GARDENING IN THE GULF

Born in Edinburgh, my family moved to the Middle East when I was three months old, my mum going only on the fervent promises of my dad that it would only be for two years…28 years later they are still there (and still threatening to return to the old country). This meant that for much of my formative years, my passion and knowledge of gardening was honed in the harsh climate of the emirate of Sharjah in the UAE. To say growing any plants that would survive the herculean efforts of the arid landscape and environment was a challenge would be a colossal failure of an understatement. Just to give you some context, our house is situated atop of a filled-in salt lagoon (previously called Al-Ramtha lagoons), is home to 50 Celsius plus heat in the summer, drying Shamal winds from the desert interior, and one of the densest insect populations in the entire region. And if that was not enough the alkalinity of the soil is well above PH8, and the saltwater table is just over a meter below the ground level of our dune sand ‘topsoil’. Oh and just before I forget, the cherry on the cake as it were, over 98% of the country’s water supply is desalinated from the sea, at great cost to both the government and the consumer. One only has to look at the lack of vegetation in any meaningful sort of abundance within the natural landscape to understand that this may not be the most natural of places for plants to thrive.

Now, this is not to say that it is impossible to grow anything in this country. Indeed one only has to look at the roads, hotel gardens, or be an avid follower of golf to know that the UAE has managed to develop a green oasis of a city with verdant green lawns overshadowed by trees and plants from all over the world. Elegant North African date palms underplanted with striking Cannas from Australia. Cacti from Arizona standing in stark contrast next to lush bananas from Sri Lanka and verdant Mangos from the Philippines. However, there is a catch here and it is a rather big one, the garden’s on that scale and specification require a huge amount of labour and maintenance. Sand must be imported from the interior (where the wind and low humidity has resulted in low salt content) by the lorry load and must be mixed with chemically made fertilizers (to provide some nutrient quantity). Trees are added often imported from abroad, and irrigation systems must be installed by the kilometre. There are approximately at least three main seasons where flowers and plants must be taken out in favour of new more appropriate flowers that can deal with that specific season. In the winter months, watering is daily, in the summer months the sprinklers and drippers are on at least twice if not three times a day. And to cap it all off the artificial and highly intensive methods of maintenance give rise to soil born diseases most notably phytophthora (which aptly translates from the Greek meaning ‘plant-destroyer’), numerous insect plagues, and saltwater rising to corrupt the topsoil and roots, all of this meaning that the majority of the plants have a life cycle of little more than a couple of years, five at most, before the whole thing has to be ripped out soil and all, and started from scratch.

Now, this may be fine for the government and big companies that have the manpower, resources and cash to throw at the never-ending cycle of creation, destruction and renewal, but the average household owner would probably find this out of their reach. However, there are a few tricks that can be employed to get around both the weather and the many other painful factors mentioned above.

Design – Looking to the Past

Design is not just about aesthetics but also about ergonomics. How can plants grow and thrive amongst each other and, most importantly, in relation to the harsh conditions? I tend to look towards the historic agricultural techniques of the Emirati peoples in the oasis of Al Buraimi, and Omani people in the Hajar Mountains and on the fertile Batinah plains. Here they employ two methods of planting, one permanent and one temporary that is in the form of what we in the west would loosely term 'agroforestry'. This consists of a canopy layer, most notably the date palm and Indian almond tree which can take the brunt of the punitive summer climate whilst shading those beneath from the harsh desert sun. Beneath there is a sub-canopy layer of banana, pomegranate, and lemon trees, which in turn shade annual crops like onions and alfalfa. Water is pumped from aquifers deep below ground level and transported to the plants via small open canal water systems (called falaj, pl. aflaj). Horizontal space is at a premium, which makes these oases the plant version of the crowded skyscrapers of metropolitan Dubai.

This very design principle that has sustained the indigenous peoples of these lands until very recently for centuries, can be utilized, modified and updated to the urban gardens of today. And for that one needs to select plants for the job.

The Village of Misfat al Abriyeen, Oman

The Right Plants for Your Design

If you want a more tropical garden space that will last for decades, taking the principle of agroforestry, One of the hardiest canopy trees for medium-sized gardens is the Cordia sebestena with its lovely orange flowers, and it also proves a magnet for the Purple Sunbird (Asia’s answer to the Hummingbird). If you had a bit more space and you wanted an even more spectacular flowering tree then the Spathodea campanulata is the one for you with its huge vivid orange blooms set against the deep verdant green of its foliage.

The Frangipani (Plumeria) is a must in any garden in the UAE. It loves the sun, the hotter the better, and is extremely drought and salt tolerant once established. Frangipanis are also an excellent canopy plant in that they are semi-deciduous in the winter months allowing greater light levels to the sub-canopy and ground-level plants allowing them to grow in winter and spring, whilst protecting them in the summer months from the worst of the weather with verdant, waxy green leaves and a plethora of large and lightly scented white flowers with delicate yellow centres.

For a sub-canopy layer, one could use Hibiscus, Ixora and Plumbago capensis that will thrive in the dappled shade of the canopy layer whilst also being highly salt and drought tolerant. For the ground level, I usually split these into semi-permanent and annual flowering plants such as Periwinkles and Gazanias, and Geraniums and Petunias. These will romp away in the shallow topsoil, safe from the saltwater table beneath.

Below our own garden well over 20 years (practically ancient by UAE standards)

If tropical is not what you are after then the two other most practical and aesthetically pleasing design concepts that are extremely low maintenance are the arid and Mediterranean look. Instead of the Frangipani, one could use date palms (Phoenix dactylifera) or the California Fan Palm (Washingtonia filifera). Olive and pomegranate trees with their comparatively smaller height could be planted in a more open space letting in plenty of light, underplanted with Oleanders, along with the tree-like cacti Consolea falcata, Agave, Yucca and Aloe vera, which in turn could be interlaced with Leucophyllum frutescens and Pennisetum setaceum.

For climbing plants, I would recommend above all others (especially for the walls of your garden) bougainvillaea, which gives a stunning panoply of colours throughout most of the year, and for the more intimate spaces, jasmine, whose evening scented white flowers will give you peace of mind and a sense of tranquil bliss with your evening meals outside.

Watering

It goes without saying that watering is vitally important for your garden and the best method I have used is the drip irrigation system, which delivers a uniform level of water where it is needed. If used correctly this method (of the modern falaj system) both deeply waters the plant's roots and keeps the salt from rising.

It is important to remember two main things when installing and using a drip irrigation system. If you have a medium to large garden do not connect all the system to one pump or water tap as there will not be enough pressure to adequately water all your plants. Instead divide your garden into sections of about 40 meters squared at most, using multiple tanks and/or taps around your garden one at a time. In this case, less is best; water your plants deeply (for 20/30 minutes or more) every 3 days at the height of summer, and once a week in the winter months from December to March. This encourages your salt-tolerant roots deeper into the soil making it better able to cope with drought and checks too much erratic leafy growth which will be very prone to the harsh sun of the summer and especially its drying shamal winds. For the bedding (annual) flowering plants it may be necessary to water every three days in the spring as temperatures rise, but on the whole, I would wait until you just see the first signs of wilting before deeply watering with a hose if absolutely necessary.

As you have probably discerned by now I have not mentioned lawns. I must confess I am not a fan of them. To me, they are great stretches of pointless green deserts that do nothing for wildlife, and cost a ton in cash and physical labour to water and maintain. But seeing as I am still in the minority on this particular topic I would suggest that one think very carefully about the size of their lawn. Enough space for a hammock or a trampoline, for the kids, would be my tentative suggestion. Watering will need to be done with a sprinkler system, once a day in summer for around 20 minutes and you may just about get away with once every 2/3 days in the winter months. Fertilizer needs to be applied monthly and dethatching twice yearly (once in late September and once in March). Once every two years cover your grass with a 5cm or more layer of 'sweet soil' (dune sand from the interior) that will rejuvenate some of the nutrient quantity to your soil as well as introducing much-needed aeration, to prevent the dreaded phytophthora. If you want to cut back on some of the costs then I’d suggest getting a borehole drilled to tap into the brackish water table (sitting just below the saltwater table) which can then be hooked up to the sprinkler system and used for the bulk of your lawn watering. Just remember to always put the freshwater sprinklers on for the last 5 minutes to wash the salt off the grass leaves to prevent burning. Oh, and it goes without saying, water in the evening to reduce evaporation. Do not mow your grass close to the ground, especially in summer as this bakes the earth and causes the grass to die back.

Final Thoughts

By utilizing a centuries-old indigenous agricultural technique by the people who have inhabited and thrived in this harsh land, we have been able to create gardens that last for decades, and are showing greater resilience to the indomitable climate than the houses they surround. In a land where the predominant lifestyle is temporary and transient, companies and buildings rise and fall with shocking regularity, and fashion changes as often as the wind turns, these gardens represent a bedrock of resilience and permanency, an oasis of calm and quiet reflection in a loud, changing and censorious world, and hopefully will be there long after we are gone.

We have been gardening in this harsh environment since 1991 and have learnt a lot by rooky errors and have failed magnificently many times. The important thing to remember is that failure is both necessary and inevitable in gardening as in life, wherever you are, and should not be shied away from, but embraced and ultimately learned from. We have found a method that works for us through watching and adapting what others do. We have put that far ahead of any advice found in books (or indeed blogs for that matter), and have revelled in using our creativity and ingenuity to push to the limits what can thrive and survive in this harsh land that, at first glance, seems so impossibly suitable for gardens; I encourage you all to do the same.