Start at the very beginning- Your Soil Mix

The Soil mix you use is crucial to give your plants a healthy start to the season and to help protect them from insect attacks and disease. This year, a dear friend tried out a new soil mix, and even though our veggies were attacked by leaf miners, they held strong and gave us much bounty. The soil in Dubai is not true soil since what we have in our pots is are potting medium. Otherwise, we have desert sand in the ground, which is not great for plants except the hardiest desert varieties.

Yet, Dubai has some of the most beautiful gardens around and many edible gardeners who grow a variety of vegetables and fruits here. Their secret is their soil mix. Every gardener has their own secret recipe, but here is the one that gave us much success this year.

 Potting Soil/Mix    – 2 bags (Desert Group, Holland soil,  organic potting soil)
 Vermicompost – 2 Yogurt tins(1kg container)
Peat moss/Cocopeat – 1 Paint tin(18L)
Neem fertilizer – 1 Yogurt Container 
Leaf Compost – 1/2 Paint tin (Tadweer)(you can add your own homemade compost instead of this)
Bio Fertilizer – 1 Yogurt Container 
Cow Manure – 2 Yogurt Container ( Available in any nursery)
Sweet Sand – 3 Yogurt Container (Available in any nursery)

For Hibiscus varieties please add Rabbit manure(1 kg yogurt tin)

For Plumerias, jasmines, and desert roses, add Goat manure(1Kg yogurt tin)

For cacti and other succulents, add vermiculite or perlite( 1 kg yogurt tin)

I also add a few handfuls of either chicken manure or fish fertilizer pellets to this mix.

 You can also add 1 paint tin(18L) of old soil lying around. So please don’t throw the old soil away. To the above mix, add 2 handfuls of blue NPK(12-12-17) and 1 handful of green NPK(12-17-12). I mostly use my homemade compost instead of NPK, but that is your choice.

I mix the above and store it, so I can replenish the soils, adding this as topdressing. You can just add the biofertilizer as well for topdressing. Topdressing is required from time to time, around every 2 1/2 months to ensure maximum fruits and flowers.