Grow your own food contest

I almost forgot about the "Grow Your Food" contest organized by Dubai Municipality. I heard about it a few weeks ago and kept waiting for more info till it slipped out of my mind. I remembered about it today and a visit to my Facebook, which I happen to neglect, lead me to their website. I have submitted a registration form and uploaded the pictures.  I had to do it twice because it didn't go through the first time around ( I didn't receive the confirmation email at first). I rarely participate in any competitions or events and this is such a great opportunity to set the path. Hoping for the best Inshallah.

Random garden pics

I like to check on my garden daily but don't always have the time to take pics. Here are some random pics, hope it inspires someone to try to grow some edibles.

Garden is taking shape

I don't know whether it's the feeding, cow and chicken manure, or the fact that the weather is getting colder, that makes my garden grow so fast Mashallah. Things are growing bigger and what was empty beds are now greening up and soon will be full of green yummy goodness. We have eaten a few things already and they're delicious. I am growing 5 varieties of radish alone. One is a round one, it doesn't grow well except when it's cold, I'm growing it only cuz I still have the seeds from before. Long French type that grows really fast, this one is my favourite. Round one I got from tchibo (it was a part of a seed pack that also had spring onion and carrots, I was after the spring onion though). Another one I grow is a white variety, I'm growing it for it's leaves cuz other radishes have prickly leaves, and this one has smooth leaves, but roots are edible too. We call the leaves "ruwaid" and it's a must have green when we have fish, though it's a nice addition to any salad.

And there's a new variety I bought which is long type and scarlet red color. 

Here's a bunch of the French type

And here's a bunch of the white radish leaves 

And look, the butternut pumpkin vine had gone crazy, it grows bigger every day Mashallah. It's taking over the space where chard is growing, but chard is not bothered at all, I guess it's enjoying the shade, cuz this is a part of the garden that gets full sun all day long.

And here's rapini, which is also growing like crazy (the top of the picture shows white radish).

Bok choy has grown a lot too, I forgot to take the picture.

Over all I'm satisfied with the results so far. I was so worried that I'm behind schedule this year but the progress is very promising. Some of the tomatoes started flowering already (and one in the pot is fruiting already). Cucumbers started putting on some growth finally. Even the cabbages and broccoli with cauliflower that I'd thought were stunned started growing (I was about to pull them out and plant something else in that space). 

Will try to update as much as I can.

Happy Hardening :)

Garden Update

With the exams, holidays and stuff I've been too busy to write anything but this didn't stop my garden from growing. The garden is slowly taking shape. I was expecting more but this is fine too. Here are a few pics.

The "21 day" radish. This didn't fail me this year as well. It's the best performer among the radishes. I didn't thin then but this didn't bother them at all and they're happy.

Another good performer this year, "bolognese" courgette. The seeds are by L'otolano brand. These were among the last planted but are the first to produce. Hope to have some in a few days. 

Butternut pumpkin. I replanted these twice and almost gave up thinking the seeds must have gone bad. I don't know what it was but it took off and is growing so fast. You can spot the "baby" pumpkins in the picture.

I still have to buy the support for them to climb to utilize vertical space.

Red amaranth is also a surprise, I didn't expect it to grow this fast. Have to plant more.

White radish. It was more vigorous last year but is still fast this year too. Some salads are in sight.

Beets. They are always among the first to appear. I am satisfied with their rate of growth so far. I love beets, both in Russian red soup called "Borsh" and in salads. And did I mention before how delicious the leaves are? You can use young leaves in salads and older ones like spinach.

Different types of carrots growing in this bed. They are bigger than in the picture. They're slow so I'm not expecting anything for the next few weeks.

Cucumbers are failing this year. There are 6 varieties here and none are doing well. Even the ones in containers are not growing. I will try to plant them in a different location. 

 

These are the cucumbers in containers, they just won't grow. (Don't mind the odd tomato there).

Red lettuce by lortolano. It's not so great but doing ok I'd say.

Tomatos in containers are finally taking off. 

 

Some onions (I have a few varieties growing here). In a week or so I'll thin them Indhallah and use the thinnings in salad. I find that sowing a few seeds per hole and then thinning leaving the strongest ones and using the rest in salads is not a waste at all this way. Non edible thinnings go into the compost.

Some sweet corn, and other things, growing in this batch. It was planted only about 3 weeks ago (see my previous post). 

There are more veggies growing and I'll try to take more pics. Gardening on the scale that I'm doing it at takes time and while I'm still busy planting things and taking care of the kids and the house I don't always have the time to take pics. 

Happy Gardening.