Potting Soil Mix

Hello Gardeners,
I have uploaded a video about how to mix your own potting soil mix. Hope you like this Episode 4 on Gardening in Dubai.

Episode 4, Gardening in Dubai, Potting Soil Mix

Happy Gardening

Yana

Grow Your Food Contest is BACK

Grow your food contest organized by Dubai Municipality is back in it's second season. If you didn't participate last time now is your chance. Growing your own food (at least part of it) is important. I am very grateful to God for blessing me with a house (and a big backyard that come's with it) and the ability to grow my food. And I am thankful to the government for organizing such a contest. It's not about the prize money. It's about the community and the spirit of being a part of something bigger.  A mere few years ago I only drooled over the contests and such events and activities overseas that I saw on the Internet. I didn't imagine we'd have something like this in here. As young woman I often felt weird because gardening (and sewing and  crocheting and other things I do) was looked upon by some to be old fashioned and I didn't find much support let alone a circle of like minded individuals. Most of the people I knew were concerned with things like fashion, make up and parties (I did that too though it wasn't an obsession or way of life). So I didnt care and I did what I like anyways. I would garden and I would tell people about it without feeling embarrassed (though I have been on occasions attempted to make feel so, but I am not discouraged easily). Over time I started meeting people who were into gardening too (and sewing and crafting). And then the contest happened. It was such a positive experience and I am so glad it's back this year. The notable addition to this year's contest are workshops that will happen every Saturday. So here is the link to the contest website and I hope to see you at the workshop on Saturday In Sha Allah  (I learnt recently this is how it's supposed to be spelled.
Grow Your Food Contest

Happy Gardening
Yana

Kid's Veggie Grow Kits

Gardening is not only for adults if you ask me. Kids like to get involved too and I think it's important to let them do so. I believe in order to raise our kids into responsible young people we need to expose them to various environmentally responsible activities and gardening is one of them. Gardening teaches kids where food comes from, how it "comes" and importance of food among other things. This in turn teaches them about food wastage, hunger and other concepts (provided you turn them into the right direction).

Wonderful people at The Planet Greeners have come up with the Veggie Grow Kit. They even distribute a limited number of these to schools for free to help them start a veggie garden. The kits are sold for 30 dhs each and contain 4 grow bags, seedling tray, compost (to fill the seedling tray), basic instructions and seeds. Seeds vary from pack to pack to keep the excitement up. I think these kits are a good way to start a vegetable garden even for adults. 

The Planet Greeners is a landscaping company and they get involved in the community a lot. The have various programs that they conduct to give back to society.  Me and Yasmeen, she's the agriculturist of the company, had a little chat and she told me about her intent to conduct gardening workshops. I will post more info for you about it later once the details are finalized. In the meanwhile here's what the grow kits look like.

Happy Gardening

Yana

Garden has started

It's still hot but it's cooling down. When this happens I can't sit down and wait any longer. I have started my gardening season (you probably know if you saw my videos (episode 1, episode 2, episode3). If you watched the previous videos videos you will see I started by preparing the soil by giving it a deep watering. After a few days (well close to 10 days really because I got busy with kids and school starting etc) I started planting (this took some time). By carefully analyzing my previous experience and the planting guides (UAE planting guide and Arizona planting guides found here useful downloads) ) I decided to start planting the following:
Okra: sprouted, a little slow, half were eaten by birds :(

Eggplants: no sign yet

Hot peppers: no sign yet

Sweet peppers: no sign yet

Tomatoes: no sign yet
Cucumbers: most have sprouted

Beans: cow beans have sprouted, others not yet. Some were eaten by birds (they have a thing for new sprouts I guess).

Radishes: white local style daikon have sprouted and another red colored long style. Others not yet. Birdies love'em too.
Mulukhia (jute mallow): doing great, this things loves heat.
Courgettes: half of them sprouted, like always Virginia Blanc being the best performer so far.
Purslane: has shown up but still slow.
Fenugreek: came up after purslane and is slowly growing.
Beets: no sign
Arugula (rocket salad): showed quick but still slow.
Cabbages: no sign
Broccoli: no sign
Cauliflower: no sign
Marigold: no sign
Nasturtium: no sign

Best performers are Mulukhia and cow beans (the long beans).
A couple of days ago I also started some salad greens among others in small cells to transplant later. Inshallah they grow (I don't have much luck with transplants). They're under shade.
This year I added support for tomatoes and cucumbers as they turned into a mess before. Plus when they're off the ground you can avoid diseases such as blight. I built it using bamboo stakes. For tomatoes I used 8 feet and for cucumbers I used 6 feet. I got them from ACE online (they even have click and collect so you don't have to wait for delivery but don't want to go and look for your items as they'll be ready when you come in).
Here are some pics for you:

Happy Gardening 

Yana

Happy Eid everyone and Video 3

First of all I'd like to wish a Happy Eid to everyone.
A while ago I have uploaded a video number 3 and totally forgot to mention it here. In this video I show you how I mix in the manures and compost into the soil. Inshallah my next video is going to  be about potting soil mixes, or actually how to make one. In order not to miss any videos you can subscribe to my channel.
Here's the link: Episode 3, Mixing in Manures and Compost, Gardening in Dubai, Day 3

Are you starting your seedlings soon? Read this FIRST

It's almost September and the gardening bug is in the air. I think most of us are in the gardening mood after such a long hot summer. I'm sure we all have our own ways to prepare for the season but it's probably very similar: getting new soil or finally taking out that compost, buying seeds of a few new varieties of edibles to try, cleaning out the pots and probably starting seeds, among others. Starting seeds is my most exciting and my most feared activity. It's can be tricky and this is where most us fail at one point or another, and this is what prevents some new gardeners from exploring gardening more. But with good planning it can be a success. To learn more about this green business check out my updated post about starting seeds:
How to start your seeds and not kill the seedlings

I  made 2 more videos on soil preparation. Video no.2 is ready so here you go:
Preparing soil Day 2
If you have any questions please ask.
P.S. video no.3 is almost ready so don't forget to check back.

Happy Gardening
Yana

1st day of the new season and a youtube channel

It's the season again. I always get excited about it. I am starting a bit early this year as the weather has started to cool. I didn't plant any cover crops as I had planned so my garden beds were there all summer bare under the harsh sun. The soil obviously dried out and before I can plant I need to prepare it. Since I receive a lot of emails from people asking me how I garden and how can they I decided to create a youtube channel to show what I do and how I do it. I hope you enjoy it.
Episode 1 Preparing the soil

Happy Gardening
Yana

Garden in March

So it's spring already (well though we don't have distinctive 4 seasons here in UAE I still like to follow them). I walk around my garden daily and just enjoy it. I enjoy that I get to eat fresh, organic, home grown veggies daily, enjoy the view, enjoy the scents, enjoy the birds singing, enjoy seeing the bees and other flying little creatures hovering over the flowers, and just plain enjoy it. I feel at peace in my garden. I feel like the little problems in life don't matter, they seem insignificant compared to the beauty of the nature. It's so relaxing.
Anyways here's a little update on the garden.

Beets perform so well in UAE. I love them. I grow 3 varieties: Detroit Red, Egypt, and Golden.

This is Swiss Chard.  I believe the variety is local. It's performing amazingly well.

Napa style Chinese cabbage. I finally got a head :)

Another Chinese cabbage, Bok Choy. I cut the leaves when needed and it keeps growing. 

Like I mentioned before. I finally got the Ruby Swiss Chard to grow. I just LOVE it.

Lettuce. I lost my chart so don't which variety it is (I'm growing a few red colored lettuces). Considering this year wasn't the best for lettuces in my garden, this one is doing great. At least I got SOME lettuce.

They say good things come to those who wait . They're right. Finally, in my 6th year of trying I got the leeks to grow. I had actually given up on them growing this year. I replanted them a few times this year and I stopped checking for growth. The bed they're growing in wasn't performing very well and I even stopped checking it much (to avoid frustration). It's behind the house and only receives 4 hours or so of sun daily so I though I wasted time and money on those beds behind the house. But I was WRONG. Look at these beauties. 

Same for onions from seed (except spring onions last year but those didn't grow much). They're in the same bed. I am sooooo excited.

And same goes for celery. Afterall these beds behind the house are perfect for some things. 

This is a date palm tree. This one is special because my middle daughter grew it. From SEED. It was a couple of years ago and among the many that kids had planted this one made it through. I don't know if it's a male or female (yes date palm trees come in both) but whatever it is I love it.

These are carrots. They're growing in one of the beds behind the house that recieves around 4 hours of sun like I mentioned before. And though they're in the shade most of the day they still give me some of the biggest carrots from the garden. 

This is Pakistani mulberry. It doesn't grow much but it gives me the most delicious mulberries. I wish it'd grow bigger.

Shahtoot. Local variety of mulberry. I need to prune these. When you prune them they grow huge fast and put on a lot of fruits.

My pomegranate. Alright this one is a surprise. When I first got it it gave us a few little fruits that didn't grow much. I thought they were the small yellow/green variety and didn't expect much from it. Next year most flowers fell off and we got maybe 2 fruits. This year look at it. Big pomegranates that actually turned red when they're ready. This year lots of flowers fell off but we got around 10-15 fruits. I just hope we get more next year. Oh by the way they taste amazingly yummy. 

The same tree from afar.

My mango. I got it as a small sapling. It's been growing very well (despite struggling through it's first summer) and I hope we will see fruits soon. It's grafted, I was told, so should give us good tasting fruit. All the trees on this side of the garden are edibles.

A lovely dwarf nasturtium. I thought I could get overwhelmed with the climbing one so I planted the small ward variety to attract pollinators and make the vegetable beds look pretty. I'll plant more next time Inshallah.

If you read my previous posts (from last year) you'll remember the Kangkong that was planted in this spot in only ONE square foot (30x30 cm) and how it went insane in the summer. Well it's a year old now and it's still going strong. I don't even wanna pull it out as I had planned. Just let it be. It looks cute.

I totally forgot I had planted flowers.

This is mustard greens plants that bolted (in other words started flowering to later set seeds). I left them in place cuz bees and other pollinators and flying cuties go crazy about them.

This is the same Giant Florida Mustard. It's huuuuuuge. Every brick you see in the pic is 10x20 cm so you can imagine how huge this thing is.

Well that it for now. I have other updates to write about so hope to see you back here soon.

Happy Gardening :)

Tomatooooooes finally

I am finally harvesting tomatoes. My kids live the taste of home grown organic tomatoes so much they eat them like fruits on their own. Alhamdella

New facebook page URL and garden updates

Ok I have been neglecting this blog again and I feel bad about it. I am in the middle of many things going on so it's taking its poll on me. But I did find a moment and am writing this post.

So first of all I want to tell you that I have a new url for my page on facebook:https://www.facebook.com/MyLittleGardenInDubai/

I think it looks fancier than the random looking numbers that you get when  you first create a page.

I have been harvesting a good amount of veggies almost daily. If you are not following me on facebook yet then check out the recent posts (on the above page link) to see some of the garden updates.

If you don't have facebook then scroll through the pics below to see what's been happening lately.

Giant Turnip (Variety:Tokyo Top F1 by Vilmorin)

Mixed Veggies

 Mixed Veggies 

                            Giant Florida Mustard (front)

 Cucumbers 

 Tomatoes 

 Ruby Swiss Chard (finally)

 Eggplants 

Kangkong keeps going strong and takes over 

I hope your gardens are thriving. If you have any questions let me know.

Happy Gardening
Yana