September Gardening Calendar

UPDATE: all the videos on my channel are gone so the links to the videos are not functional. I’ll do my best to reshoot the videos in the near future. I also added the potting soil recipe link.

Hello my fellow gardeners. Old and new, experienced and  beginners, and everyone in between. I have missed writing this blog over the summer. I started this blog 4 years ago and I can’t believe it’s actually really been 4 years already.  MashaAllah. Time flies. But here I am: still writing, still gardening, still committed and still learning. Alhamdellah. I am thankful to God for all the blessings upon me. I am thankful to still be here. Thankful to have the land to garden. Thankful to be able to spread my knowledge and experience. Thankful to be able to try and experiment and write about it.
A lot of things have happened this year. I won’t go into details as this is not my purpose. There were times when my knowledge of gardening and my experience was taken advantage of. There were times when my work was stolen. But I am not here to point fingers. These things don’t bring me down, they only make me stronger. And smarter. I know better now and  it was a lesson I hope I have learned well. But I have also met wonderful people, some of whom became friends. I believe there’s more good than bad afteall. I am here to spread my knowledge, to help others whenever and however I can, and to bring people closer to nature. Gardening has many benefits, so many that I in fact plant to write a post about it InshaAllah.
I have so many new plans for this blog. With God’s help and hard work,  I hope to accomplish these plans and goals that I have in mind. I am planning to introduce a lot of things like the gardening calendar (fist entry is today by the way), DIY’s and How To’s, features of other gardeners’ gardens and many more InshaAllah. I have everything planned out and have written some notes already. If you have ideas you’d like to add please let me know and/or if you’d like me to feature your garden please drop me a line.
I am posting this month’s calendar a little late and I apologize for that. Procrastination is a bad habit of mine and I am working on getting rid of it. I really am, trying. I kept saying I’ll write the post tomorrow and didn’t notice that it was a middle of the month already. This is not crucial though, as many of us have just come back from the holidays and it’s still too hot to really garden anyways. I will keep it short and simple despite how excited I really am. This time of the year brings new hope, new dreams and new beginnings into my life. In anticipation of green views, scents and harvests my mind starts working in turbo mode. I make many, many plans and this makes me feel so good, even though I know that not everything I plan for I achieve. I have come to terms with it and just enjoy everything I do as I do it. My gardens are never the same every year, as I try new things, change things, add things. Nonetheless, there are certain things I do in a specific order (more or less) and I will be posting these into the gardening calnedar post every month InshaAllah.
Without further ado, let’s get to the things we should (or at least try to) be doing this months:

Things to do in your garden in September:
1. Remove old debris from last season, if you haven’t done so already.
2. Clean out your pots, tools and throw away/take to recycling damaged stuff that is beyond repair or use. Tidy up your garden, as it’s easier and more inspiring to work in a clean and organized environment.
3. Make a plan (ideally, it should have been done in summer). Decide what you’d like to grow this season. Include a few things you haven’t tried before. Try Asian Veggies, they grow fast and grow well here, and taste great too. Draw you garden plan. Watch out for our downloadable garden graph paper download soon Inshallah. Will keep you posted if you subscribe to my blog.
4. If you haven’t already, buy seeds and other gardening things you need. Check this page for more info on where to get your gardening supplies in Dubai: Gardening Notions
5. Buy soil, soil amendments and organic fertilizers that you’d be using (use the link above for where to get your stuff). I only use organic and only suggest organic too, but the choice is yours. For more details about what gardening amendments I use in my garden and how I was building my soil visit this posts: post 1, post 2, video (I now use equal parts of what I mention in the video).
UPDATE: I now use a basic recipe, and modify it as needed, described in this post: Basic Soil Recipe Mix
6. Prepare the soil in your garden beds and containers. To see how I prepare my soil watch the videos on my channel, and read the posts above. If you prepare your soil now, it will have time to settle for your October planting. My Little Garden In Dubai YouTube Channel.
7. Start the seeds of veggies that take time to mature but that still can’t be planted directly in the soil yet. These include things like veggies from cabbage family. For more info on how to start the seeds in this part of the world, check my post: How to start your seeds (transplants) and succeed.
8. Towards the end of the month, or once it starts cooling down and it’s under 30c degrees for a few nights in a row, plant a few plants directly in the soil.  You’d probably want to shade them at first. Heat loving plants could be planted, but watch out for heat spells. I personally don’t plant much as the weather is unpredictable. One that is most suited to plant directly now is cucumber. Other plants you can try: okra, eggplant, mulukhia, kangkong. Some suggest to try peppers but for me they never succeed so I usually start them as transplants or wait till it’s cooler. I suggest you check my Useful Downloads Page for planting calendars you can follow (there’s other useful downloads there as well).
9. Check my 12 Steps to a Succeful Garden in Dubai post. It’s one of my most popular posts and it summarizes what you need to do to succeed at edible, and not only, gardening in UAE.

These are the things I believe you should be doing in your garden this month. This is just a guide and you can adapt it to suit your needs. If you believe I should add something please let me know in the comments or by contact me through a contact form. Do subscribe to my blog so you can receive notification once a new post is out. Also visit my social media accounts:
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Happy Gardening
Yana