My Desert Garden: Getting Ready for the Growing Season
September is the busy season in my garden in Qatar.
Qatar has a dry, subtropical desert climate, with long, intensely hot summers and very little rainfall. Gardening here means working with the climate rather than against it, and our growing season is almost the opposite of what many gardeners experience in cooler parts of the world.
Even though summer is coming to an end, it is still very hot and humid. August is the absolute peak of the uncomfortable summer weather, while September marks the beginning of a gradual transition towards the cooler winter months. Temperatures can still range from around 43°C to 37°C, so the weather is by no means easy on the gardener. The desert heat can be quite unforgiving.
Qatar gardens show the effects of these long, harsh summers. Some plants are dead and crispy, while others have barely grown or simply stopped growing altogether. But as the planting season begins, the garden slowly starts to change. Plants that have spent the summer in a kind of dormancy begin to wake up, putting out fresh growth as the temperatures gradually fall. It is always encouraging to see the garden coming back to life. What looked tired and almost lifeless through the summer can begin growing again with the arrival of the cooler season.
I don’t try to do everything at once. I work slowly, usually during the cooler parts of the day, take plenty of breaks and make sure to stay hydrated. In this climate, knowing when to stop is just as important as knowing what needs to be done in the garden.
August and September are when I start getting the garden ready for the new growing season. I thought I would share what I do in my garden during these weeks, along with a few things you can gradually incorporate into your own garden. You don’t have to do everything at once; start with what your garden needs most and work at your own pace.
Start with cover crops: The first thing I do is clear the cover crops I sowed back in May. They have done their job through the harsh summer, protecting the soil and providing organic matter. I chop them finely and leave them on the soil to wilt for a day before incorporating them back into the beds. If you have grown cover crops in your garden, this is a good time to cut them down and return them to the soil. If you haven’t used cover crops before, you can consider adding them to your garden cycle in the future. They are a simple way of protecting and feeding the soil between growing seasons.
I also clear out the dying plants, empty or rearrange containers and clean up the garden beds. It is a good time to look at what survived the summer, what needs to be removed and where I want to grow the next crop.
Sort out your seeds: I try to sort through my seeds before August, so that by the time the planting season arrives, I know exactly what I have. But if you haven’t done it yet, August is a good time to do it. With the heat outside making, it difficult to spend long hours in the garden, seed sorting is one job that can easily be done indoors.
Gather your seeds, organise them by crop or planting season, check the dates and see what you already have. I also make a list of anything I need to buy or replenish. This saves a lot of last-minute searching once planting begins.
For me, sorting seeds is also a way of planning the season. I can look at what I saved from the previous year, decide what I want to grow again and make space for something new. By the time the weather becomes more suitable for planting, the seeds are organised and ready to go.
Get your compost and fertilisers ready: By late August, the compost I have been making through the summer is usually ready to use. This is one of the most valuable things I can add back to my garden. I use it to top up my vegetable beds and containers, adding organic matter that helps improve the sandy soil and supports the plants through the growing season. I also get my other soil amendments ready. I usually use a well-balanced manure from the nursery along with neem cake or mustard seed cake fertiliser. These are worked into the soil as part of preparing the beds, and the neem or mustard cake can also help with managing soil pests such as nematodes.
Check the drip irrigation: Before I add compost and soil to the beds, I check the drip irrigation system. After sitting through the harsh summer, the pipes and emitters can develop leaks, get blocked or simply stop working properly. I turn the system on and check each line to make sure water is reaching all the areas it should. It is much easier to repair anything now, before adding more soil and compost and planting the beds. Once the garden is full of growing plants, finding an irrigation problem can become much more difficult.
Start sowing: While all this preparation is happening, I don’t wait to start sowing.
Some crops need a longer growing season, so I start them early. My aim is to get them established before October, when the temperatures begin to drop and the cooler season arrives. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, Squash, pumpkins, gourds and hyacinth beans are some of the crops I sow from late August.
This is also why I like to start preparing the garden in August. The work doesn’t all have to be done at once. While one bed is being cleared, another can be amended with compost, the irrigation can be checked and seeds can be started.
By September, the garden gradually moves from surviving summer to preparing for the growing season. The old plants are cleared, cover crops are returned to the soil, compost and amendments are added, irrigation is checked and the first seeds are already growing. In Qatar’s dry, subtropical desert climate, the growing season requires a little planning. Preparing the soil and garden ahead of time gives the plants a better start and makes the busy planting months much easier to manage.