Well, I felt the need to control my own blogging destiny, once and for all. The new site offers a much larger content viewing area and a lot more design flexibility, two things I felt was lacking in my WordPress hosted site.  Apart from that I wanted my own domain name!

I would love to know how it is working for all of you, and would appreciate any feedback? In the meantime I am working through the site to update my blogroll and iron out all of the bugs!

I appologise for making you all subscribe to the ESP once again. I am confident that this will be the final time you have to do this, I promise…ESP

You can suscribe to my new blog here:

http://www.eastsidepatch.com/

The Eye of Sauron has shifted his gaze in the patch…

Could the eye be focusing on this tiny dove feather that somehow miraculously was caught by a single strand of feather grass? A feather caught by a feather grass!  Ahh the irony!  Another feather I caught this week had a much more tragic scene orbiting around it.

  
This “crying” drowned paper wasp in my rain-water collection tank looks like a scene from Titanic. If only it had found the feather raft in time. Goodbye Jack!

Sauron’s eye actually turned its attention this week to a rather small area of the patch, an area that has for quite some time troubled me.  I just had to wait until the temperature dipped (at least slightly) below triple digits to tackle it.  Today it seems was my “lucky day”, I had a plan…hot sauce festival in the morning, then a couple of iced turbans strapped to my head whilst hauling rocks in the afternoon… a perfect late summer’s day in Texas!

This area lacked any visual cohesion, it had different elements and a myriad of mediums all colliding at awkward angles, and those radial Home Depot bricks, I have now really come to dislike.  All of this area nonsense had developed over time, and for numerous reasons, but today this was about to change…I was about to restore order, It was time for change.

Recycled bricks, Home Depot circular bricks AND moss boulders?…something had to give, starting with the location of these two grasses.

The Home Depot circular bricks began to annoy me over time, I am not really sure why or when this started, but I think it has something to with the fact that, oh yeah,… THEY ARE UGLY!

SO OUT THEY COME…  Lots of unmentionables were lurking below, and in-between these rocks, along with at least thirty geckos, lying in waiting to eat all of the unmentionables.

I decided to extend the edging with the same brick laying design I have used in some other beds in the ESP, snaking them around my papyrus filled stock-tank.

Here is the final, less frantic scene.  Finally the stock-tank looks like it is “incorporated” into the design.  Taking out the grasses has alleviated the sense of clutter…quietness is once again restored in the patch, at least this part of it.  Only another five more areas to tame!  All I need now is for Jack and Rose to angle themselves precariously from the front edge of this stock tank, and I will be finally done with this area.

“look at that new ESP bed and brickwork Jack”!  “Calm down Rose it is only a central Texas garden blog.”

Now, if I could only get that sticker off my stock-tank!

Moving on…

Click on any image in the patch then click again for a full-resolution shot.
This Texas Red Wasp looked on intently as I worked on the Patch’s hardscaping.

It seems like all the activity made it thirsty!  A tiny piece of wayward Popsicle warranted a veritable feast for this old man, perhaps his last supper, and ooo, how sweet it was.

  
It turned out that the Eye of Sauron belonged to this gulf coast toad I found under one of my rosemary bushes.

The “Whirling Butterflies” Gaura, aka, White Indian Feathers are in full bloom to the delight of my oldest elf, (I think she just likes the name).

I caught this Reakirt’s Blue Hemiargus isola  flitting around on the tiny blooms.  

One of my favorite visitors in the patch…and so tiny.

And as for this nosey Damsel? Talking of eyes!

Happy 2nd “Notty Dreads” and he loves his new dump truck tchnic tchnock! ty.
 

Stay Tuned for:

“Fahrenheit 911” 

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized 
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.


Inspirational Image of the Week:

‘Photo curtesy of Ruth and Dave on Flickr’
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruth and dave/407501928/

Underground gardening. This garden is in a subway in Japan. It is surrounded by glass, lit by sun lamps and is watered by misters…amazing.

Can you guess what this is?

 
                                                     “I know exactly how that feels”

The maroon hairs (oral setae) on this Pubescent Giant Timber culm will eventually disappear as it matures. The color on the new growth ranges from purple to red to green. The larger culms seem to have a lot more of this coloration going on. Giant Timber Bamboo Bambusa oldhamii  is native to China, and the most commonly cultivated clumping timber bamboo here in the United States.  It is also commonly used in furniture making, most notably in Taiwan, and is even becoming adopted in the laptop market?

 
                                                     Asus U6: Ecobook bamboo laptop

Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant on Earth, it has been measured surging skyward as fast as 121 cm (47.6 inches) in a 24 hour period. This one is a giant of the bamboo world, it is the largest member of the grass family and it is thriving despite our dry conditions. This one has a soaker-hose weaving around the base of the culms and it receives a deep soaking once a week.  A great tropical look with an equally tropical rustle when a breeze hits it, we even have a bamboo wind chime hung in it for an added sailing boat sound effect!

Talking about sail boats…imagine taking a trans-atlantic crossing on one of these beauties:

 
Angel Villanueva, 1492 (2008). Oil on Canvas, 24 x 36 in. Private
Collection, U.S.

Morpho Butterfly

In the artist’s own creatively descriptive words…
“1492 is a visual metaphor for Columbus’ ships. The ship’s sails are based on
the patterns found on the underside of the wings on the South American
butterfly Blue Morpho. My inspiration for this piece was a cross between the
history of the Americas and psychoanalysis: in Freudian theory the butterfly
symbolizes transformation and change. Here, the ships are rendered as the
vectors for this change. Carl Sagan once said that the discovery of America
(and all the destruction that came with it) was inevitable, bound to happen
around the time it did. Thus, the conquest is suggested by the painting as
being the result of natural forces”.

What a stunning painting! See more of Angel’s work here: http://www.angelvillanueva.com/en/paintings/index.htm

While we are on the subject…

The electric blue color on this Black Swallowtail butterfly’s wings was incredibly vibrant, the orange spots quite fitting against the Pride of Barbados, Caesalpinia pulcherrima that it was drinking heavily from. Each flower on this plant is composed of five showy petals with very prominent six inch long red stamens, reminiscent of the legs of the swallowtail.

I have had a bumper Pride of Barbados year, this year. I started out with two plants and afer a few years of self, (and helped) seeding, I am now up to eight. The best thing about these plants is that it can never be too hot or too dry for them, in fact they thrive on it!  I have no idea what or how their root structures works, but it could not be any more efficient. So much color, so little maintenance, perfect for Texas, especially this year.

 
        “The problem with sotols, is that its full of spines.“

Another bunch of drought warriors are the Sotols, they may take quite some time to reach maturity, but it is well worth the wait.

Looking like tribal tatoos, these Agave Americana are also no strangers to the heat.

Moving on…

The following scene may be a little disturbing to some sensitive readers, things have got worse around the decaying Cactus Man. It seems as though my over-zealous face-carving “proceedures” have created their very own Guyana Tragedy. The scene looks totally absurd now, like a bunch of dead cacti-heads wielding green table-tennis bats.  All that time I spent swelling the base nodes, then I cause this to happen! It appears that all of the main paddles were connected via a common root system / tubor/ something or other. One by one they are shriveling up and keeling over, in a way that only cactus paddles can.

The Cactus Man wiggled his little green bat to indicate he had something to say, so I leaned in close. In a parched, sandy voice, he rasped out the blood curdling words…”your serve”.  I flicked him over his dead head and still got a bunch of cactus barbs in my finger…Stupid Cactus Man, with his healthy table-tennis paddle.

I could have sworn that his “smile” widened somewhat when he realized he had spiked me. In his honor you may have noticed that I have made him my new online avatar.

RIP Catus Man, 2005-2009 (sorry I killed you and your friends). 

On a softer note, (well at least this part of the grass), the first new blooms on my pampas grass have started to emerge. This one is my favorite with its slightly pink plumes.

 
Pretty, Huh?
This writhing tangle of stems belongs to a Ghost Plant, Mother of Pearl Plant
Graptopetalum paraguayense, these clusters have really struggled in this year’s drought. It used to look like this:

And finally a couple of before and after shots to offer some appeal to a house that is going to be sold…

“Softening a corner”.

Bamboo Muhly and contrasting soft leaf yucca provide a simple and hardy planting scheme that provides a lot of punch and movement. An extremely low cost scheme, to cover a large area. I cannot wait to try this one out on the ESP hell-strips, (obviously with a more abundant amount of yuccas)!

Stay Tuned for:

“Ghost in the Machine” 

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized 
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.


Inspirational Image of the Week:

You made it!

Hello, and welcome to a new East-Side-Patch over here in WordPress. I hope my old friends will resubscribe to this feed and to any new readers, welcome. I have been at http://east-side-patch.livejournal.com/ for over a year and felt the need for a change. It is going to be an “adjustment” to say the least, learning a new navigational structure.  I have a considerable amount of image reformatting to do in my archives that will keep me off-the-streets throughout the dark winter months, but the good news is that all of my old journal imported!

“That’s a-good ESP”

A long time ago, a small fishing vessel left port bound for the deep waters of my stock pond. The men kissed their wives and loved ones goodbye and took their positions on deck. The boat was in the fishing grounds two days later and the first nets were cast into the murky ink waters. The scream of the pulleys and the grinding of the winches was the tell-tail sign that the crew had netted something large.

Everyone leaned out over the side of the vessel to see what they had netted…

The creature snipped through the net and clawed it’s way onto deck, amidst the screams…

It is believed today the creature the men netted was an ancient dragonfly nymph, though the real truth lies in the murky depths of my stock tank.

Before I give anyone nightmares, I’m off to figure out how to change the font-size in WordPress? Anyone?

Stay Tuned for:

“Pressing” along

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized 
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

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This photo was presumably taken in the 1940’s-1950’s
of a woman underwater in the Weeki Wachee Spring, FL. 

I heard the old, old men say,
‘Everything alters,
And one by one we drop away.’
They had hands like claws, and their knees
Were twisted like the old thorn-trees
By the waters.
I heard the old, old men say,
‘All that’s beautiful drifts away
Like the waters.’

The Old Men Admiring Themselves In The Water
by William Butler Yeats 

Photo’s courtesy of:
Sam Chapman, www.austinrealestateguy.com.

This rosemary just seems to get bigger,
the hotter and dryer the weather gets. The only
sign that it is also thirsty is a slight tinge of
yellow to the green, but it doesn’t like to complain.

 
I wish I could say the same for this poor Primrose Jasmine,        
Jasminum mesnyi
It is hanging onto life by it’s leaf-tips.  I must say though, it does have
an interesting aesthetic all of its own in this crispy state, like a firework
or a water-fountain in a water-purification plant?
What?

 
This Giant Timber bamboo culm is ripping it’s own shirt off in an attempt to cool down.

 
The odd twisting culms continue to writhe and twist upward from
the underworld, they are growing at a staggering rate
at the moment.

 
The intensity of the August “Day Star” has even been too much for
this aptly named Ghost Plant.
Graptopetalum paraguayense,

 
It looks like something has singed
the top of it with a
blow-torch…oh wait, it has.
One badly stressed out succulent!

Houston, we have touch down…

Stabilizer clamps engaged.

“Look into my eyes, into my eyes, the eyes, the eyes,
eyes, not around the eyes, don’t look around the
eyes, look into my eyes…you’re under”.

The eyes of this Skimmer dragonfly mimick the
gords hanging under my “purple martin” nest box. I put
quotations around purple martin because it is invariably
full of irritating nesting sparrows…I have told the Nabooboo tribe
to hunt these birds with their blow darts, but even that has not
seemed to make a dent on their numbers. I also suspect that the
tribe have been pre-occupied of late, hunting down some escaped 
Whip Scorpions, Thanks for that Bob at Draco Gardens.
Brrrr.
 

My blunder with the martins this year was that I opened the
doors to the inn as soon as I saw the first birds flying around
the neighborhood…

BIG mistake!

The overtly aggressive sparrows immediately
gate-crashed the nest-box, and held a massive party
in honor of my complete ignorance. 

 
“why you little”

Next year I will wait until a scout actually
lands on the nest-box, and stays on it for
a while before I open the doors.  
This is a male Flame Skimmer dragonfly,
situated on my Spruce Cone Cholla,
or aptly named Pine Cone Cactus… 

…Tephrocactus articulatus.
 
 
Like a multi-eyed monster from mythical Greece, (it is actually
a native to western Argentina). It is one of the stranger looking cacti 
that resides in the patch. It also, it seems, has an intrinsic design flaw,
it is easily broken. Segments of T. articulatus easily separate from the main cactus,
the good news is they readily root, mmm, perhaps it is not a design flaw afterall!
This plant requires no supplemental water, a definite plus right now.

 
You can see how the sections are extremely fragile due to
a rather obvious “off-setting”.  There are five species in the
genus Tephrocactus, sometimes classified under the
Opuntia genus. All varieties of this species are frost hardy…
I love this plant, just don’t bump into it, if you want it to reach
any height.

Talking of bumps:

 
One of my goldfish is about to pop.
She is so pregnant and distended that even
her scales are sticking out!!!
It is rather disturbing looking.

Staying with the pond for a moment…

This puddle of death was to spell the end for these gulf-toad tadpoles,
a couple had already died in this quickly evaporating hot tub.

Also darting around on the lilies are lots of these:

Long Legged Fly
A great beneficial fly in the garden and a prolific insect predator.
These little flies are the Jason Bournes of the fly world.

 
“Oh, I see how it is ESP!”
“Just because I am not shiny and jewel-like, like he is, I am no
longer an ESP reference?”.
Rest easy Seth, you will be published again before you have
chance to vomit.

Long-legged flies are members of the Order Diptera (true flies) and
the family Dolichopodidae, a very large and diverse group. In general,
flies in this family are very small, characterized by 2 long wings
and long slender legs. The bodies are beautifully colored with green,
blue, metallic gold or silver,
flying jewelry!

The best thing about these little jewels is that they love to devour
copious amounts of spider mites. Both larvae and adults are
predaceous on many other insects and small arthropods,
including mites, thrips, psocids, aphids, and other insects larvae.
These flies hardly ever stay still, flitting around on my lily pads,
looking for the next meal - at least this is my excuse
for my bad photography, and I am sticking with it.

Moving on…

Aloe variegata, also known as Tiger Aloe and
Partridge-breasted Aloe, is a species of aloe indigenous to South Africa. 
Looking like a futuristic tower block, the plant’s leaf margins, have a wide,
ornamental white line that looks like it has been painted on. 
Spotting on leaves is often in horizontal bands in a ‘tiger-stripe’ pattern,
the white spots look like windows and go great set against the back-drop of
my texas holey rocks. This was one of the plants that I purchased from the
50% off sale at “The Great Outdoors” I managed to get four divisions from
this plant, straight out of the pot.

 
I am finally ready for yet another delivery of decomposed granite to finish
off this section of pathway. It is all leveled and devoid of life and weeds, the
sun has been good for frying anything that once lived in here. A few inches
of granite on top of this should hold most weed germination back pretty well.
At one time I was considering planting this area up with Tech Turf. Marketed
under the corporate name Turffalo, and perhaps I still may, later down the line.
The decomposed granite will, in the meantime benefit the soil and smother
any lurking weeds that may germinate when (and should it ever) rain again.

The latest craze in the patch…

…state-of-the-art transportation, scooted, (and pushed), at the highest possible velocity
around my circular succulent bed…It amazes me so much hilarity can be born from
such a basic endeavor. I am not undermining the activity though, oh no,  
it means I can garden and weed in peace, AND they wear
themselves out!

 
“You just don’t get it, old man!…You need to wake up and smell the lemon basil.”

 
All the scooting and pushing came to an abrupt halt when my
youngest stopped dead in his tracks, he started pointing into
this nearby patch of grass…his excitement told me he was onto
something major. I always have my camera in my pocket and
went in closer to investigate the now twitching ornamental grass.
I was surprised to see a baby possum, and judging from it’s
expression, (I have the same one), I think he must have just
woken up, a little too early it seems.

And finally:
  
100% pup-survival rate from my agave spike from last year… like this 
is any surprise! They are finally starting to look like small versions
of their mother.

A couple more dragons to finish…
 
A pre-historic insect on a pre-historic horse-tail reed.
Very similar forms.

The sun is setting in the patch but
be sure to tune in for next weeks new Discovery show…

“Deadliest Patch”

All material © 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized 
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

Inspirational Images of the Week:

Soekershof, Botanical Gardens, S.Africa.

A true mermaids garden!

 “Time in a Garden”

 
So this month at:
http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=7073
the workshop topic is the influence of time on our gardens.

I first started this blog almost a year and a half ago, it has taught me
and forced me, in a good way, to learn more details about the plants
and critters that inhabit my habitat, but first and foremost up-keeping
this journal has taught me about the time/space continuum.

“Spock, what IS he talking about”.
“Unclear Captain”.

    
It has documented once a week, (almost without fail),  
the growth of my hobbits, and in parallel, the maturing
of my garden, and my knowledge of the beasts, and
characters that reside in it.
The creatures that call it their home…
and there are quite a few…
         
William Wallace, Compost Burper, Botox Lady, Nabooboo tribe, Cactus man, and finally the ESP witches, not to mention..

   
The Intergalactic singer, Bill and Ben the holey rock men and last (and nearly deceased), Cactus Man, - a veritable east-side-cast of motley patch characters.

Unfortunately the sands
of time have not been kind
to the poor old “Cactus Man”:

       
It was quite disturbing to track his demise through the lens of a camera,
I could feel his pain as he took on a rather horrific persona. I felt bad
knowing that I was was the one responsible for his premature aging. 
His head finally buckled backward toward the Texas sun, 
as he exhaled his final breath, and for no apparent reason,
he screamed in a squeaky cactus voice with a fake Scottish accent…

 ”Freedom.”

(I think he must have been speaking with William in his final days)! 

Gardens take time, and are a lot of work. 
The patch seemed insurmountable at
times, but to me, starting was the
hardest part. Then came the frustration
at how futile all the work seemed.
Then came the realization at how long 
it was going to take. Then It became
a quest, then a passion, then ultimately 
a complete obsession. Gardens 
teach about time, because they take time.

Some of the following before and after shots
I have posted before, but they seemed quite
apt for this month’s theme. They highlight how things
have changed over a three year period here,
in the ESP.

  
You can see the whole left side of the property was obliterated by the
tunnel of trumpet and wisteria vines (left). I thought the tunnel was
an interesting idea when I started it but when the vines matured, 
they visually shrunk the garden by about a third from the view on my back deck.
It was also quite nasty to walk through, lots of webs and unmentionables just
waiting to fall down your neck, causing the obligatory physical conniption.
I decided to completely overhaul this whole area to widen the view,
it was beginning to feel claustrophobic, and visually cluttered.

 
Pulling a pathway around the right side of the small circular bed in the foreground
created a lot more “breathing space” and allowed a more natural angle to exit
the steps down off my back deck.
The left picture shows how it looked before my skinny island “middle” bed
gained any definition. Time has really brought some visual quietness into
the patch through the creation of definition and order.

Here is the island middle bed when I first started in September last year:
 
Quite the construction site, the soil in here was terrible,
compacted and full of trash. Here it is today. This bed
has endured the central Texas drought with very little
additional water. 

Okay, the small Mediterranean
fan palm on the right required a
little bit of the wet stuff 
to get it started.

 
And here is a before and after of my circular bed.

 
Cnidoscolus texanus
I was ripping up some weeds around one of my pampas grasses
with some gloves on, when I grabbed a swath of this monster. Even
with covered hands these spines went into the top of one of my
fingers, it felt like I had just had some Novocaine injected into my knuckles!
With other common names like Bull Nettle, Tread-softly, and 
Finger Rot, you can tell that this is a plant that demands respect. 
If any part of the stem is broken, a milky sap appears,
and some people are allergic to this as well
as the “sting” of the hairs.  

   

 Moving On…

   
A rare shower in Austin was almost enough to fill my 
red-neck tank / everything but the kitchen sink, rain water
collection “system.”  This paper wasp wasted no time in 
quenching his thirst.   

 
With the uncustomary moisture, this Mexican Petunia
Ruellia brittoniana responded the next day
with a flurry of blooms. I have this one embedded in a slow draining, 
sunken rubber container to contain it and also because it does like some moisture.
Mexican Petunia audibly “pops” when the seed pods
receive a little water, sending seeds jumping all
around the adjacent area. Watch out, they
germinate readily.
It blooms on and off all summer.

 
Here is the tub in the foreground when this bed was      Spot the buried petunia tub?
being created, some years back.
We still had a lot of bermuda grass
back then, as you can see.

Same area matured – image taken toward the end of last year.

 
I now have TWO curving culms on my Giant Timber Bamboo!
Look at the powder on the new growth, it is apparently good
for the skin? I have no idea what is causing this crazy bamboo
snaking habit,
but I like it!

Did you know that bamboo 
was actually the first plant to
re-green after the atomic
blast in Hiroshima in 1945?

And finally…

  

Amaranth pushing up among the feather grass, getting
prepared for it’s spectacular fall bloom. I always allow
select plants to mature from seed, so long as they are
located in the right position, like these that line the
edge of my pathway.

All material © 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized 
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

Inspirational Image of the Week:


Pierre Haulot and William Boullier have produced
an innovative watch concept where time is viewed
as a ‘progress bar’.

Stay Tuned For:
“Head above Water“

Cradled under the safety of my variegated ginger, this cat is
extremely nervous of me and everything that moves in the ESP,
and for good reason. It does not belong to anyone but gets
food from everyone judging from the size of it.
I regularly see it at night, hunting in the Patch,
augmenting his diet. 

My now deceased cat was extremely territorial until she got
too old to really care, this cat was her living nemesis.

She once jumped from under this Douglas Fir 
onto the back of this cat and “rode” it all
the way down the right side of my
property fence-line. It was one of the funniest
animated things. 

What made it even funnier was the way my cat
was having to move “in the saddle”, all jerky,
and un-natural, her head being thrown
around with every panicked stride
from her newly acquired furry ”Steed”.
She hung-on like a feline rodeo rider 
for a good five seconds.

Beauty and the Beast:
   
Bougainvillea Glabra is sometimes referred to
as “paper flower” because the bracts are thin and papery. I love the rice-paper
quality of these bracts, they look so fragile, yet they last for ages, on and off the plant. 
Bougainvillea is such a cheerful plant, it always reminds me of good times in Mexico,
where it grows in all colors, and is everywhere!

I used to have one of these growing over my front porch,
that is until I scraped my knuckle bone with one of it’s hooked
thorns pruning it. It was painful for months. The thorns are
tipped with a black, waxy substance that I don’t think helped… 
oh no, never again, it had to go, but it wasn’t going without a fight.
Bougainvillea is one tough character to extract.
 

I am lucky in that my neighbor has a fine specimen
climbing up the front of his house, we see it everyday
through our kitchen window, it blooms continuously.
I love seeing it, I just don’t want to deal with it.

 
My pampas grasses are starting to have that waterfall cascading look to them.
This seems to happen just before the blooms start to shoot up. I get lacerated
on a daily basis trying to turn on and off that faucet (visible in the right picture).
I have developed a sort of hunched over, backside out, shuffling technique to
limit the leg and arm thrashing this plant administers.
 

A small member of the Nabooboo tribe,
hiding in the grasses, recently shot a
dart in my arse thinking I was 
performing an act of tribal aggression 
with my rather unorthodox
“maneuvers” in and around this pampas.

 
Talking of unorthodox behavior, this massive giant timber culm is the
first one I have ever had that apparently struggles with the simple
concept of growing upward. The shrimp plant it is emerging from is
also doing well under the shade of a couple of large pecan trees and
a drip feed from a buried soaker hose.

The culm lurking underneath my mortared brick edging continues to
push north.. “Mind the gap” It has already loosened two bricks,
we will see if it has the strength to “break on through
to the other side”.

“That was just bad man”.

The Hoja Santa in the same bed is also bucking the Texas drought
pretty well. The foxtail ferns performing in the amphitheater   
Asparagus densiflorus 
are only just hanging in there, somewhat yellowed.

The Mexican bush sage,
yucca and bulbine never even break a sweat.

This trailing lantana needs but an occasional beverage,
this little bed gets a daily roasting.

Anything that was not drought tolerant has long since shriveled and vanished,
I have even lost a dwarf miscanthus this year, outrageous!
Apart from staring out of windows, watering and pulling the occasional
weeds (it is almost too hot for them also). I have tried to spend as little time as
possible outdoors, but today, everyone in the Patch began to show
distinct “cabin fever” symptoms. It was time to brave the elements,
and go OUTSIDE!
Cabin fever hits the patch!

We ventured to “The Great Outdoors” for a smoothie and a snoop
around the plants. I was not even considering purchasing anything,
but then one of the assistants had to say the four words I did not
want to hear…”Everything fifty percent off”.

 
AAArrrggghhhhh!

I trudged straight back to the entrance to pick up a cart.

Armed with our drinks we headed straight
over to the agaves via a short
stop at the bamboo section where I picked
up a weeping bamboo for $40…it does not
get any better than that!

Back in the Patch, and now thoroughly resigned to
spending quite a few hours in the blazing heat. I loaded up
a massive drinking vessel of iced water,
put an iced turban on my head and ventured timidly
out into the rays of the day-star to empty my compost bin.
The new plants will need all the help they can get after all! 
This anole was having a field-day munching on all the
bugs and roaches, he was shortly joined by two of
his friends. I decided to leave them alone to gorge
themselves in the fresh compost for a while. . .
I had a cauldron to get going.

   
I emptied my compost bin juice catcher to obtain a few pints of the good stuff.
I then added some sea-weed emulsion to this and diluted the “real ale” with
some water…a lethal growing brew.
One of the ESP witches looked on inquisitively at a distance.

I figured if any plants can make it, these can.
They all got a seriously good start with the compost and
stinky tonic water…more on these new additions later.

Other observations this week…
 
I know I promised not to post any more images of these,
but I lied.

This Sedum nussbaumerianum
continues to grow, albeit extremely slowly.
I really like this succulent and it’s unusual mustard coloring,
great illuminated with a setting sun.

 
As are these purple fountain grasses
Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’

Just one more!

And finally…

Crusty cone-flowers and burgundy cannas.

All material © 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized  intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant) 14th century planet Earth techniques.

Inspirational Image of the Week:


TM Garden Design

Here is my entry for
August’s “Down on your Knees”
Picture This Photo Contest at
http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=7067

                              Cattail Sparklers.Typha latifolia
These fluffy, white seeds were once used for stuffing blankets,
pillows and toys. Native Americans would put them inside
moccasins and around cradles, for additional warmth,
but don’t talk to me about additional warmth
right now! 

 
Okay perhaps the wind is not so much shaking the barley as it is shaking these
inland sea oats, (I have no barley after all). These swaying sea oats really give the
sense that fall is only just around the corner, even though I know we
traditionally have our hottest month to still endure. I can but imagine. 
Still, watching these seeds dance in the wind makes me feel
that there is light at the end of a particularly parched Texas summer tunnel.

Even this This ‘skimmer’ Dragon, Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia),
(only the second I have ever seen in my garden), seems to be adorning a fine fall suit, with brass buttons. 
I caught this one sunning itself in my mexican bush sage.

 
I took these with the flash on, which really seems to bring out the iridescence on the wings,
although the true wing coloration is lost. (Without flash, right image).

“Honey, I’ve shrunk the Agave americana variegata”!

Today I decided to do some thinning. The above image was a mighty
fine example of a containered Agave americana variegata.
Over the years this plant has shrunk, partly due to neglect
and more certainly to self suffocation.
Too many pups, not enough container!
Like a good parent this plant has sacrificed itself for the development
and well-being of it’s offspring. The plant was in decline.

 
Here it is before I thinned it out, and here it is in a much calmer
state afterward, ready to climb once again, to new,
uncluttered agave heights.

The best thing about an agave container thinning?

Is the pups…any long term readers will know I have a hard time not planting all of them.
Oh, and I will make room for these, come Hell or high water,
the latter of which is as unlikely… as a really unlikely thing
here in central Texas.
Have you seen the current conditions of the Pedernales river, err I mean trickle?
This is one of the only plants that I would even consider planting at this brutal time of year. 

“El Niño”  “El Niño”  “El Niño”  “El Niño”  “El Niño”

But until the water gods return..

The chores for Miss Ingalls will continue!

 
This Jurassic anole was intensely eyeing the sprinkler hose and it’s watery emissions.

The rogue culm is now officially out of control.
It dosn’t seem to know which way to go!
After an alarming diversion to the right,
it is now straightening up and heading
skyward once again.

I cracked open a mountain laurel seed pod today,
and found the seeds had turned red…it was time.

“Let the poisonous necklace
stringing commence”.

After an excursion to to a local bead store for some hardware, 
then onto home depot to buy an extremely small drill-bit,
the ESP was ready to do some amateur stringing,
with a strong emphasis on amateur.

My tools were not the fine tuned implements of a jewelry maker,
oh no, not by any means. They resembled exactly what I already
had strewn about my garden shed…a large drill and a vice. The
tiny drill-bit only just fitted into the damaged jaws of my old drill,
but, by chance, I had lucked out.
The size of the drill was exactly the diameter of the leather band
I had bought to string the beads on…It would seem, from the outside,
that I knew what I was doing.

 
I stamped on the firstseed-pod, extracted the beans and placed
one into the small vice. The drill screamed into action and the first
hole was in place. This whole process was so exciting for my little
helper who had initiated the whole activity.
“Are the beans ready yet?” (Repeat 26 times, without a breath).
Beading is something she loves to do and she is very adept at it
after countless jewelry projects over at her Grandma’s house.
I drilled, and with nimble fingers she strung and picked the seed-pods.

Things were taking shape. Small iridescent beads were used as spacers in-between the seeds…

and the ESP witches looked on intently.

Mountain Laurel Bean Necklaces, also known as Burn Beans
and Mescal Beans, come from the tree
Sophora secundiflora.
Early botanists who named it were honoring the Sophia,
Gnostic goddess of truth and wisdom. Supposedly the very
toxic seeds were brewed into a hallucinogenic, vision seeking 
concoction by the Apaches, but nobody really knows what the
recipe was, how lethal it may have been, or if this is why
botanists named the plant for Sophia.
Native Americans strung these beans into necklaces.

One thing is for sure, these little red m&m’s are extremely dangerous,
even one can be fatal if ingested.
 

I kept a very close eye on my
youngest hobbit during this process,
and made sure every “bean” ahem,
was accounted for.

And the finished product…

Her suggestion was to tie it in the middle!

Moving forth…

Can you guess where this forest of spines is from?
The ridged unicorn spines look like amber.

 
Barrel cactus are heavily armed, in some species, one or more central spines are curved like a fishhook, accounting for the common name Fishhook Barrel Cactus. Small yellow flowers appear around the crown of this plant only after many years…I can’t wait.
Native Americans used to boil the young flowers in water to eat like cabbage. They also used the cactus as a cooking pot by cutting off the top, rather like a pumpkin. The pulp was scooped out then hot stones and food placed in the center, quite effective, and a lot cheaper than a Williams Sonoma pan!

Many people mistakenly believe that the common
sight of a tipped over barrel cactus is due to the
cactus falling over from water weight. Actually,
barrel cacti fall over because they grow towards
the sun, just like any other plant. Unlike other plants,
however, the barrel cactus usually grows towards
the south (to prevent sunburn), hence the
name “compass cactus.”

The spines on the plant were also
used in native indian tattooing techniques.

Finally a couple of insects…
 

Leaf-footed Bugs are so named for the expanded, flag-like process on the third pair of legs. Leaf-footed bugs habitually stink if attacked or disturbed. This one was photographed at arms length on my Spruce Cone Cholla, or aptly named Pine Cone Cactus,
Tephrocactus articulatus.
Thank you for this addition Helen and David…I love it, and it has grown
at least a couple of inches since you have left!
(My fingers are crossed that it will make it through the winter).

 
Night-time butterfly on a horsetail reed.

Stay Tuned For:
“Orga and Mecca“

All material © 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized  intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant) 14th century planet Earth techniques.

Inspirational Image of the Week:

I had to post this after my “all things topiary” rant.
Keep pruning guys, only another twenty-five eggs to go!
I am such a topiary cynic.

The frosting on this window, at least viewed through
squinted eyes with a healthy imagination, offers the
fragile illusion that if you ventured outside, you would
a) survive and
b) be met with an icy blast of inclement weather.

Not to me though, I know exactly what life is like “OUT THERE”
and I refuse to go there anymore. The heat is only barely
tolerable inside the long-leaf pine log cabin,
that we call our house, and that is with the AC cranking
at full velocity!

Windows are for watching, little areas of transparency to
look through and let your mind wander, a place to day-dream
of frosty mornings, and not think about our umpteenth day
of hundred degree heat.

The vultures are circling around the ESP.

 
I often push an eye (if the glass isn’t too hot) against this little magnifying glass.
It is like peering through a badly prescribed monocle.
I cannot really see what is going on in the garden through this spy-glass 
but it does look like you are witnessing the world
through the mechanical eye of a Darlek!

 
That alone keeps me coming back for another peek.
(I have given up ever seeing rain through it after all).

My garden may look sort of green through the looking glass,
but a closer inspection, and a life threatening venture
outside reveals…

the stark condition of my side bed.
This strip of land had a foot of mulch on it at the
start of the year to regulate the soil temperature.
Sure!

 
For squawking out loud, even the Grackles are gasping out for air.
This dark lord always lies in waiting for me to fill up the birdbaths
that evaporate in approximately 6.5 minutes, the birdshave to be fast.
The squirrels are so desperate right now that they 
practically jump on my back,
canteens at the ready.

“Hey cut it out ESP…not funny”

I will try to make this the last time I will moan
about the heat, at least for this year.
I am beginning to bore my feather spitting self! 
I am off to cool off in my redneck pool! Well perhaps one more little moan…
I had my fist pool leak / duct-tape incident this last week.
Well, It just wouldn’t be summer unless I was having a
heat related, near-death experience hunting for a tiny tear
in the plastic fabric of a rather large and
cumbersome object. I always seem to be
involved in these types of futile activities every
year during the hottest part of a Texas afternoon!

Remember this relaxing activity I performed about this time last year?
I was almost devoured alive, even before the heat-stroke got me.

http://east-side-patch.livejournal.com/11450.html

De ja vous.


Looking out of the back window.
The large post oak really helps to regulate the temperatures for at least half
of my property, and it does help to slow evaporation in my pond down.

These cast iron plants, or Iron Plant, Barroom Plant,
Aspidistra elatior
do not look like they have such a tough demeanor
at the moment, post oak or no post oak shade protection.

These plants have a bit of a reputation around town:
 
But right now they are looking considerably more…

I have seen patches of this hard-case dropping all
around my neighborhood, completely erased to a
grilled heap of crispy bacon on the ground.

Aspidistra is Greek, meaning “small round shield”,
(The name actually describes the stigma of the plant).


Looking out of the front window.
All these drought show-offs (a lot of rosemary) have
fared really well, with the minimum of water 
through these troubled times.

Naturally it is still too cold for my opuntia!
I continue to keep hacking away at the base of this monster, to
get more of a vertical “tree-like” growth habit.
I still have a long way to go before I get to the
size and form of the specimen Germi found:
http://thegerminatrix.com/?p=306

This succulent is faring the temperatures so well,
 
it is even developing pups…

 
Bryophyllum daigremontianum.
(Mother of Thousands) “Alligator”
I thought it worthy of a few more shots, just for it’s valor, in the face of hardship.

“Aye that it does, was it’s valor
 against the English by any chance?”
Don’t start William.

Little lines of small molars are painfully waiting to fall out of it’s gum-line,
ready to grow their own roots.

This plant originates from southwestern Madagascar, and it is prolific!
The mother of thousands is considered viviparous. This means it
grows plantlets along the leaf’s edges. When each plantlet can survive
on its own, it then falls off the main leaf to grow.

Look at how much “Bill and Ben, the holey rock
men” have grown!
It looks like they may have adopted some new children of their own.
This canna lily is still looking as hot as the weather in my front bed.

 
It has got huge this year due to the trickle water-feed I have
been administering to a bog cyprus I transplanted earlier
in the year. It looked like the cyprus was going to survive
its upheaval, then I made the fatal mistake of moving the
“dripping” to the stock tank that contains my golden bamboo.
Within two days the poor thing looked like this, once again!

 
The light brown areas are where the new growth used to be.
I have the drip feed back on it…but I am not holding my breath.

Moving On…
   
The highly toxic seeds in these mountain laurel seed pods
are almost ready to be cracked open and strung into fine,
albeit deadly, necklaces and bracelets.
I have it on the highest authority that the ESP witches have
condoned this activity, and want to offer “suggestions” as to
the specific individuals that should receive one for Christmas.
I am a little concerned.

 
What crazy gnarled hands and fingers these seed pods have.

 
I never cease to be amazed at the speed of growth from the culms on this Giant Timber
Bamboo. The monster culm, right, has for some reason developed an urge to head right…
who is going to argue!
On its current trajectory, it is expected to miss my neighbors roof by about three feet.
I cannot believe that it is already approaching six feet in height.

A couple more culms from the same clump, these are aiming
toward my house!

The relatively new succulent and cactus “middle bed” continues to thrive,
it is filling in quite nicely with only a few major casualties. Here it is in the
dappled shade of the post oak, late afternoon.

  
And ooohh for the cooling power of green!

 
An indoor grasshopper disrupted a couple nights of TV and had
us all ducking for cover on our lazy-boys. It was so fast you could
not see it.
I was just happy that it was a grasshopper!

 
Baby anoles are all over the place right now. This one was tiny.

Finally…
I recently found a whole buch of these:
 
Okay I exaggerate, but they do look like impact craters nonetheless,
and there were lots of them.
As I got in close with my phone to take the picture, 
I thought about that really bad movie ”Tremors.”

There was movement when I approached, in the very bottom
of one of the craters.
Brrrr (left knee twitch).
What is going on here?
Is this the work of some type of crater ant?
Spiders perhaps?
Anyone?

And I know it is not the Clangers!

Stay Tuned For:

“The Wind That Shakes the Barley“

All material © 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized  intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant) 14th century planet Earth techniques.

Inspirational Image of the Week:

Rooftop Design: Christopher Bradley Hole.