Garden Photo Diary of Summer 2020

Welcome to our garden, bismillah.

During the pandemic, my husband and I did what we hope others do for us - supported our community, packed food parcels, organised sanitation systems and kept going to work. I did my part too, smaller but significant for me; I grew all the seeds we had. 

My photography isn't edited so I haven't added any watermarks or cropped them. Just my captions to explain what we've grown and learnt. Jazakallah (may Allah reward you) for reading. 

Please share and consider following regular updates and tips on our social media @TheEcoMuslim. 

This is the second year in our new home and we've never done any major gardening together before. We quickly ran out of pots and decided to reuse any container we had in our kitchen. Pictured - runner beans before flowering. 

Milk botttles in particular make a great watering can and plant pot which will last years. Plastic has some uses. 

About 4 weeks after planting tomato seeds the young plants needed repotting. My Ami (mum) taught me to repot baby plants a couple times and this time she wisely said, let the plants grow strong outside, leave them in the garden. So we did. This tomato plant outgrew its pot and has been outside since April. Love those roots. 

We used propogators to grow from seed. These boxes have a lid to keep the humidity in. 

Sadly we lost a few plants along the way. We discarded dead seeds and left the weaker, smaller plants but tried to resuscitate any half-alive stalks. Pictured in a pepper plant that snapped but eventually grew fresh leaves. 

Our collection of home made plant pots (before moving full plants into the soil). 

My sister's in-laws have a wonderful garden of their own. This isn't just a strawberry bush, it's a whole garden dedicated to the fruit. They grew so carefree over walls and onto the path.

I was so tempted to pick and eat. We asked first!

Back to out garden: husband made these raised beds and it's still a work in progress. The grass was dug up and we sprinkled lawn seeds (so it looks better now). The tomato plants are front row in these boxes and runners are behind, they even twisted around the corner tree. Ami was right, they're giants now. 

Bamboo is used to support the tomatoes. Glorious little yellow flowers bloomed by June-July and we patiently waited for the flower-to-fruit transformation. 

Another one of my husband's projects - he created a house/teepee support system of bamboo for the newly planted runner beans. By May, we had so many varietes it was hard to keep track. Basically we've got white and yellow! Or French beans and green runner beans. 

Next to the runner beans' bed are potatoes in this yellow box (also reused). After conversations with our neighbours, we learnt that one potato could harvest a bunch, left undisturbed deep in compost with good light, feed and love. We'll check the harvest by Sep-Oct this year. 

Another one of my husbands ideas! He really hoped growing tomatoes upside down would make watering easier and encourage a bigger bunch. It's working too.

Video + Grow Your Own Tomatoes

To our suprise, this bluebell lookalike sprung up in the cracking brick walls. Called campanula, they are little bell shaped flowers and a great friend to the ecosystem. We've let it spread freely. 

Hydrangea, a controlled bush for the time being.

Roses were growing in the back garden before we moved here. After a redesign we repotted them and it grew slowly. A rose cutting we took from that plant also surprised us with a couple of blooms in August. Absolutely gorgeous. 

I'm quite proud of this dahlia, I grew it from a bulb at an early attempt of a flower garden. Allah has made this grow, I know it's easy for Him. 

A few weeks later and more delightful tomato flowers. I have a separate post for growing tomatoes to share with you soon.

Courgettes have taken over our garden as well. There's loads on each plant, and to think, we grew these from seed into giant monsters. We've taken off the ones that were turning yellow and sliced them up raw into salads. Taste lovely. 

There's one of the first tomatoes ripening and bursting. My dream is to grow enough to survive on, but a little tomato sandwich will be just as wonderful. Insha-Allah (God willing).

Peace + eco-jihad. 

Zaufishan, The Eco Muslim 

More 

+ Grow Organic Tomatoes At Home (Photos)

+ Ami's Gardening Passion

+ Growing Veggies From Seed (Greenhouse)