Gardening calendar for 2016

A green guide to ensure your plants flourish through the UAE's cool winters and extremely hot summer months.

Carrots. Getty Images

December and January

It is winter and a great time for the garden. The temperature has cooled and watering need not be as frequent. There may even be rain on your garden. Imagine.

For watering, try deep soaking with drip irrigation to help plants develop a more drought-tolerant root system. Every second day should be sufficient, as long as there is deep watering.

It is also the heart of the growing season, and the first fruits and vegetables are ready for harvesting.

Keep a beady eye out for garden pests, and deploy organic pesticides as a preventive measure. Neem oil is excellent, or you can blend your own (see top right of page). To repel slugs, use diatomaceous earth or broken eggshells around seedlings.

Continue to plant out seedlings, small plants or seeds directly in the soil, for a spring harvest and phased cropping. Try corn, cucumbers, squash, aubergine, okra, climbing Malabar spinach or strawberries.

If you have the space, you could experiment with a patch of watermelons for a big return with minimal effort.

New varieties of bedding plants are on sale at plant souqs and garden centres. Consider potting up for easy and inexpensive colour on balconies, terraces and beds.

A good potting soil mix is 50 to 60 per cent sweet sand (which helps to control soil temperature and prevent roots from overheating) to about 40 per cent potting soil and 5 per cent perlite (a volcanic rock that helps to aerate the soil).

Continue feeding your plants and composting. Try vermi­compost, which can be purchased from Géant supermarkets and other garden suppliers.

Alternatively, compost can be made at home with a ­Bokashi box, using kitchen waste and food scraps. This is an ­ideal ­solution for a smaller garden or balcony terrace, as the ­composting process is contained.

February and March

Spring growth is vigorous and productive, so this is a good time to work additional compost into soil beds and containers, and apply organic fertilisers.

Perennials will thank you over summer, as taking care of your plants now and working to optimise plant health will help them to survive the challenges ­presented by the summer heat.

Remember to foliar feed your plants. Applying liquid fertiliser directly to leaves helps the plant to quickly absorb those nutrients.

If you see the plants of your sweet potatoes starting to die back, get harvesting. However, if the tubers are still a little small, wait a couple more weeks and then harvest the rest.

There’s still time to plant out for phased cropping. For a supply of all-year-round lettuce, find a shady area you can bring pots to during the hottest part of the day, and you will have leaves to cut and eat across all seasons.

April and May

It’s time to clean up and keep tidy. Clear up around fruit trees and pots, and, if you have space, consider putting collected leaves and cuttings in a pile for composting (provided they are disease-free). Continue feeding and fertilising plants. Summer is coming so a good dose of compost and added mineral feed now will help store up essential nutrients to see them through their period of ­dormancy – the period of the year when a plant’s ­development or growth is either substantially slowed or stops entirely.

June, July and August

It is said that the best fertiliser is the gardener’s ­shadow, and that knowing and observing your plants will help to keep them healthy. Your shadow is the only fertilising your plant will need through the ­hottest months. Many plants in your garden will be sleeping and conserving their energy, and, ­accordingly, you should stop feeding now.

Also, ideally, you won’t be pruning plants over summer. It stresses the plant, and may kill some species.

Water your garden. Even a day missed in the height of summer could impact a plant’s ability to survive. Consider installing an irrigation system for pots, beds and lawns, if you are not in a position to water regularly.

With all seasonality, observe the changes rather than referencing the calendar to see when temperatures start climbing. Then adapt garden care accordingly.

Consider moving pots to more shaded areas to give them respite from direct sun, or erect shade guard over ­vulnerable plants to protect them.

If you are applying mulch around plants to help keep the soil cool and retain moisture, avoid placing it too close to the base of plants or stems, as the proxi­mity of moist organic matter can cause rotting. Avoid ­using stones or pebbles on the soil surface in pots as they can get hot and this can stress the plants further.

End of August and September

It is time to plan and prepare for the growing ­season ahead. Start by readying the soil. Add compost, ­organic matter and fertilisers. Do it now, as it will give the compost time to break down and release its ­nutrients in readiness for the planting to come.

In late summer, give your lawn a boost and spread a good half-inch of compost to encourage lush growth over the coming months.

Try leaving grass clippings where they land as they can provide up to 50 per cent of your lawn’s nitrogen needs.

Source organic and heirloom seeds for vegetables, salads and herbs if you are looking to grow your own. Start with seed trays indoors or a very protected area outdoors. Try tomato, aubergine, peppers, basil and mint.

Also plan for winter bedding plants with seed trays for ­celosia, coleus, hibiscus, cleome, salvia, marigolds, ­pansies and snapdragons.

At the end of September, plant out new fruit trees to give them time to establish their roots (again go by ­temperature, which at night should not exceed 30°C). ­Water really well to support their new growth. It’s a good idea not to go for very large specimens, as smaller trees usually suffer less from transplant shock and will be ­sturdier in the long run.

October and November

If you have cultivated seedlings indoors and are ready to plant out, introduce them gradually to the outdoors, under shade, to get them used to the change in heat and humidity. It will harden them.

Again, don’t do this by the calendar, but work with the prevailing temperatures. Make sure that nothing is newly planted outside until you can be certain that temperatures have dropped below 35°C.

Around late November, spinach, peas, cabbage, ­broccoli, onions, celery, chives and radishes can all be planted directly out into the garden or containers. Also sow carrots, garden peas and kale. If you have space, try a sweet-potato patch – and remember that the leaves as well as the potatoes are edible.

For flower colour and scent, plant seeds for sweet peas, delphiniums, nasturtiums and cornflowers ­directly in the soil from the end of October.