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