fear around the bees. If you are calm and collected working around the same space where they are collecting nectar they can’t be bothered with you. Quite frankly, I used to be scared and make duah as I enter their space but I get over myself because we need them more than they need us. There would be very little vegetables indeed if the pollinators did not come and visit.

Plant food and get over yourself with being scared of bees

Yasmine

 

 

Quran quiz and gourmet gardens

In the name of Alah, the most gracious, the most merciful.

18 November 2014.

As the day winds down and the sounds of passing cars diminish, we sat down for supper Shukran  Allah. So what was for dinner? Frikkadel and saffron rice, mashed potatoes and tomato and basil pesto and sweet sweet beets.  Exams are coming to a close with much marking and reports to be written Alhamdulilah. The IPSA blog IPSide Edge are in their groove; the calligraphic artists are handing in portfolios with sketches, line drawings and painting and they are awesome! The gourmet garden stands firm; the plants have taken and the seeds have sprouted and the students planted some pretty looking plant boards. Now just maintenance such as weeding and aerating the soil and watering.  So a whole new group of stewards with new skills are let loose.  Watch this space for the final IPSA dhikr and possibly an evening in the gardens with an exhibition of the work of the artists.

On Sunday , the Qur’an quiz pilot rollout of DARAQ was a lot of fun especially with ask the audience questions and plants and books up for grabs. A lovely supportive audience turned up and other schools show an interest to participate too, inshaAllah. So wish DARAQ well with efforts to engage their young women in many other activities.

Subhanallah strawberries have been fruiting since August and the crop only gets better and sweeter - the more pickings the more strawberries.  We deter the plants from running for a bit and have to get into the beds with clippers and weed as we go along and renourish the windswept soil with composts. It’s so oulik ne, the one patch that we mulched with straw has beautiful ears of wheat emerging and I am tempted to leave them as is. The borage plants are starting to take over the patches with their strong thick stems so we are removing them to the compost heap and allowing new baby plants to emerge – hope the bees don’t mind. As we lift the straggly nasturtiums, exhausted after their run, heaps of seeds lay on the soil waiting to be scooped up and bagged for next year.

A marvelous crop of flax seeds are waiting be collected too, while a second crop is blooming. The artichokes are wayout – huge strong plants with jagged leaves.  The asparagus ferny plants have all survived and are having a growth spurt. We have reorganized all of the new plants in growbags in rows on pallets easier to water and tend to – thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, yarrow, lemon grass, mints, brinjals and kitten.  Yep this is their favourite sunny morning spot in and out of rows at breakneck speeds, crouched tigers that pounce on each other and skrik each other. Then along comes a truck and they dash for home.

The dates seeds are sprouting, fuchsias, bulbines, wild garlic, honey suckle, vitex, hibiscus, fiddlewood and a range of other plants are on display. The lettuce crop is starting to seed, we have had the best of their crisp leaves of all kinds and have new lettuce beds prepared for the next few months. The basil is all maturing and I can’t wait to make pesto, in the meantime we sneak pick some leaves and add to foods and salads. The tomato bushes are thinned out and retethered after the winds sweep them off their feet. The fruits are still green and I should try that fried green tomato as in the movie hey.

The habeneros and jalapeño chillis are starting to hang out and pepper bushes are growing bigger but I pinch out their flowers to allow them to get stronger first. I notice that the ones closer to a warm wall do much better – there are green, yellow and red pepper plants yay! I have also shifted the ginger plants with fingers crossed to a shielded outside shady position and keep their soil damp. I know its late in the year and more ideal to plant garlic in winter but I have been making lots of new onion patches (we use them even when they are little) and I put in some pink garlic cloves too and a bit more chives (we use them for breakfast cooking over mushrooms and fried tomatoes).

As for the flowers, we have packed away all of the poppy seed heads in brown paper bags for next year and so clear out the patch and replenish to prepare for planting summer flowers. I have a few gauria plants that I intend to plant in a bunch – there pink flowers look so pretty and I want to plant snapdragons and petunias all over  - they are so cheery!

As for the beautiful kittens the Leo and Wolverine,  MashaAllah they are growing so fast and their separate identities are emerging. Rich and shiny coated and bushy tailed like we dipped them in chocolate or something. They are so adorable and have learnt to sneak out of windows and hide under rolled up carpets. They are inquisitive too jumping on tables and lick the icing off cakes. We shoo them off, it would be a fine cheek if they had to go to the dentist too. I continue cooking their meals – gourmet meals for cats nogal, and they seem to have a penchant for vegetables such as cooked pumpkin, carrot slivers that have dropped to the floor and popcorn ha ha.

Plant food and tie up loose ends in the garden.

Miaow

Yasmine

Does the grass look greener on the other side?

In the name of Allah the most gracious the most merciful.

new fence

14 November 2014.

I can’t believe that this year has gone so fast. I realize it as I type the date, hey been off the grid for ten days. I realize that I have not blogged for a while and I find the last one (6 Nov) in my recent Word list just at the bottom called “Not cool Eskom”, but no matter.  All of my recent files are readings on case studies and reflective narrative journals.

This week the house was abuzz with my daughter revising questions for the Qur’an Quiz on Sunday in Ottery and she drags us all in to question her. Its 5.00 in the afternoon and everyone is napping except me and my son who I can hear tapping the mallet on chisel. Today was a good day for a vegetarian meal so I opened Nicola Graimes encyclopedia for whole foods and the recipes were scrumptious, only I had none of the main ingredients for any of the meals. No haloumi, no pastry, no artichokes (yet), no goats cheese, no wild rice or couscous and low supplies for oven bakes.

So I thought go with what I know and have a look in the cupboards and garden, there is lots of celery and parsley and much more leeks. I have some carrots in the drawers and dried split peas in the cupboard.  I settled on a hearty vegetable soup and some bajias on the side (chilli bites made with chana flour and spinach) and because Abu likes something sweet with his soup we made some bollas too.

windsweptf oxgloves

I look outside and the wind is still blowing so hard that the fox gloves look like whirling dervishes, the wind ripples through their skirts and then they take a bow. The sweetpeas on the other hand are flexible - niks maak aan hulle vere!

I have been outside periodically to have a look at the new fence Shaheen is putting up and I am so happy - I click my feet in the air. And peep over and see that the potato plants are lush and purple flowers abundant - talk about it being greener on the other side. Just kidding, it looks really beautiful and Peter's worked really hard with potatoes.

baby makataans

There are small little teeny water melons and squash and butternut fetuses lying in the lush undergrowth. InshaAllah, the tomatoes will ripen soon. Although there are blooms everywhere, my hayfever is abating. I am replanting eggplant plugs into larger grow bags and pots because their roots are outgrowing their space. The strawberries continue to fruit and their runners are criss crossing in the paths. The property is neatly trimmed, all of the wild grass and thorn bushes cut to the ground and dug out, now Mikaeel and lie on our backs, look up into the sky and guess shapes in the clouds.

I have been so excited to see the first delphinium blossoms and am so disappointed they are a deep purple instead of an electric blue. I planted them because they reminded me that Abu bought some for me many years ago as a peace offering. I remember it so distinctly because they could fill my widest vase and light up my bedroom and cheer me up no end.

I was working from home and Luqmaan was still in nappies, so we’re talking about 16 and a bit years ago. I was transcribing the stories of the Swartkop susters for the ‡Khomani San land claim in the Kalahari. The stories were particularly heart-breaking and I had to maintain its confidentiality, we were living in Taronga Road at the time.

 Abubakr was busy at the office with deadlines; the children were at school and I had two little ones to take care of with no help. I really did not mind the mind the cleaning and cooking and the little ones were no bother really, but I think I just got duk of the clearing up every morning and the routine of getting babies seen to and home and then the interviews was getting a bit much for me. One of my daughters who I think shall remain anonymous would try on different outfits every morning unable to make up her mind of what to wear. When she left in the morning all of the clothing and shoes would be lying on the bed. If any of you have seen the movie “About Time” you would know what I mean.

So that day I just took all of the clothing of everyone, marched through the French doors and chucked it outside. I tidied up my bedroom but left everything else as messy as it was left. I fed the baby; settled the toddler; put on my earphones and started typing. When everyone got home I gave the speech. It was not even the cleaning and tidying up it was about consideration for each other and in this case for me. I had to clean up, and everything else and do my work. I never claimed to be Superwoman.  So there stood Abu with an olive branch or should I say delphinium bunch, armfuls of flowers and they were too beautiful to resist. But I still needed the consideration of everyone to rinse out cups and bowls; to make beds (properly); to hang out wet towels and to offer me a cup of tea, of course.

delphinium

So now you understand why I am so disappointed about the delphiniums – it was the day of my consideration speech. When I look over at the flowers I do think they are beautiful after all, maybe I should be a bit more considerate.

As for the kitties – Leo and the Wolverine they are growing marvelously and beautifully with healthy pelts. We have found a way to rid them of fleas. They are starting to explore the outdoors on their own and scurry inside every time a truck passes. The Wolverine has a more macho personality jumping on the Leo in mock fight all the time. Standing there with fur raised as if to fend off an attack and purring when he sits on our laps. Little Leo is more kind and patient with bigger brother and uses his wiles (sweet innocent face and kitty eyes) to get what he wants. We know they’re growing up because they have started to jump onto the tables to sniff out what is edible. I’m relieved because it gets the tables to be cleared off and everything wrapped up and refrigerated pronto.  I know they will off into the outdoors soon and don’t look forward to the gifts they may bring us – a dead bird or a grass snake. Eek! Leo is the one who loves watching series with his head moving from side so side and the Wolverine loves the soothing sound of Qur’an and cuddles up underfoot during salaah. Talk about different strokes.

Jumuah Mubarak!

Grow food and grow beautiful flowers for loved ones

Yasmine

 

Braaivleis, sunny skies and ladybugs.

In the name of Allah The most gracious, The most merciful.

Algerian Globe Artichoke (Waseemah Mdoka)

Today is one of the most beautiful summer days that we have had this year, Thank you Allah. The hay fever is a bit of a damper and the price to pay for all the sweetpeas, foxgloves, Peruvian lilies, delphiniums, lavender, poppies and other flowers that make the garden picturesque. The ever sneezing gets us all down a bit especially when the wind fans the pollen around and even makes some of us wheezy.



drying seeds (Waseemah Mdoka)

But then one walks down strawberry lane and the sweet smell of ripe sunkist strawberries fills the air, I forget that I said I am duk of all the strawberries and then I pick a blood red juicy one. I don’t even stop to rinse and sink in my teeth. Just one more and then just one more - I break promise after promise. I get to work with removing the poppy heads, the little roofs lifted and before the wind gets a chance to scatter them, I cut them off at the legs and prop them into vases. I am so storing them for next year and giving some seeds to friends just like my friend gave me. I am tempted to shake them out into little jars but then I remember the story of Nabi Yusuf AS and I decide to store them on the stalk. Thinks I will have to find a way to wrap them without spilling seeds.  



Waseemah is busy with her photography lesson in the garden learning to lean in close to take pictures in nature; bees are mulling in and around the borage flowers. I ask her to take pics of the Algerian Artichokes so I can show you and she screams, “ladybugs!” There are ladybugs all over the artichokes, bees dipping in borage nectar, butterflies dancing around the foxgloves – yep its summer and even the insects are in season.

 There are just too many functions that need attendance and today I opt for a quiet Sunday and buckling down to my studies, I have five readings to complete. I lie, it can never be a quiet Sunday here what with me inviting everyone to fetch some vegetables. So it’s a lazy Sunday with kids prancing down rows of strawberries. For lunch I start to make butter chicken because it’s so quick to cook and deliciously light; ask someone to make roti and my son in law lights a fire for a bit of meat. I bake ciabatta-like bread for early evening and steer clear of dessert because I had too much of  those marvelously fluffy cinnamon doughnuts served by AA Caterers at the IPSA Symposium on Environmental Justice yesterday.

Strawberries from our garden

After lunch and that lazy cuppa I take my 40 something steps (more like 4000) round and round on the property. I need the exercise before the wind comes up again and I resist the tendency for siesta. When everyone has left for home and Qur’an lessons are being prepared for school next day, we wind down. The garden needs a good hosing down, I take a leisurely shower and then we have a final visitor, Hamza who grows his own strawberries too. We swap strawberry stories and advice about how to get them to grow stronger and bigger and in the meantime we are busy filling a bowl of pickings. He is enchanted with the bees in the borage while I totter on heels; I guess the juiciest ones were waiting for Hamza.

The sun starts sinking fast, birds fly over low and bees zoom back to their hives. The Wolverine and Leo have had a fabulous day of pampering from all the young ones and lay stretched out on the couch outside. The sky turns reddish, the mu'athin calls and it’s time to sign off and post later. 

Grow food and be moderate with desserts.

Yasmine