SALALAH, APRIL 7 - To address the pressing issue of developing landscape simultaneously with a particular project, a multinational company, which also has strong presence in Oman, has developed a ‘readymade’ solution. The solution is a combination of natural and artificial elements in which everything is natural but done in different settings. “Like it is challenging to grow trees in arid countries and even if they grow, it takes long time to mature. It is challenging thus for the developers to finish the landscaping part along with the project,” said Naser M Ahmad, co-founder of Proscape Landscaping and Acacia Nursery.
In an interview with the Observer, Ahmad said, “to meet this challenge we did extensive research on the climatic condition of arid countries as also on plants which can survive extreme hot weather. We did huge plantation of those plants in India and after they were fully matured, say after four to five years, we transported them to the GCC countries in air-conditioned containers.”
But it is not as easy as it sounds, because those plants are transported in AC containers after fully pruned and to meet the international standards of not carrying soil along with the plants, the tree roots are thoroughly washed. For this the imported trees are brought in sterile media free of pathogens and nematodes as all quarantine requirements are needed to be met.
A pioneer in this field Ahmed admits that initially the survival rate of the imported plants was discouraging but he didn’t lose heart. “Now with certain modifications and gradual practical learning the survival of imported plants is from 90 to 95 per cent.”
“After importing we re-plant those trees in local nurseries, where the trees have to be finally planted. Since the trees are out of soil for so many days, the rejuvenation process takes another three months to one year when they are fully ready for plantation in a project’s landscape,” Ahmed said.
And it is not like you grow any plant of any size and plant. There is certain specification of height and trunk size. “There is a benchmark and we follow British standards in which height ranges from 1,750 to 8,000 cm and the girth 4-6 to 60-70 cm. Then come the size of the trunk and canopy. For example a tree with 7 to 8-metre height will have a clear trunk size of 3 metres and a canopy of 3-3.5 metres.”
Ahmed insists that more than the tree there is price for time. A tree that would have taken some seven to eight years is being offered from day one of the project. Commenting on landscaping development in Oman, Ahmed said “Oman has its own advantage of mountains and natural landscaping. Still a lot can be done here to do it better.
“I have visited Salalah several times and found strong possibilities of developing nurseries which can cater to the needs of GCC market,” he said.
Landscaping, according to him, is an important ingredient of town planning. In many countries, including Oman, it is mandatory for certain projects to have a proper landscaping plan to get a go ahead from the competent authorities.
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