TURTLE DOVES AND CHICORY

There is a pair of European turtle doves engaged in courtship 

behavior in the palace zeitoun. They are incredibly beautiful 

birds and I hope they stick around.

The garden bed that surrounds the courtyard zeitoun tree gets strong sunlight for much of the day.  Without any supporting trees to shelter it from the harsh morning sun, we decided to build another palm frond fence around the perimeter. We used broomsticks with sharpened edges for the main structure supports, fortified with both horizontal and vertical pieces of bamboo. We ran out of palm fronds though so the hunt is on to find more of them to finish the job.

One of the wonderful things about allowing all of the pioneer plants to grow is the discovery process. I learned this morning that the small plants with the beautiful blue flowers are dwarf chicory. The leaves are edible and the root can be used to make that familiar old coffee substitute from my Mississippi Gulf Coast years.

While the early crop of sunflowers have all been harvested, with most of the seeds going to the birds and others saved for planting next fall, these late bloomers are still creating beauty on the property.

Several months ago I cut off the root ends of some scallions I had purchased at the grocery store, and stuck them in the ground. All but one was shaded out by the mustard, but this one is 3 feet tall and is boasting the most beautiful flower-I have never seen this before.

 

BARLEY AND WATER

We are in the midst of the cover crop/pioneer chop and drop, and Kaoutar created a bouquet of barley stalks for me. It is so nice to work with someone who has a great sense of humor! We laughed for awhile, then the bouquet was chopped and added to the mulch pile around one of the zeitoun trees.

 

Mid afternoon break time in the zeitoun grove.

Abdoul and Kareem spent a long day installing a section of the garden watering system. We now have hoses all along the north perimeter wall, with the south and west walls coming next. The east wall will remain without water until after a house is built.

It took months for any corn to come up but we now have half a dozen plants in the courtyard zeitoun bed. The kernels were included in the birdseed we threw on the ground last fall so I had no expectations. The diminutive size of the smallest cobs have become a source of personal amusement, and I could not resist harvesting the smallest one just to get a look at these tiny kernels.

For awhile a few months ago Kaoutar was bringing the seeds of all the squashes/pumpkins she and her siblings were eating. Here's hoping that these babies will get a bit more growth on them then the corn has!

We planted a few basil and rosemary plants next to the small 

semi circular bed next to the westernmost zeitoun. Now that 

we can water by hose instead of buckets, we hope to be able to

keep these alive over the forthcoming brutal summer months.

This palo verde stands alone, except for some surrounding small leucaena seedlings and a large squash that has begun putting on fruit. We have the first 100 degree days coming this week, so we pounded some broomsticks into the ground, built a fence structure of bamboo, and covered the sun shelter with palm fronds.
 

Ripening barley in the field next to the garden home.

LEUCAENAS AND SCORPION TAILS

 Kaoutar discovered these strange looking pods in one of the zeitoun beds. They are from Scorpiurus muricatus, the caterpillar-plant or prickly scorpion's-tail. It is an annual leguminous plant native to southern Europe and Syria.

The leucaena seedlings from Marrakech are still alive, and many more have sprouted up from the seeds we collected that finally germinated after the big rains. Squash plants also germinated in this bed, and they are losing to the leucaena in the competition for resources-the leucaena  are the most important plant we have right now and I am removing those big squash leaves as they get in the way.

CHOP AND DROP

Summer is arriving way too fast-the days are already in the 

mid 80s. Another 15 or 20 degrees and I will be 

looking for ways to escape the heat.

This is another shot of the blossom of the safflower plant. 

Good things come in handfuls of bird seed!

As do funny things. This grew from a kernel of corn in 

that same handful of bird seed. The cob underneath 

that tassle is about 3 inches long.

Kaoutar digging the hole for the first of the ollas.

 Beautiful poppies have appeared, scattered across the property.

Three ollas in the ground, capped with tajine lids.

It took this cover crop awhile to get going but it is lush and 

beautiful now-too pretty to be named Hairy Vetch!

This is a new plant I discovered today. Its common name 

is House of Plenty and it is an edible native to this region.

What a magnificent plant is this ostrich toe! Nestled in its 

bed of ice plant, it brings me joy every time I look at it.

It is becoming abundantly clear to me that I made a big mistake by letting the mustard go to seed. Not only did I lose precious biomass, but there are now thousands of tiny mustard seeds being spread all over the garden path as I am chopping the stems up for mulch.