My Spring garden, summer plans and goodbye to my Dubai garden.

I left the UK in the middle of April. I prepared the garden, mowed the lawns and planted out seeds that I thought may stand a chance of survival without my input.

I arrived back in the UK the middle of June. The garden had faired well with the added bonus of the neighbours mowing the lawns, however some of the grass turned yellow, but it is slowly recovery. 

Everything was out in full bloom, the potatoes and onions had grown and the peas, beans and tomatoes were doing OK.

Onions, potatoes and rhubarb now harvested, very few peas and beans, but I've sown more seeds for a later crop and bought a couple of established tomato plants, reduced at the supermarket.

I thought the garden was ready for my absence, seeds planted, lawn mowed, plants uncovered. April 11th.

April 12th

We returned to the sun. June 14th.

We're planning to build a new shed and seating area in the opposite corner and creating raised beds and gravel paths as well as introducing a green house. The conservatory will also be replaced with a full one being built along the back of the house.

We also had to say goodbye to our Garden in Dubai this summer. It was interesting Creating a garden in the desert and surprising what we were able to grow over the years.

After getting back to the UK, we mowed the lawns, repaired the borders, repotted the olive and bay tree and harvested the potatoes, onions, peas and rhubarb.

Sweet peas and wild flowers.

Compost bins, potatoes and herbs.

Part time Gardening in the UK and Dubai

I'm a bit behind with tidying up the garden after winter, ready to start the spring planting. I was back in Dubai over the winter and will be returning during Spring, until the start of summer.

So this was how I left the garden back in November.

It's just ongoing maintenance until we decide if we're staying here or going to move. If we stay, we have plans to build a summer house, with a lean to green house and storage for gardening tools and a veranda in the top right hand corner as that boundary is South facing and a combination of raised beds, gravel paths, herb gardens and vegetable rows, basically no lawn, a combined relaxing garden and allotment in one. The existing shed will be removed and rebuilt out of shot along the length of the house and we plan on extending the conservatory. Out the front we'll build a wall, put in gates, create room for additional parking and level the garden off.

I can't wait for our outdoor furniture to arrive as it can be left outdoors 24/7, at the moment this is the only day this year I've set the chair and table up, otherwise all I've done is work in the garden and not just sat down to enjoy it.

The dog however is enjoying the warmer weather and making the most of his time outside.

Flowers for Mother's Day and new gloves and secateurs from Gardeners World arrived and kick started garden prep with mowing the lawns and weeding the front garden. Once it looked like I'd achieved something, it made getting started on the rest much easier.

10 years ago there was a simple border in the back garden, however it was badly overgrown and had trees growing in it from one neighbours garden, whilst the other neighbours replaced their fence and added back boards, the soil dug up was dumped on our side of the fence, which is totally unacceptable, but it's now my job, like the tree saps to sort out.

The bricks I placed to create an edge were consumed by the additional soil over the year, so this year I'm levelling it off and using the excess soil to fill plant pots that came over last year.

I've planted out the peas and beans grown in the green house over the winter, moved the herbs and strawberry plants into the pots and also planted onions and garlic. I'll unwrap the Bay and Olive tree in the next week or so.

There are seedlings germinating on the window sill and the same seeds being grown in the green house also. I'm hoping to be able to plant out from the kitchen before I leave for Dubai and it'll be interesting to see what grows in the greenhouse that I can plant out in the summer.

In the meantime the laminator has been put back to use for labelling, once I've finished weeding the borders, I'll scatter some wild flower seed and plant some sunflowers, front and back.

I've been spending a lot of time in the conservatory as the sun shine sin here in the afternoon, I need to swop the curtains for something lighter now the warmer weather is coming. I've taken out a subscription for Gardeners World so I can learn more about gardening and have download a plant app to suss out weeds from seedlings.

The garden in Dubai is very different to here, when I return I doubt I'll be able to sit outside in it and enjoy it as it'll be too hot, will organise the sale of the fence and removal of plants and trees and the garden furniture will be shipped back to the UK.

Check out Augusts Gardening post that covers the differences between Gardening in the UK and Dubai in summer.

My garden in August 2020 - The UK and Dubai

I seem to have spent the whole summer just gardening.

The UK garden was in an awful state after years of neglect by tenants, however we've been tenants abroad for the same length of time and we've looked after the outsides of the properties we've rented as much as the insides.

Even though it's summer in Dubai, don't be fooled with it being too hot for anything to grow, the humidity keeps everything moist and it's too hot to work outside so it just turns into a jungle and needs cutting back for Autumn.

Our garden in Dubai was created from scratch, you can see the photos here.

You can also see before and after photos of the UK garden here.

I've been growing veg from seeds and have had some successful crops of peas, beans, cucumber, tomatoes and herbs all from seed.

My friend gave me this green house for my birthday back in June and I sowed more peas and beans that I was able to plant out early August, so looking forward to another crop on my return to the UK.

My friend also dropped a load of rocks off for me to make new borders in the front garden, We also made a new frame work for the bin store and have climbing plants to grow up it.

I'd put off tackling the front garden as the ground was like rock. I'm not a neat and tidy worker.

These rocks were going spare, welcome to the 1970's look.

Peter came for a visit and with isolating for 2 weeks we got a lot of work done in the house and garden, including re panelling the side and front of the shed. It was cheaper to buy new wood and do the job ourselves. On my return I have to finish painting it inside and out and sand the other two sides down for painting also.

Looking forward to seeing how the pumpkins have grown, although sadly the snails keep getting to them. Hopefully one or two will survive as there have been multiple flowers.

Hopefully there will be some tomatoes left when I get back.

Cucumber grown from seed.

Hopefully I'll return home to more cucumbers.

Dubai

The cactus just keeps on growing.

The garden was very over grown.

And very sandy.

All the Aloe has died, which is a shame.

My potted palm tree grown from a cutting looks rather forlorn.

The only remaining house plant, which had to be salvaged as ants had made a nest in there.

Early mornings at 6am are the only time to garden in Dubai.

I seem to spend most of my gardening time in Dubai sweeping sand so I can enjoy the garden.

When I moved the cactus on the balcony to sweep the sand, these bits dropped off. Previous pieces in the pot have rooted, so I'm hopeful these pieces will take also.

I was surprised to find this birds nest when I cut back the tree.

I'm hopeful the grass will recover.

All sorted now and I still have a few days left in which to enjoy sitting out in the garden in the early mornings, before I return to the UK next week and no doubt have to sort the garden out there as well.