Cheapest way to do a garden?

get the traps as well as they do most of the work to keeo the flies busy somewhere else than my table lol

Wow Quizzme thanks for the tips...we live in The Villa and flies and mozzys are a big problem... Im off to buy geraniums and lavender at the weekend, havent a clue about gardening, but im sure i can cope with planting a few plants lol <em>edited by fairycakeyumm on 14/04/2011</em>

@Miss Piggy: the tree all first lost their leaves when replanted (some in ground some in pots), then re-grew once they settled down and did roots. Fruits are coming out, citrus can be tricky and always catch all sorts of pest so I use the bio-oil pesticide from the organic cafe and that seems to do the tricks - As per tomatoes we've had hundreds and hundreds. Apart from the fig tree which is in sun all day, all others have alternate sun & shade as close to the house walls. @SunDevil: Flies hate geranium and lavender. I live in The Villa and as they are currently landscaping and using manure flies are everywhere. I put the flies repellant essential oil (again from organic cafe) in the patio fountain and that keeps them at bay. It's a concentrated lavender oil. btw, double benefit as it smells gorgeous! We also use the fly traps (gain form org. cafe) which are very very efficient (so need to be emptied regularly). We place the flytrap 3 to 5 meters away from our table when we eat and have put 3 across the garden. The flies are attracted by the bait (powder you dilute with lukewarm water), go inside the trap and drown. Completely safe for kids & pets. Finally I put geranium in pots close to the doors and windows we open most and again, most flies keep at bay as they dislike the geranium. This is why most of the windows in France have geranium on the balconies, terrace, windows etc... I also currently grow lavender so when geraniums are dead I have an alternative for the doors lol Hope this helps ETA: we don't get mosquitoes either with the lavender <em>edited by Quizzme on 14/04/2011</em>

The plant souk is awesome! I'm sick over what I paid for one plant at ACE and then went to the plant souk the next day and over triple the amount of plants, flowers, and pots for only a small amount more than what I paid for one house plant at ACE. We always go out the Hatta/Oman road past Dragon Mart on the right, go to the first round about (you don't actually have to enter the round about b/c there is a right turn lane just before it) go right at the round about, go left at the next round about. There will be a big nursery that is completely deserted and at first we thought that was the souk and that they had closed, but keep driving and you'll see them on your left. There are tons in there so don't be afraid to drive into them and explore. Last week I bought 5 geraniums, 4 petunias, and 6 ground cover plants and paid 15 dhs for all of it. Quizzme, there are plants that the flies hate?? Do tell more. We just had our garden finished (we did rolled grass as we didn't want to wait for plugs to grow) and the boys have their playset outside but the flies are terrible and I can't stand being out there.

where is the plant souk? Here are directions http://www.expatwoman.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=139827

where is the plant souk?

We used to live here before and our landlord paid to have the 'hair plug' style grass put in, it didnt take well at all so we paid to re do it ourselves and it worked really well. We put it down to the time of year because it was getting really hot when the landlord did it. This garden is quite a bit bigger than our last one which is why we are looking to do it cheap! Great idea's Quizzme, love the sand area! We have a trampoline coming over and would def like to get swings and/or slide so that sounds perfect and would take up quite a chunk of area! Thanks for the other advice and suggestions :o) Quizzme's garden is really fab!

Quizzme - are your fruit trees thriving? All the ones I have had died :( Did you put them in sun or shade? Amelia - it really is a big difference expense wise and our grass was fine (except round the edges maybe :\:

If you decide to have a grassy area, don't let a gardner do it 'hair plug' style. It can end up a mess. Insist that they lay the turf in rolls. It will be a bit more expensive, but in our experience, worth every penny !

Hi, We were in the same situation last year so we thought thoroughly on how we wanted to use the garden and the cheapest option (including water consumption): - we left a sand area (sandpit) big enough to accommodate swings & seesaw - cost 0 and entertaining factor 100 :) - cost of the swings not factored in the landscaping as we can take that with us very easily if we move. - we planted Damas trees around the edge of the garden (10 to 20 Aed each about 1m high, and then they grow fairly quickly). - my husband did the irrigation system for the trees himself (cost asked by gardener 15KAed, cost by hubby doing the work with high quality stuff just over 1500 Aed). - we used paving blocks (the red ones, you can also find sandy colour ones) as it was the cheapest paving option and used white gravel with 3 sizes of black gravel circles on the areas we know we'll never use (back of the house, will soon do the front as well, looks pretty neat). - You can paint games on the paving blocks (checkers, hopscotch, tic-tac-toe etc ...), again high entertainment factor for low cost - we used plant pots (orange tree, lemon tree, fig tree, geranium close to the doors (flies hate them), lavender, herbs etc ...) to decorate the garden that again we can take with us. - we also have a vegetable plot and planted squash, melon etc ... (we kept the seeds from ones we bought and ate) in between the trees. - forgot to add we bought the cheapest ever artificial grass (glued on paving) at 25aed sq yard at Mostafawi carpet and dh drilled holes in the paving so we can play croquet (kids use it to play too). We don't have a gardener so one of us waters the pots once or twice a day and I'll call a gardener in 2 months time to trim the trees. Our DEWA bill is around 600 Aed every month (that includes water + electricity on winter months and our plot is 16000 sq ft so we're doing very well in terms of cost). Cost will go up if you add grass, though I wouldn't invest in irrigation system if you lay grass, rather hire a gardener to come once a day to water the grass manually. We had this in our previous house, grass was lush and again bill much lower than with the irrigation system switched on. Go and check the plant souk as you'll find plants, paving and contacts there. Hope this helps xx Sorry for the mispelling! edited by Quizzme on 14/04/2011 edited by Quizzme on 14/04/2011 <em>edited by Quizzme on 14/04/2011</em>

If you can find a cooperative gardener. he will buy turf for you and then plant it out "hair plug" style and then it grows together. It's slower than rolling out turf, but way cheaper :)