So far we have the garlic from last year, strawberry plants and the baby Braeburn apple tree. We planted tomato and gourd plants and I had the kids dig up Gorgeous’ patch to put some coriander and spinach seed in.
When I was little my mum would take coriander seed from the kitchen and put it on the garden tiles and then get us all to jump on it to break it down a little. She would then sweep it up and deposit it onto the soil and turn the soil over. Not sure if there is any point in doing this, or what her reasoning was, but whilst I got round to asking her, I thought I would get the kids to do the same (anyone heard the story about the women who trimmed her meat for years because her mother did and then found out her mother only did it because she had a very small pan) . The kids thought it was a great idea and enlisted the neighbours’ kids to help.
I also put the French beans seeds in along the walls and in some of the planters (just to see here they would grow well and where they wouldn’t).
Involving the kid’s sounds very nice, but it has been an exercise in patience to be honest. They fight over the watering can, they fight over the ornaments and today they even fought over which part of the patch belongs to who. I have heard of fence/border disputes with neighbours, but never inside the same garden. In the end I was relieved when their Arabic teacher turned up and they had to go in. I finished off and got a few moments to sit outside quietly and enjoy the cool evening after a hot day of long meetings, busy trains and sore feet.
It was lovely going outside this morning and watering the garden before work, a nice little routine for the next few months insh’Allah, and hopefully we can have the rest of the garden cleared of junk and the benches and chairs cleared and set out so we can enjoy the evenings outside. Mum-in-law will be here in a week to stay for the summer, so no doubt she will be spending lots of time out here too.
I haven't told you in awhile how much I enjoy your posts. Even though we are a world apart, with different religions and only related cultures, it feels as though I can relate to every post. I have been fighting with my boys about the garden, as well. I should have gotten it in a month ago, but it is hard with a new baby. I took my boys out on Monday (a holiday here) to till it up and get rid of the weeds. The ground was hard, so we had to water weeds to soften up the soil. But they sprayed each other. They all wanted to use what we call the garden claw, but after 5 minutes, wanted to quit. They didn't want to pick up the garbage. They didn't want to touch weeds without gloves (which I forgot to buy). We got about half of it done. I did actually buy a tomato plant in a big pot with its own trellis, that way I can at least have one plant. and as we may be moving at the end of summer, I can take it with me. I had coriander seeds (we call it cilantro), along with several other seed packets...my boys lost the whole lot of them...grrrr...including the zucchini (courgette?) seeds which were hard to find this year. I pray you have an easy, safe pregnancy, and that your garden can bring you a little peace.
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