Balcony Gardening

Assalamu Alaikum!

At the end of the year 2018 I had my first go at gardening and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's therapeutic, rewarding and the fresh food at the end is delicious, masha'Allah. However, this year the experience hasn't been that great.

In late September and early October of 2019 I sowed Carrots, Chard, Tomatoes and Beans.

The Chard wasn't growing in the mini starter pots, so I let the soil dry then scattered it in a large pot of soil and watered it daily. And, alhamdulillah, they started to grow and were looking really happy and healthy.

Then one morning I woke up and found that the leaves had been eaten! I had used all my seeds and so none were left for me to try again. QadrAllah.

The Carrots and Tomatoes were growing, so I transplanted them to larger containers. Once the Carrots started to grow they were immediately eaten by birds, and the Tomato plants were looking weak. I have a feeling I didn't bury them deep enough and so they didn't have a good root system.

Lastly, the Beans. For some reason they didn't sprout?! Only one did from my first attempt and it was looking weird. (I had grown several in 2018 and even got a small handful of long green beans, so I noticed the strange growth.) Soon after, it rotted!

For my second attempt the sprouts got eaten almost immediately! 

SubhanAllah, this year it seems that birds have found my balcony and eaten all my plants. I gave up trying to replant everything, for the third time, in January. The only plants that didn't get eaten were the two, weak looking, Tomato plants. Seeing as they were not going to make it I didn't bother to go out and water them. But I've noticed that one of them is still there, holding on. SubhanAllah! Maybe it will make it through these remaining cold windy weeks. If so I will do an update, insha'Allah. 

Well that is all for this week. Writing this post has made me a little sad that nothing grew this year, but QadrAllah. Insha'Allah the next time I garden I will have more experience, knowledge and nets to protect my plants from the birds! :) .

Until next week.

Love and wasalaam,

Maryam