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.