How to grow a vegetable garden in UAE winters

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00:00Before the season starts, we have to prepare our garden for the season.

00:28To do that, the first thing we do is cleaning the garden from the previous crops, cleaning

00:34our tools, checking if we have the right equipment on hand, if not, we need to order them, we

00:41order our seeds, and we get ready for the new season.

00:47The first thing we do, of course, is cleaning the previous crops.

00:50I always suggest people do not pull the crops from the soil, like with the roots.

00:56You can just cut them at ground level, so you leave the organic material inside the

01:01soil, which we need in the future.

01:03It's going to decompose by the time being.

01:06So we have to prepare our soil, of course, for the new season.

01:10There are two options.

01:11You might be either a beginner gardener or a gardener like me from previous years.

01:16In the first option, of course, you have to decide where you would like your vegetable

01:20garden to be.

01:22You should be choosing the sunniest spot in your garden, because we need the sun to grow

01:27those vegetables, especially the fruiting ones.

01:31So you can choose either using raised beds like me or in ground soil, you can use pots,

01:38you can use anything as you like, according to your place.

01:43So you have to set those things up first.

01:45You have to order your equipment.

01:48And then you have to prepare the soil.

01:50Since in UAE, we have the sweet sands on hand and we should either amend the soil with organic

01:56material like compost, manure and fertilizers, like organic fertilizers.

02:02You need to order these as well.

02:04You can either make your own soil mix by basically mixing cocopeat, peat moss or with compost

02:12and perlite, or you can order ready-to-use potting mix as you like.

02:19In the second option, let's say you have a garden already like me.

02:24After cleaning your previous crops, you need to amend your soil with organic materials

02:29such as compost and manure, as I said.

02:31It can be either cow manure, chicken manure, up to you, or you can use all of them.

02:37So you add your organic material to the soil and then wait for two weeks before planting

02:42or sowing your seeds.

02:44On the other hand, you should be preparing your seeds, your planting, like seedlings,

02:51to be planted to the garden.

02:53So you have to be choosing the high quality seeds to get the best results, actually.

02:58Other than that, we need to make a plan before we garden.

03:02I mean, which plant is going to go to which bed, which plant is going to be planted to which pot.

03:08It is also affecting the efficiency and the quality and the yield of the garden.

03:14The rest of the world starts the season from spring to summer, but in UAE, we start our

03:20season from the end of the summer through the winter months.

03:25So we can here grow the warm weather crops and cold weather crops at the same time of the year.

03:32So we start our warm weather crops like cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, starting from

03:40September and onwards.

03:42And we can start our cool weather crops, let's say winter crops, like broccoli, cauliflower,

03:51anything like in the cool weather in other countries.

03:54We can start them from November and onwards.

03:58The smaller shrubby vegetables should be at the front.

04:02So all of these vegetables can reach, can get the sun exposure as much as they need.

04:08The vegetable plants in general do like a well-draining, organically rich soil.

04:16So what does this mean?

04:17We can read this or see this anywhere, but we have to understand what does that mean.

04:22For well-draining soil, we either use perlite, we mix perlite into the soil, or you can mix

04:28sweet sand in your soil to make the water drain easily when you water your garden.

04:34So it doesn't get locked with the water because vegetable plants do not like that.

04:40Most of the crops like cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, any squash family,

04:49these crops need like constantly moist soils.

04:52The only thing you may think is the herbs because herbs need a little bit drier soil

04:58than the other veggies.

04:59There are again two options to prepare your plants.

05:02You can either start them indoors like I do under grow lights, of course, because since

05:09we go from summer to winter months, it is really hard to start the winter vegetables

05:13outside.

05:15You can either start them indoors, which is cooler than the outdoor weather, like I do,

05:20I prefer to do, to head start the season, or you have to wait until the weather cools

05:26down like November, I will say, I mean, beginning of November, end of October.

05:32It is really hard to make them start early because, I mean, the weather, the temperature

05:37will affect their germination timing and rate.

05:40It's going to be disappointing when you start them early.

05:45So that's a good thing to keep in mind.

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