Caroline started her green house on the second day of Eid, May 24, 2020. She considers herself a zero experience gardener and challenged herself to start planting seeds and food scraps during the Green Ramadan. She begun germinating tomato and bell pepper seeds indoor. She used toilet paper rolls to grow the seedlings. She also planted garlic, shallots, and milkweed seeds she got from Save Our Monarchs event. To her surprise, all the seeds grew well and fast. She felt like, nature was really nice to her.
One day, she went to her local grocery store and saw a green house displayed for sale. She took a picture and showed it to her husband. To her surprise again, he told her to get the green house right away, on that same day. About a week later, on the second day of Eid, the green house was assembled.
She had no clue how to deal with a green house especially in Chicago with extreme temperature in summer and winter. She started learning things online. Just in a month, she is already facing three challenges; mosquitoes, too much sunshine, and the plastic cover was being ripped apart due to strong wind. She went online to find solutions for all the problems.
Today is one month anniversary of her green house. It becomes a sanctuary for her from all the craziness in the world during COVID19 pandemic and political crisis in the country. She is happy to see her plants grow well.
Until today, she is still in learning mode. She does not have a high expectation in regard to the yields. She really enjoys the opportunity to recycle her “junks” into whatever items needed for the green house or for the plants. For example, she recycles used wire hangers to create tomato cage, hooks to hang things, and to secure the green house to the ground.
Her current three principles to maintain her green house and enjoy her new adventure in gardening are (1) low expectations (2) low cost (3) maximum creativity. She is grateful that the green house makes her feels like this year Green Ramadan is her evergreen Ramadan.
