First it does this…

…then it does this…

…before finally doing this:

I am not complaining though, the winter color this bog cypress provides is well worth the mess…and the $1 child-labor-netting.

What is really annoying is that this post oak deposites its leaves into the same pond first.

Urgh, the first onslaught.

This pond has been going for about 10 years with lots of skimming, minimal maintenance and zero cleaning…(twice a year filter-cleaning via the garden hose only).

On a recent assessment I fear I may have to finally break-down and dredge it.

I am a proponent of the non-cleaning of stock-tank ponds, build up the eco-system until the rising sludge becomes life-threatening to the inhabiting creatures, or the pump…

…leave it until the final hour.

“How highs the organic-matter-mamma?”

“Two-feet-high and risin”.

Needless to say, I will not be employing this past-technique when the Eco-reset comes:

http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2008/08/primordial-soup/

I will never forget that experience!

So many leaves,

and so many of these Bordered Plant Bugs, Largus sp. this year,

they love to find their way indoors when the cold weather hits.

This is my 4th since starting this post,

the second one I caught in my peripheral vision crawling over my shoulder,

enough said.

Fatsia Japonica is a very late bloomer, with some very unusual flowers.

Flowering as late as it does guarantees an abundance of insect life.

Greenbottle flies,

paper wasps and

these enormous spiky Tachinid Flies to name a few aralia visitors, there are many more.

Get off that Yucca and make your way to the Japonica, there are Tachinid Flies to be had!

“Bear, you have just had lunch.”

As soon as Thanksgiving was over…I knew what was next in store for me.

The customary wrestle through the front door, the sap, the stupid mounting base, clanking step ladders, needles, sweat, “its not straight”, the too heavy star, the pruning, the awkward watering maneuver (AWM), “Dad, its still not straight”.

“The lights were working earlier, what did you do?”

“How do you replace the fuses again? Where are the spare fuses?” “Where are my readers?”

“Dad, I think its leaking!”

“I wanted to hang that decoration…”

etc.

A calming adult beverage later and some excited expressions make it all worthwhile though,

is that star still leaning?

Finally:

I will leave you with a few before and after images of a front garden makeover I completed a few years back.

Conflicting linear materials and some patchy turf was replaced with decomposed granite and perimeter privacy plantings.

It was great to see how the foliage had matured both on the right side,

and the left:

The loquats in the distance were tiny when I planted them.

Buddha’s Belly and Alphonse Karr bamboo adding passageway depth and drama to a side gate.

While taking pictures on the property I came across this fasciated Texas mountain laurel…a fine mutated specimen.

Dr. T. Ombrello wrote:

‘One interesting type of mistake that is occasionally found in plants is known as a fasciated or crested growth form. It is usually the result of a growing point changing from a round dome of cells into a crescent shape. Subsequent growth produces a flat stem. In some cases fasciation is the result of several embryonic growing points fusing together, with the same flat-stem appearance.’”

“Fasciating”.

On that particularly bad note,

ladies and gentlemen I give you the riveting 2014 bean-boozled-challenge:

Stay Tuned For:

“Whats in Your Stocking?”

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