‘My kids know where food comes from’: Why this Kuwaiti mum is raising children to be future gardeners

‘My kids know where food comes from’: Why this Kuwaiti mum is raising children to be future gardeners

Alzainah Albabtain encouraged everyone to grow their produce and take advantage of the wealth of knowledge available on social media

Photo: Instagram/@itallgrows

Published: Wed 27 Sep 2023, 7:03 AM

Increasing the number of gardeners contributes to a more environmentally sustainable future. That is according to Kuwaiti organic gardening enthusiast Alzainah Albabtain, who addressed an audience at Dubai's Museum of the Future (MOTF) on the first day of the Climate Future Week.

"Home gardeners are experts in conserving water because we know the value of every drop," she said. "So we adopt practices like drip irrigation. We save rainwater, and you will never find us hosing down our cars in the morning or washing our driveways. We also reduce waste by composting, and we are willing to share our tips and tricks because we want more gardeners to join the community."

Alzainah set a Guinness World record for the world's largest gardening lesson in 2019 when she taught 286 participants the essentials of growing their organic produce.

However, she said that she began her journey with scepticism. "I didn't see a gardening culture where I came from," she said. "I had so many wrong ideas. One day, I thought, why don't I try sprinkling some seeds? I