Thursday 3 December 2015

Winter planting in Dubai with #HDYGG

As I've been away during October and November I missed the optimum planting time, so I've cheated a little and bought some bedding plants for the pots and tomato plants for the garden, while I wait for the seeds I planted today to grow.



You'd think the ground would be as hard as rock, in this heat and with very little rain, but my garden is sand, just sand and as soon as you push down on the spade, the ground just gives way, so despite the heat it was really quick and easy to transplant the plants from the sandpit into their new homes.



I also purchased two climbers for the front wall of the house, I'll worry about what is going to support them when they start to grow, but looking at the neighbours walls, all I need is string which I tie to a brick and chuck over into the street for the climbers to cling to.


The seeds are planted and this time they are labelled so no surprises and I'm having another go at growing sunflowers, sweet peas, nasturtiums and poppies. I've enjoyed recycling items around the home, including my old shopping bag and I'm going to feed the birds using seeds, peanut butter and toilet rolls.




I'm a little annoyed with the gardner, which I use in the loosest of terms, he comes 5 days a week, for an hour a day and rather than garden he sweeps, runs the hosepipe for most of the hour, washing things down and once a month, when we have it, he mows the grass. This week he decided to cut back all the neighbours bougainvillaea, which I was hoping to cultivate and have it growing over our side of the wall, it also provide good shade for some of my plants. The main advantage of having a gardener is that I can do whatever work I want, without having to clean up after myself.

While the seeds are growing I'm going to dig over the sand pit and rid it of all its weeds, before the next lot of planting, in the meantime it lights up at night with some outdoor lights, which I will be adding to.


We delayed investing in the garden as we needed to make sure our visas would be renewed by hubbies company at the end of the first year and that the house was available to rent for the 2nd year. our new contract doesn't include a rent increase for next year, so it is likely we'll stay put until the end of 2017.

It is still hot during the day, but the sun now disappears round the other side of the house by 11am daily, which gives plenty of shade for me to be able to sit out in, before it gets dark around 5.30pm so I can get chance to actually enjoy sitting in the garden, rather than working in it.


I paid a trip to Safa Park again this week, mainly to take photographs of the building works and the new canal, they started not long after we moved here. While I was there I decided to photograph some trees. The planting of them appears to be random and I love how the buildings soar upwards and the trees grow sideways.






This weekends plans involve investing in some adult sized gardening gloves, trying to buy some strawberry plants and decide what we are going to do with this patch of sand, currently used by the neighbourhood cats as a toilet. Top left of the photo is a pile of bricks, purchased by the previous tenants to pave the sand over, which we are thinking about doing, which would mean less water being used and we could use the area under the tree which does provide quite a bit of shade in the summer. I'm also off to the Miracle Gardens on Saturday to take a look at the new planting.


16 comments:

  1. Definitely a challenge finding the right flowers to plant with the weather in Dubai. It must be a relief when you work on your garden knowing you'll be staying there for a while.

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    1. feel much more relaxed now i know we're here for another year

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  2. Heh heh I have been known to try to garden with a kids trowel!
    I like the plants all lined up with the pebbles - looking good. The red splashes of colour in Safa Park look nice too. Good that you are finally able to enjoy your garden a bit more now, the shady time of day must be a godsend! x

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    1. i now own adult gardening gloves, I've decided this week to enjoy sitting in the lounge and enjoying the decorations before hubby and the teen get back, next week i'll be out in the garden more in the evenings to enjoy it there

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  3. Loving the sideways trees - such rebels :) And that bag, that's definitely recycling #hdygg

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    1. i keep meaning to tag the bag makers in the picture

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  4. Those blue skies are stunning! I hope the bougainvillaea grows back quickly for you.

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    1. it grows very quickly, now i just have to communicate with the gardener not to cut it back again

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  5. Dubai reminds me a lot of miami. flat and hot. also, the soil in miami was very sand like in places too

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    1. some people invest a lot of money buying soil for their gardens

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  6. It must be strange having to consider what you can do to a house when you never know how long you are going to stay there. At least now you make a few more planting plans for the garden.

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    1. i wish our tenants in the uk were the same when it came to our house, the plants here have very shallow roots so will be easy to move if we have to live elsewhere in the UAE

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  7. Popping by VERY late from #HDYGG. I feel quite jealous of you just getting going with your gardening year now the temperatures are falling slightly .... but I am also enjoying not having the mad pressure of spring planting, summer growing or autumn harvesting! I could do with your gardener to tidy up after me too - see my gardening post (last picture) for this week ;)

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    1. it's still quite hot here when out in the garden and I've had to provide shade for the tomato plants

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  8. Hiya, I've tried sweetpeas 2 yrs in a row now with no success other than them reaching a wonderful height of 20cm most of which is a skinny stem with minimal leaves. How are yours doing and any tips? I believe they like cool temps which is hard to achieve in Dubai 😂

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    1. i managed flowers on the nusturiums last year, but no luck yet with flowers not eh sweet pea, i germinate indoors which helps

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