Dear Permaculture community,

I potentially have an opportunity to develop a permaculture oasis/desert food forest/school garden in Dubai,UAE. The Head Teacher is very supportive but naturally wants initial sketches/costings etc. I would really appreciate some advice and information from anyone who knows about costing, desiging and creating small desert food forests/gardens.

The garden would be the centre-piece of the school grounds so must be aesthetically sound and contain a shaded seating area. It will 'fill' what is currently a sunken concrete ampitheatre which is approximately 30m in diameter, with 5 descending levels/steps of approx. 1.25m, and a centre floor of approx. 17m.

At the moment I have suggested combining a couple of purpose-built suspended shading structures to match those at the entrance to the school, and provide some instant shade, but then to integrate them with a canopy of date palms and other species such as figs and pomegranates, and so on to create a food forest. I was inspired by Geoff Lawton's film Greening the desert and another about the 2000 year old food forest in Morocco! The circular steps could be converted into raised beds for kitchen crops. A drip-feed irrigation and eventually a grey-water system could be developed from the washrooms.

I have never done anything like this before so it is a rather daunting but exciting prospect. Any ideas, information, costing plans etc would be really appreciated to help fill the Permaculture void in the UAE. If I get the go ahead I may well be asking for some volunteers who are passing through Dubai in the future!

Many thanks,

Gaina