N°46
On the cruelty of pruning bougainvillea.
It will look like ruin for a week. By the third week, more flowers than ever before.
Read essay →The Journal.
Field notes,
recorded weekly.يوميات الحديقة
Essays, observations, and small experiments from gardens across Dubai. Published Fridays. Read with tea.
No. 47 · Featured
No. 47 — 12 Apr 2026 · 08 min readThe night
The night
the jasmine opened.
An evening in late March, after the dust settled and the air finally cooled. The whole western wall was in flower by midnight. A small note on patience, fragrance, and what we owe the dusk.
Recent entries.
N°45
Why the Ghaf is a national tree.
A short history of the Prosopis cineraria — and what it knows about staying.
Read essay →N°44
Three medicines from the kitchen aloe.
For sunburn, for shaving, for the cup of green juice you may not enjoy but should drink.
Read essay →N°43
The frangipani, in five petals.
An old plant, an old fragrance, and the surprising way it propagates from a broken branch.
Read essay →N°42
Reading the Dubai water bill.
What 1,000 gallons looks like in a desert garden — a small accounting, no judgement.
Read essay →N°41
A taxonomy of dates.
Khalas, Medjool, Lulu, Sukkari — when to plant, when to eat, and when to share.
Read essay →N°40
Hibiscus, the trumpet of the day.
One flower, one day. The economy of a plant that gives extravagantly because it must.
Read essay →N°39
The strange winter of low light.
Why your tomatoes still need help — even in the cool months, the sun is moving south.
Read essay →N°38
How to train a jasmine on a wire.
Soft string, gentle hands, and the long view. A four-month project for a forty-year scent.
Read essay →A monthly letter,
sent on the new moon.
Twelve letters a year. The season, the practice, one plant to know. Quiet, slow, free.