Gardening in the Red Sea Riviera

Gardening in Hurghada or let's call it the Red Sea Riviera. Is it possible to have a nice garden in Hurghada?

Well, it's not easy, it's not like going to a garden center, getting your plants, putting them in the soil, give them water and you will get a lovely garden that will stay lovely whole year around, every year again. Although with a bit of knowledge and understanding how to garden, how to solve problems, and a lot of love for it, you can have a beautiful garden. I can prove that with my garden, although not finished yet, but it is a real garden. You can also see it when you visit some of the hotel gardens, so it is possible.

But before you get dreaming about a bright and sparkling garden as you see them by the hotels, or on garden TV programs, you have to know some things, for example what is the origin of the soil of your garden.
To start with that, the main thing where plants root in and get their nutrition of, here in Hurghada it is dessert, and more specific old seabed. Sandy and lightly salty, and that is not the soil lots of plants thrive on well. The water goes rapidly down before the plants can take their zip and it dries out very quickly with the wind and the sun. Not the nicest conditions wherein plants have to fight to survive every day, every hour.
But then you could think, ok, I will have a garden with plants that don't mind salty sand. Of course you can do that, but that is not what most of the people really have in mind talking about a lovely and colorful garden.

Next to consider, we have sunshine, every day (more or less), the wind (sometimes really stormy) and the water regulation. We cannot rely on rain from time to time, no heavy showers to really get the garden soil wet or clean the plants from sand and dust.
All these things are conditions that will not help to have this dream garden, with colorful roses, delphina's, bougainvillea, petunia's, spring bulbs, banana's, strawberries and all kind of other colorful, perfect shaped, nice perfumed, relaxing plants and flowers.
Such a garden where you can enjoy a nice drink or meal, lay down in your hammock, walk through, touch, smell and experience the beauty of nature.