Its here. Summer may be our Kuwaiti gardening 'off season', but there's still a lot to do to improve your future garden.

Just as gardners everywhere else have frost, which is in the winter, we have our summer scorch, as I like to call it.

Since soil in containers can heat up as much as 30% above the air temperature, try to protect your container plants as much as possible, by grouping them together under partial shade, to create a micro-climate of cooler conditions. Summer is a dormant period for trees, with little, or no growth. By mid summer even Hibiscus and Bougainvillia will have slowed down. Prune back your shrubs and trees to reduce water consumption. Summer is also a time of maxiumum water consumption, try to conserve water as much as possible by watering at night, when loss through evaporation is at its lowest. Try to shade plants as much as you can. Most importantly, do as much composting as you can for your next plantings in September!