São Paulo – A Brazilian named Cláudia Weichert is helping beautify gardens in a desert land: Dubai. The architect moved to the emirate six years ago and then started working on projects for residential gardens. From then on, Weichert has created over ten gardens, all adapted to the arid land. “I came here and noticed that it was a challenge to make this desert into an oasis, the desert sands into a garden,” said the Brazilian, who was born in Rio de Janeiro.
Weichert moved to Dubai with her husband, who works in aviation, and soon noticed that professionals for development of spaces for plants and flowers in homes were lacking. “Public areas here are well cared for, but gardens in houses are a little poor, and people do not know what to do,” explained the architect, who already had experience with landscaping in Brazil. That was when she started offering her work, first to Brazilian residents in the Emirates.
To start the work, Weichert goes to the house, looks around, sees the tastes of the owners, their needs, and then she develops the project. One of the difficulties, in fact, is labour, as those who normally work in the area in Dubai are Pakistanis and Indians, who do not speak English well and are not specialized in gardens. To reduce the problem, the architect develops the project in partnership with a local gardening company, with company personnel.
To better understand the needs of gardens, Weichert counts on the help of agronomical engineers and landscape artist Guilherme Coelho, with whom she worked in Brazil. The engineer and the architect, in fact, completed on Wednesday (20) a course for Brazilians living in Dubai to keep their gardens. The course, called “Mãos na Terra” (Hands on Earth), is an adaptation of what Coelho offers in Brazil and includes notions of soil, climate, lighting, irrigation, plant nutrition, pests and diseases, among others. There were seven days of scheduled classes to make use of Coelho’s trip to Dubai.
Coelho has plans to return to Dubai to offer a second phase of the course, an advanced level, or even a new edition for those who could not participate in the last. He said that despite all the students having been Brazilian, nothing bars locals from participating in the course. Coelho works in Niterói, from where Weichert moved to the Emirates. The engineer explained that this made it easier to work in Dubai, as Niterói and its surrounding areas are also in a region that is a little more arid and needs plants that are resistant to heat.
The Brazilian architect explains that one of the deficiencies of the soil in Dubai is iron. These and other deficiencies are among the reasons for which fertilisation must be greater for plants and flowers there. Gardens are also normally irrigated automatically. Among the flowers that do well in external areas in Dubai are bromeliads and Creeping Ox-Eyes. “There is a great variety for use here,” she said.
*Translated by Mark Ament
