AGGRESSION AND COOPERATION

This is Merman, the smallest of the three tortoises at the garden home. If s/he looks a bit evil in this photo, there is a reason. Kawtar and I were working nearby the area that Frankie had chosen as his territory when we heard strange thunking noises. Upon investigating we discovered Merman ramming Frankie repeatedly. It went on for nearly an hour and a half.

Even though Merman is only half the size of Frankie, it was Frankie who ended up looking for a new home. 

In the meantime, Kawtar and I fashioned a new, larger compost sifter from pieces of an old desk I had salvaged and some wire mesh Kawtar found. I had been unsuccessful in finding hardware cloth but this mesh, although quite flimsy, is adequate.

We are continuing to cut up all of the smaller olive tree branches, and we are also now working on shredding bark for future mulch and pathways. Kawtar and I bought several big bags of bark from the area of Souk Telet where they sell posts made from newly harvested trees. We hired a man to stuff the three foot tall bags full of the bark, load them in his donkey cart and deliver it to the place where the tuk tuks are waiting for business. We rode in the tuk tuk to the garden, nestled alongside our bark bags and several bales of straw.

Abdoul also brought us several bags of shavings a carpenter friend gave him, and we identified another thistle and a nettle-leaved goosefoot. Formerly called weeds, permaculture political correctness asks that we now refer to these warriors as pioneer plants due to their ability to be the first to grow in really bad dirt. We have an abundance!

More sunflowers are blooming, and the large leaves of this beautiful plant (which is also a dynamic accumulator) are going to present me with a good amount of biomass for the garden. The wheat kernels are full, looking like they could burst out of their skins at any moment, and the now head-high mustard has become a forrest. It reminds me of the hollyhock garden in one of my childhood homes-those tall plants provided me with many hours of imagination-fueled adventure. 

PLANTS AND ANIMALS

 

The buzzing of bees is a lovely sound these days. So is the 

chirping of these Euarasian blackbirds.

I finally identified some of the mystery plants. This is flax, the next 

is milk thistle and the large plants, now chin high, are mustard.

And another first in the gardens-pests in the form 

of cabbage moth caterpillars eating the mustard.

Frankie likes to stretch out in the morning sun and 

sunbathe, for all the world like a January tourist 

at Miami Beach. Then it is breakfast time.

SUNFLOWERS AND ONE BEAN

 We arrived this morning to find that two of the sunflowers 

bloomed. These are not the massive, large-headed sunflowers 

I know from the prairies of South Dakota, but they are 

still beautiful, and more will be blooming soon.

The small garden beds of cover crops, with the 

mystery plants dominating.

All of the bean plants, that were the first to come up and flourish

have been shaded out by the mystery plants from the bird seed 

(and my pantry). I found one bean pod that managed to develop 

before its parent plant began dying in the deep shade. Mother 

Nature always seems to have some surprises in store!

BEES AND ONE-ROCK DAMS

We have several sunflowers that are almost in bloom, and 

some of the mystery plants are now collarbone-high. 

And finally, I saw a bee in the garden.

I planted a couple of one-rock dams in the irrigation channel. This 

is one means of paying attention to the permaculture directive to "slow, spread and sink" the water that travels along this route. As always though, I am not really sure that I know what I am doing, 

so we will have to wait and see if it is effective.

Kawtar and I (mostly Kawtar) dug this short trench that 

connects the westernmost olive tree to the diversion ditch. 

I think it will be the last section of this watering system.

 

MUSHROOMS AND PALACE ROOF

 

        Look at the size of this mushroom Kawtar discovered growing           on the edge of one of the garden beds!

Hassan returned with another version of the roof for the bamboo palace and this time, it was the right size.

As the sunlight hits the roof, it turns the inside of the palace into a beautiful glowing, golden space.

DIVERSION DITCH: SUCCESS!

 New Year's day was beautiful-cool crisp morning, blue skies 

and a warm sunny afternoon at the garden home. We are 

surrounded on two sides by olive (zeitoun) groves and 

to the south is a long ridge that heads off to the Atlas 

Mountains, which can be seen in the top right of the photo.

We have a lot of thorny plants here, like in all desert areas, and I know to watch out for the thorns but this is the most impressive thorn I have ever seen on an acacia!

We tested the diversion ditch that the guys dug and filled with gravel. I had given them a level and explained that we needed the water to flow across the property to the north bamboo grove but as usual, my "explanation" was done mostly in pantomime and demonstration. I am never quite sure if I have gotten my desires across or not. So I ordered an extra tank of water, and we directed the outlet hose to the high spot of the ditch (or so I hoped) and turned the valve on. We made depressions in the gravel at regular intervals to watch the water's direction. It worked beautifully and I am so happy with the result. The next step will be deciding how I want to handle the access into the bamboo grove when the water from the oued is available, yet keep it closed when we are using purchased water for the regular watering of the bamboo grove. I seem to be able to manage all of this kind of stuff just one step of a time, or it is overwhelming.