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.
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.
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