Trees of Life

Dear friends,

Here is a video we made to promote awareness about tree plantation. Around 700 students from Dawood Public School Karachi participated in this activity inspired by the iEARN Youth Can project.

Special Thanks to The CEO Dawood Public School : Ms Sabrina Dawood,Mr. Tofiq Pasha Mooraj; Well known horticulturist and TV host and Mr Fahim Zuberi ; Director ZEN Academy and founder of the Dawoodian Inspirational Gardeners' Society.

Shane Hussain Naqvi is behind the wonderful editing.


Enjoy!

Happy living!

Zahra Ali Syed

The Color Purple

It was a joy to see my silver bush packed with eye-catching purple flowers which were covered with bees collecting nectar.

Purple is in these days in landscape designs. Its one of the color that is rare in nature and acts as a soothing element in your garden.



These days I have got few purple plants in my garden as well. Nargis-e-Shehla is growing fast and displays its pink flowers every now and then.

Gomphrena flowers are still young. I am in love with these. Although they don't have any fragrance or nectar but still they look stunning when they are loaded with flowers.

Purple is one color you must add in your garden to increase its beauty.

Happy Gardening!
Zahra

Dancing Around the Cactus

I am literally dancing around my cacti these days. All six of the varieties that I have at home are doing superb.

Notice the new plant emerging from the edge of the old ones? Soon it will grow and produce more baby cacti.

Grafted one is also doing great. I have separated a baby plant from it and planted it in a new container. Its an experiment. I am not sure if babies of grafted cacti can be grown like that.

My little duck container is now filled with the cactus I planted few months back. It was just a one inched piece from a cactus and look at it now!

This one is the 3rd generation of my old cactus. I think its one of the ferocacti. I have gifted many baby cacti of the same plant to friends and kept 4 for myself.

I dont understand why people dont appreciate cacti that dont ask you for much!

Appreciate nature--- grow a cactus!


Happy Gardening!


- Zahra

The Green Pledge!

Each year we celebrate the Earth Day, why not this year we make a resolution with expansive consciousness and productiveness. Let's pledge to be green!

Working in harmony with nature is the most natural thing to do. Being green can be beneficial for you and for the wildlife. It might seem a bit complicated initially but with knowledge you will learn, nothing is simpler than being natural! And just imagine you will contribute to save the entire eco system while enjoying the gardening pleasure!
So let us make a Green Resolution!
From this day onwards…

* I am a Green Gardener! and I will...

* maintain and beautify my organic garden.

* accept a level of imperfection in my garden

* reuse kitchen waste and plant foliage to make my own compost.

* try not use synthetic fertilizers and will make my own natural fertilizers.

* make my garden a heaven for the wildlife.

* encourage natural pest control

* take advantage of companion planting.

* love and preserve nature!

To practice our pledge, a group of my students belonging to grade 1, 4, 5 and 8 worked on a small recycling project. Since I teach them gardening, we made a plan to collect all the trash we can from around the campus and to make a little garden out of it. Students were divided into groups and assigned different tasks. A group went to the canteen to collect empty cartons; some went to look for empty plastic bottles, wrappers, tin cans and plastic bags. Few selected herbs, vegetables and flowers that they planted earlier.

It got extremely fun when students ran here and there excitedly with all wonderful ideas. They just wanted to use anything and everything they saw. It made me feel good because that’s what I wanted; to open up their eyes to all the possible ways they can make a difference.
I would encourage everyone to see this slide show to learn what we did and to get inspired by these young people. If they can do it so easily… why not all of us?!

Appreciate nature- Be a Part of it!

Happy Earth Day !

-Zahra Ali Syed

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Project Details:
School: Dawood Public School, Karachi, Pakistan.

Teacher: Zahra Ali Syed

Subject: Gardening
Topic : The Green Pledge!

Aim: To encourage students to make a garden out of recycled material.
Students participated:
1. Rahat Bashir [ Grade 1 ]2. Fatima Shabir [ Grade 4 ]3. Maidah Sohail [ Grade 5 ]4. Maidah Nadem [ Grade 5 ] 5. Zainab Zehra [ Grade 5 ]6. Ayesha Rizwan [ Grade 5 ]7. Shumaila Amjad[ Grade 8 ]

Rainbow in a Box

Yesterdays harvest!

( brinjal, tomato roma, tomato cherry, basil and mint)