Mibu Jose’s interest in gardening was sparked off in childhood, and it continues to give him great pleasure today. By Nahla Nainar
As the owner of four businesses — dealing with road works, oil field maintenance services, furniture and pharmaceutical distribution — Mibu Jose is understandably a rather busy man. But never, he assures the visitor, too busy to tend to his garden set in his D-Ring Road villa.
“I have to dedicate this garden to my mother,” says Jose, the CEO of Castle Group of Companies. “She was a passionate gardener and used to participate in all the flower shows in Kochi,” he recalled, adding she owned at least “a thousand” flower pots which used to cover every inch of their family home back in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
In Qatar, Mibu Jose worked as a civil engineer in Ashghal for 16 years before deciding to start his own business empire. He became an avid gardener, he says, after 1996, when he got married, and finally got the chance to have a home with a garden. Before shifting to the residential compound in D-Ring Road, he used to stay in a villa in Najma, which he says had a bigger and wider garden.
Not that this one is any less well-looked after. The most obvious feature of Jose’s garden (whose layout he planned himself) is the abundance of natural light. “If there’s no sunlight, there’s no point in taking that house,” he says. “Plants can grow easily only if there’s maximum sunshine and good open-air circulation.”
There’s no dearth of plants in Jose’s pleasure garden — a mixture of pretty flowers in pots and soil beds, and vegetables like gourds and beans climbing on sturdy wooden trellises. In pride of place is a pot hosting a tall ‘Mickey Mouse’ plant (Ochna serrulata, which has five-petalled flowers, and whose bract and seeds resemble the Disney cartoon figure’s face after the yellow petals fall off).
The Mickey Mouse has been thriving in Jose’s care for the past 10 years. Most of the vegetables, including the mature gourds hanging from the main wooden frame, are grown from the previous year’s seeds. One corner is dedicated to cacti, while exotic flowers such as geranium, dahlia, gerbera, Morning glory, chrysanthemum, petunias along with sturdy perennials like bougainvillea, zinnia, venga and adenium are arranged in careful patterns around a small lawn.
The exotics will be gone by the end of April as the temperatures rise, and some of the more delicate potted plants will be shifted indoors, but it’s a myth that the summer is not good for gardening in Doha, says Jose.
“You can get good results with lady’s finger (okra) and spinach in the hot months,” he says.
He maintains his lawn throughout the summer with an extra watering session every day.
More people should take up gardening in Qatar, feels Jose. “Qatar’s National Vision 2030 is aiming at full food self-sufficiency, and we should try to take more effort towards that goal,” he says.
Gardening is also possible in a small space like an apartment balcony, says Jose. “Most people use this place to dump their unwanted stuff, but you can set up a container garden in the balcony. It will grow very well if you take care of it.”
His hobby is a crucial stress-buster, says Jose. “I’m in my garden the first thing in the morning. It’s almost as if the plants are waiting to see me. Even though I know they are responding to the direction of the sunlight, it feels like they are moving towards me. After an hour or so in the garden, I do yoga. Once the business calls start coming in at 8am, my mind is ready to deal with anything.”
Gardening is just one of the pastimes that one can follow in Qatar, says Jose. “Many expatriates have the mentality that they have come here to earn a living and go back. But then, they forget that their most productive years are going to be spent here. Everyone must have a hobby about which they are passionate, so that they can make good use of their time in Qatar.”
Mibu Jose’s
gardening guide
The time I start planting
For vegetables, I start by the end of August, when the temperature averages between 32-35°C. By the end of September or mid-October, the vegetables should ripen fully. The output during extremely cold months will not be as good.
In the summer, I go for okra and green and red spinach. More people should try growing these; they could easily feed a small family with a harvest every two to three days.
Plants I have had most success with
In vegetables, bitter gourd, snake gourd, beans, spinach and okra. In flowers, zinnia, venga and petunia.
My pest control measures
I prefer to use tobacco water (obtained by boiling tobacco leaves and spraying the cooled infusion on plants) and garlic water (soaking garlic in soapy water). Sometimes, organic measures are not enough, so in those rare cases, I have had to use chemical pesticides.
How much gardening costs me
Gardening is not costly if you manage your resources correctly. The seeds and saplings that I use are sourced from the government nurseries here, and don’t cost more than a riyal per cutting. Other than this, water is the costliest factor, and I take care to do the watering myself. My heart breaks when a plant dies due to over-watering.
Top tip
Don’t use steel wires or nylon ropes to support climbing plants, because both heat up quickly in the sunlight, and can damage the stems and tendrils. Use fine coir rope instead.
