Dubai Garden Centre

If you have decided to live in a villa with a garden in Dubai, there is no better place than Dubai Garden Centre on Sheikh Zayed Road to potter around to pot your garden!

A massive 60,000 square feet outlet, it houses almost everything imaginable that you may need for your little patch of green. Other than just the plants, there is potting soil, manure, quick fix solutions for making your garden greener, plants to grow faster, garden implements, pots etc. Other than indoor plants in the air-conditioned section, there are zillions of outdoor plants in the glasshouse housed in the rear. The plants are a little more pricey than what you would get in nurseries at Satwa or Al Aweer but I think the plants are healthier, greener with a huge choice made even more attractive by the little extras on offer - the organic pasta sauces, natural lotions and soaps, herbs, quaint furniture et all! There was only one disappointment though - I have been hunting for seeds to plant my own herb garden, but didn't really find any seeds, and, only rosemary amongst culinary herb plants. Though the helper assured me that I would definitely get other herbs by the last week of October. I guess September isn't exactly the season for growing herbs. So shall have to go back end of the month.

The Centre has some absolutely gorgeous statutes for decorating your garden. However, with a 10 year old whose cricket ball is perennially leaving marks on the grass and some terrible ones on the wall, these were a complete no-no.

But the crowning glory of the place I think is the absolutely gorgeous Garden Cafe and House of Prose. I know, I know, one does not go a Garden centre to eat or read but to buy plants, but then which Garden centre sells you furniture? Its all about the experience and I think the Cafe just magnifies the experience. Set partly in a glasshouse with a fan (finally) helping to create a breeze, its the perfect place to relax and read a book that you have just borrowed from the House of Prose which is also housed in the same Centre.

House of Prose is a bookstore that deals in second had books and allows you to sell a book back after you have read it at 50% of the value. Now normally, I hate selling my books, but when you move every two years, and, you have limited shipment allowance, this is an attractive option, especially when I think of the two cupboard full of books that are currently crowding my mom's place back home.

I am digressing - the cafe serves homemade sandwiches, muffins, patties and other small eats, all deliciously fresh! We had an egg and mayo sandwich with some lovely fresh salad on the side and a cup of hot steaming latte! Yum! What could be better than a book in your hand, freshly brewed coffe, a decilous eat, greenery all around and sunlight dappling through the glass house casting patterns as the fan slowly whirs above your head! Ah, paradise!

Oh, I did buy some snow pea and some Chinese greens seeds and some potting soil! It says that I can eat them in 45 days, so my countdown has just begun!

Address: Located near 4th Interchange on Sheikh Zayed Road. Open 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Google Earth

P.S. I am not really big on gardening, this is simply a passing fancy and the charm of being able to tear my herbs from the pot and dunk it into the dish ala Nigella! But for those who are, there is something called the Dubai Gardening Club, which is a set of people majorly into gardening who share tips and techniques etc

P.P.S. Cant find the cable to connect my camera to the laptop, wl post pictures later!