The Boras Kitchen Garden in Kuwait

A little gardening inspiration. There is a fantastic Gardening in Kuwait group on Facebook for tips and encouragement. The video was made yesterday during lockdown so instead of throwing away seeds and vegetables fruits peels, use them... peels add nutrients and nitrogen to the soil as they decompose. Parmita puts them directly on to her plants, delicious home grown veggies and look how much fun the kids are having too.

Apartment Gardening

A green pepper. I can take no credit for this. 

All thanks to Shanda our housekeeper.

Terrarium Fairy Garden Workshop

Beautiful Flowering Date Palm Trees of Kuwait

Photo credit to TSDailyTreasures who shot these gorgeous pics recently whilst enjoying a stroll on the Rumaithiya Walk Way. This is my first time in 35 years to see this - or maybe I have seen them but never really looked and appreciated them. So thank you TSDailyTreasures for sharing this treat. I'm eager to see them for myself and smell them as it seems they are fragrant too.

The Secret Garden Party

Map

My Happy Place in Abdally

Thank you ladies for the wonderful fresh eggs for breakfast today.

Lunch

Dinner

Gorgeous nature

This is a friend's farm and it is private but there are a few farms to visit in Abdally open to the public in this winter season. See previous post [link].

Meet The Godwins on Their Rooftop Garden

A Quick Tour of the Roof Top Garden
November 10, 2017

Stewart G.


The RTG's faithful subscribers have asked and we shall oblige - please come along with us on a little photo tour of the RTG. Right now we have 22 raised beds in which we have almost 450 square feet of growing space. On top of that we also have six GreenStalk grow towers giving us an additional 60 square feet. That's a whopping 1.17% of an acre - on the roof!

So as soon as you exit the stairwell and enter the rooftop proper you have our berry box immediately in front of you on the southern face of the building. The berry box has six of our raised beds containing black berries, blue berries, and raspberries.





Immediately to the left (east) of the berry box is our tool shed.





As you walk back past the door to the stairwell heading northwest on the roof you will pass the pool. Not exactly an integral part of the RTG but certainly a great place to relax after taking care of the garden and part of the rest of the family's sanity stabilizer. As you pass the pool the main garden box is immediately in front of you on the north face of the roof.





Continuing north on the roof as you enter the center of the main box you will notice three large AC units. Again, not the best tings from a growing space point of view and this would all be for naught if those things weren't running a good nine months out of the year - so we built around them. Back to the right (east again) we have our six GreenStalk vertical gardens.





So that's the physical layout of the boxes. Now we can get to the good stuff - what's in them! We'll start in reverse order with the GreenStalk vertical gardens. There's a lot of things growing in the GreenStalks and there was no real pretty way of mapping that out graphically so the table below will have to do. The picture above is taken between towers 5 and 6 with 1 and 2 in the far back of the image.





In preparing the RTG we did a lot of research on what should vegetables should be compatible neighbors, how much space individual plants needed, and the best way to lay everything out. In invaluable tool in that effort was the Old Farmer's Almanac's Garden Planner. Using the planner we were able to get the most production out of the space we had and lay everything out virtually before heading up to the roof with seed and spade in hand. The image below is of all 22 raised beds and our original planting for this season. The planner automatically tells you how many plants of each type you can place in the space that you have and when you save your plan and resuse it from year to year it will also help you with crop rotations.





So there you have folks. We hope you've enjoyed our little virtual tour. This is the first season the RTG has been in this location and configuration so we're still tweaking things here and there but so far we've had a fairly productive season and are finally starting to get some return on our efforts. Berries, melons, tomatoes, zucchinis, and corn are all following or fruiting. The herbs are establishing themselves and even the lettuce towers are starting to hit their pace. We were hoping for a late November harvest but that may be moving into December. Everything should be ready by January and by Feb I'd imagine we'll be replanting for another season before the summer heat hits. Check back often folks to see how things are growing! And as always, thanks for your interest and continued support of the RTGQ8!


More details and orders can be placed on their website [link].


LWDLIK - Wow! Just wow. I've been thinking about our roof for a while now and this has certainly motivated me to do more than think.

Organic Farming Workshop From Seed To Harvest at Elevation Burger - Free Of Charge

We truly believe that ingredients matter at Elevation Burger, we are launching an Organic Farming program this Saturday and every Saturday from November 18 until December 9 at our Al Seif location, Kuwait City. The program is a combination of theory and hands-on activities and is open to all ages. It is absolutely free of charge.

Participants will witness first hand the process from seed to harvest. Once we reach the last week, participants will be able to harvest the vegetables they planted and take them home. We'll be planting many different kinds of seeds, including but not limited to, beets, carrots, cherry tomatoes, edible flowers, basil, chamomile, kale, pepper, radish, and pumpkin.

Map

Blooming Gardenia

T's Daily Treasures Blog

Yes, those are mushrooms growing at The Secret Garden, Kuwait
for the whole story [link]. 

I came across Tammy's Instagram and beautiful photos of migrating birds, amazing mushrooms and cross-stitch and I loved it. Today, I found her blog which is a very positive, uplifting and motivational journal of her time here in Kuwait and her travels. It's always heart warming to see people making the most of Kuwait and their well-being. Thank you Tammy.

Gardening in the Apartment

Sunflower babies

Celery growing from a cut off stalk

Red cabbage growing from a discarded stalk,
left the base in water for a week or two, once it had roots 
planted it in soil. Fingers crossed.

Flowers from the Garden

Crack An Egg Into Your Plant Pots Today

I can totally vouch for the eggs although I dig a 4 inch deep hole, crack the egg and shell into the hole and bury it (to avoid any funky smells). Works like a charm, within a few weeks healthier, greener plants.

Grow Your Own Celery

Don't throw out the bottom part of your celery, stick it in a bowl put some water in it, change water daily and watch it grow. I'm really surprised at how fast it's growing I should have enough for a tuna salad soon.

So Excited I Am Going To Be A Mummy Again

One of my orchid plants is showing positive signs of blooming this year. Nothing last year, got a little demotivating watering this lop-sided, barren orchid plant but this looks very promising indeed. If anyone can give me tips on how to get it growing upright instead of sideways I'd be grateful. Fingers crossed for flowers.

Update: It's not a baby keiki :O(  It's an air root. 

Happy Hooker Lips

Shakshooka Market Back This Saturday at The Secret Garden, Salmiya

Chill out at the Shakshookha Market this Saturday. Eat some great food, listen to music and enjoy the weather. 

Dec 17th from 12-4pm

Map to The Secret Garden. Sshhh!

Garden Work Day at DAI

The Kuwaiti Women Philanthropic Team

The Secret Garden Project

Baghdad street, Salmiya next to Fawziya Sultan Rehabilitation Institute.