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.