Creating a garden in the desert. Summer in the sand.

The garden is doing much better at this time of year than I thought it would be. Average temps are in the high 30s and with the sun being so high, it's on the sand pit for most of the day. There's some shade in the mornings outside the kitchen door, but by 10am the shade has all but gone.

I've been getting up at 5am to work in the garden, around sunrise, mainly to tackle the weeds. The squash I planted from seeds was flowering a few weeks ago and had grown, taking over the bean plants, which had died. I was really surprised to actually find a squash.

Sadly the aubergines had gone past their use by date under all the weeds. But I grew 3 from seed, so next year, now I know these types of vegetables do grow I will keep a closer eye on them on.

There has been an abundance of chillies, also grown from seed.

The street is also full of dates growing. The palm tree we have in the garden doesn't produce dates. We need to get someone in to sort our palm tree out.

There are still plenty of flowers in the garden and a rather unusual plant, that has grown from somewhere, looking a bit like a bulrush, but green. There isn't any water round here and I've no idea where it came from or what it is.

The best part about gardening in Dubai is that we employ a gardener. I use the term loosely as what he actually does is chase the leaves, petals around the garden with a hose pipe and mows the lawn randomly. So I give him something to do, which is cleaning up behind me.

The house plants are doing well, as with the garden, they actually need less watering in the summer. I need to sort the climber out in the corner, it's just growing and growing. The Christmas tree doesn't look like it's going to make it.

Fresh cut flowers are imported and are quite expensive, almost 3 times the cost of buying a bunch in a UK supermarket.

I'm also surprised at how much colour there is in Dubai at the moment. These Delonix regina - Royal Poinciana, Flame of the Forest trees are producing a lovely orange flower and look stunning at the moment.

There are two areas of the garden I need to do some work on and plan more carefully and introduce some ground cover in the 2nd photo.

How's your summer garden?

Dubai Municipality Nursery and Indoor plants

Peter and I have been fostering dogs, collecting them from Warsan, out in the desert and we came across the Municipality Gardens Nursery. These aren't photos of the actual place as it is government owned and the laws on publishing photo's are a bit hazy, so I've posted pictures of the independent nursery's next door.

You can buy just about anything here, from bedding plants at 40p and fully grown palm tress in pots. It's close to where I work and I intend to call on a regular basis.

 My indoor plants have done rather well, I'm surprised by the basil, but I still have a few empty pots that need filling.

My son bought me an orchid, I've been advised to give it an ice cube once a week so I don't over water it, it seems to be doing ok for now.

I'm running a gardening group as an after school activity and during my research I've found an organic farm, that I need to go and visit, fortunately it's near where I work also, so I'll hopefully be able to pop in during the week.

I've been doing some research on cut flowers, they are very expensive to buy in Dubai and typically only last a few days. Two of my favourite cut flowers are roses and hydrangeas and I learnt these tips that I'm going to try out. I'll let you know how I got on.

How to Hydrate Hydrangeas.

Place each bloom face down in room temperature water and leave to soak for 20 minutes, shake gently and remove any loose foliage.

How to Shock Roses into drinking water.

Wrap the flowers in brown paper, then snip a 1/4 inch off the stems and place them into an inch of boiling hot water. The Shock forces the air out of the stems, leave in the water until it cools, give the stems a fresh cut and transfer to cool water.