If you are buying a brand new house, the garden you have may be nothing more than a sandy pit. Even landlords of rental properties aren’t obliged to landscape the gardens of new villas before they rent them out. However, a green garden is not out of the question, you only have to look around at some of the parks and lawns around the city to see that. The secret to this is irrigation.

Once you have grass laid and plants planted you’ll need to be diligent about watering; in the hot summer months that might mean giving them a drink twice a day. It might be worth using the services of a gardener or having a simple irrigation system installed. Some keen gardeners opt to have a borehole dug in their back yards to reduce their water bills, such is the need for large amounts. As expats do not enjoy land rights though, you will need to get the permission of the land owner. In any case, the general rule of thumb is the further from the sea you are, the further you will have to drill down. The upside of this is you’ll have to worry less about the salinity of the water.

Planting and lawns
Adding extra greenery with plants is the next step, and it’s a wise move to plant hardy native species as they generally need less water. The plant souk at Meena Port sells a wide array of plant types including these desert-hardened foliages. There are also stores there offering landscaping services at very reasonable rates. Elsewhere, Carrefour, Spinneys, Ikea and even Abu Dhabi Co-op have a selection of plants, as well as a small amount of essential gardening tools.

If the thought of all that gardening and watering is too much, but you can’t stand looking at a sandpit then a fake lawn could be the way to go. They stay green all year and, aside from an occasional hosing down, they don’t need watering. You can buy astroturf (in varying degrees of quality) in Ace Hardware, while Clearview installs fake lawns. Alternatively you could opt for block paving or decking. Ace Hardware also sells decking, while Alomi is a specialist wood merchant that has carpenters with experience in laying decks.

Pools
A lot of properties in Abu Dhabi have private pools or at least access to a shared development pool. If you don’t have one in your villa, you can always pay to have one installed – but it doesn’t come cheap. Another option is to have a custom-made, freeform fibreglass and ceramic pool fitted. As tough and durable as a concrete version, these pools are effectively portable, although it would be a massive job. Allow for around four weeks for delivery, 10 days for installation and an invoice upwards of Dhs.110,000 (including labour costs, pumps and filtration). Try Pools by Design or, if you want a more traditional pool, speak to Absolute Pools.