“Planetary surface topography now visible on main viewer captain.”

“Magnify…”

“More detail is now coming in sir, it appears that the planet’s surface has suffered major trauma, probably the result of a sustained hard freez…”

“Spock, this is the dead leaf of a frost-bitten agave Americana, isn’t it?  I should know, I just pruned one back on the hydroponic deck…look at my face!  And besides we are still in space-dock.”

“Your logic is of sound origin captain.”

I have not had too much luck with agaves of late it seems.

All of my mature Americana agaves will ultimately pull through, but I have lost a lot of younger ones in pots. Well hasn’t everyone?  I see the remains of their sad bodies drooped all over Austin like sad drunks – flopping over retainer walls, buckled over and grumbling nonsense in hell-strips, most should now be cut back to their short and curlies to stimulate new growth. As if the frost was not quite enough, I believe I have another, much “graver” agave issue…

Remember this Nazgûl?

Well things have got worse.

…the dreaded Agave Weevil.

“Why, you little…”

What started as small brown scratch marks last year, has turned into ominous black holes and now dark cavernous pits. This borer has gone to the center of the plant and the terminal damage has already been inflicted.

“Scyphophorus acupunctatus!”

This creature ultimately tunnels into the base and root system of the agave.  Adults chew into the lower leaves of agave and introduce a bacterial rot that is believed to be necessary for larval development.  They lay eggs into these holes and the larvae then burrow deep into the plant’s heart carrying the bacterial rot with them.

Image by: Machele White

Adults are dusty black weevils about an inch long, with a long snout, they do not have wings. The larvae are whitish grubs without legs.

To help prevent this from happening to you:

If you notice an adult innocently whistling and lurking around one of your agaves with it’s dark collar turned up, immediately apply diazinon granules to the soil around the base of your plants every two weeks mid-May through June. Remove and destroy infected plants as soon as damage is evident. Remove larvae and adults from the soil around the area where the plant was removed, and do not replant another agave in a hole where a plant has died from this borer, chances are it may happen again.

Moving more happily on:

One of the ESP’s “borrowed’ scenes.  I love the way the Texas red bud looks set against the contrasting foliage of Texas sabal major (with an understory planting of Texas sabal minor to continue the foliage theme all the way down to ground level) – a very tropical planting scheme, and one that is totally frost-proof.  The pink emerging blooms of the red bud are punched out set against this dark olive backdrop.

The tropical look is further enhanced by the use of decomposed granite that hints at a beach. This would make a stunning scene against a pool setting…note to self.

Everything is emerging fast with spring officially in the air,

even this tiny sotol in my circular bed seems to finally moving into it’s gangling adolescent phase. All manner of plants are popping up in here, some known, some volunteers and even some mysteries waiting to be solved.

“What is that pass-along plant from Bob at Draco gardens that is growing over that Texas holey rock to the south-east of the sotol Watson”?

“I believe it to be

phacelia congesta

or blue curls, it is a great plant with great blue flowers…

it is also a prolific seeder, usually found in large colonies”.

A great plant and easy to keep in check by pulling up the unwanted small plants.

My frost stripped satsuma is making a new and really fast foliage rally (as it always does), and my gopher plants, with their strange flower heads are once again showing-off.  These signs of spring in the Patch always coincide with our now annual family outing to the Sunshine Gardens plant sale, and this can only mean one thing, actually quite a few things…

…tomatoes, peppers, basil and fennel to name a few.  I knew that the soil from all of my dead aloes and agaves would go to a good home.

The milder weather also brings some of the years first flies:

and this one, that alighted on my wife’s knee was an absolute whopper…Brrr

Finally:

I will leave you with this front garden design that I am about to install for some very good friends of mine around the corner from the Patch in East Austin. The client wanted some ‘loose’ privacy from the street and to retain their existing pathways and eliminate their weedy grass, (I seem to be doing a lot of this of late). It is a low cost design scheme with the minimal of plants that packs a punch in all the appropriate places.

Before picture.

My goal here was to create loose privacy looking from the house to the street and to open up the entryway into the property to make it more inviting. The small existing pathway was visually widened by using gray shingle which complements the color scheme of the house, breaking up the linear pathways. Boulders were also chosen for their complimentary gray color with softening plant selections to integrate the gate and hardscaping. If you are thinking you have seen that gate before you are of course correct…it is the same as the one in the Patch, a prop from the “Spy Kids” movie.  These are the great folks that gave me it!

Oh just one last story:

A recent visit to the now famous sarcophagus restaurant yielded another priceless moment that almost rivaled the infamous “nose boulder” incident of last year http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2010/07/12865/ .

On entering the establishment, our usual family chair shuffle ensued with the accompanying condiment knocking over glitches, the shuffle moving each of us from one chair to another until we were all comfortable psychologically. All was relatively normal, a waitress came, took our order, our youngest played “Plants Vs Zombies” to keep him quiet before the food arrived, I looked on enviously…etc.  Suddenly my eldest decided that she needed to go to the rest room, she left the table and came back a while later with some interesting information that would normally not be shared in a dining environment, but she is six.

“Did you wash your hands?”

“Of Course”

“Everything Okay?”

“Muhhuh”…Oh, and there was a paper thingy on the door, it spelled…o..u..t..o..f..

“Order?”

Yes! (Accompanied with a how did you know? Look)

Is that the one you used?

“Yes, but the handle was broken and it was full of water, it was DISGUSTING!”

I really hope nobody from that restaurant ever finds this blog.

Stay Tuned for:

“The Evil Weevil”

All material © 2011 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

I have been scouring the local nurseries of late with an expression that I am convinced must resemble “Mad-Eye Moody”… I have been reading tags, mumbling and grumbling under my breath at the prices while ignoring the side-way glances from nursery staff.  Oh yes, better not get in my way, I was on a mission, hunting down a new vine to cover up my pink jasmine vines that died in our freezes last winter (see previous post about sweeping things under the carpet).

I have found one that is new to me, but already…

“I like it a lot!”

As an added bonus, the color of it’s flowers and funky seeds work perfectly with the color scheme of our house:

That is a post oak on the right.  Post oaks are so difficult to transplant that very few nurseries will even stock them, oh and they hate to be tampered with:  Roy Bedichek: http://www.bedichek.org/roy/ a noted nature writer quotes General Beck, who was in charge of landscaping at UT for years…“The more you trim a post oak, the unhealthier it becomes”.

The vine I settled on is Yellow Butterfly Vine.

Mascagnia macroptera

It is the seed pods that give this plant its name (but it does attract butterflies as well) . During summer, chartreuse ‘wings’ unfold on the seed pods that resemble butterflies.

The papery pods turn from tan to brown as they mature, and along with the contrasting yellow flowers, it offers the illusion of two, no even three different plants!  The pods can also be harvested and planted, which is a good thing as I plan to propagate a few more of these vines against this tall fence over time.  In mild winters, the vine will retain its glossy green foliage, but if we have another cold winter it will die back and re-sprout in spring…no big deal,

as the other great news is that it is a very fast grower and incredibly heat tolerant, being virtually impervious to the baking sun and also reflected heat – great attributes for survival here in Central Texas, interestingly, it also grows in partial shade…I cannot believe I do not see this vine more often!

The plant recently was renamed; it previously was classified as Stigmaphyllon ciliatum, I would love to hear from anyone who has any experience with this.

Staying with the same color palette, a quick update on my ahem, swelling tomatillos…

The paper lanterns just get better looking and more fall-festive as the year draws on.

The husks surrounding the sticky pepper (and it is very sticky) that is developing and growing inside, have gone from bright green to yellow to tan…

…and as the actress said to the Bishop…I squeeze my lanterns daily, just to see how they are progressing, right now there is still a gap between the pepper and the husk, but eventually the pepper will grow to split this protective paper shell.  I could have inserted a few double entendres here, but I managed to keep my Benny Hill demon at bay.

Tomatillo plants are self-incompatible (two or more plants are needed for pollination).

Moving on…

The skeletal structure on the spine of this fatsia japonica caught my attention today, one of my favorite plants (can you tell) for deep shade.

Staying on a sculptural slant I planted out a couple of my pups from my agave that bloomed a couple of years back in my hell-strip early this year: http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2008/06/gardening-in-a-furnace/

And with absolutely no attention from me, they are now starting to take on the same swirling good-looks as their mother…very satisfying to see the next generation take root, grow and prosper.

Live long and prosper my young agaves. This one will look great in maturity, set against the dark backdrop of this large hell-strip sago palm.

Finally…

The snaking seedpods on this year’s mammoth amaranths are larger than usual for this time of year.  It looks like this year will be a good seed harvest.

In contrast, the tiny jewels are only now just forming on my jewels of opar plants. I am now up to eight new plants from the seeds that I spread all around the Patch last year.

The camouflage on this camera-shy Texas spiny lizard was perfect against the trunk of this evergreen wisteria.

Gaura just starting to put on a fall show…

…and I will not tell you as to why these two unsavory characters were lurking around on our street this week, trust me…you really do not want to know!  Brrr (x10)

Stay Tuned  for:

“Raining Beetles”

All material © 2010 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

Coneflowers are blooming their happy looking heads off in the Patch right now…

They are like strange alien palm trees stretching their other-worldly rocket silhouettes up into the martian sky.

Echinacea has to be one of the most cheerful blooms…

and as an unexpected surprise, the waning olive / orange hues of the seed-heads blend well with the new paint color on our house, courtesy of the infamous Chevy Tahoe.

Talking of purple-orange things:

I caught this Pipevine Swallowtail larvae

Battus philenor

moving at full steam across the decomposed granite in my front garden, and was it moving fast.  It paused briefly to allow me to get these shots in, before it was off again.

Both the caterpillars and the adults are very conspicuous, promoting their protection of noxious chemicals that they obtain from the poisonous plants on which they feed, specifically pipevine plants in the genus Aristolochia.

Pipevine Swallowtail adults are black and the males have an amazing electroluminescent blue sheen to their hind wings. Females sometimes have a hint of the blue but are mostly black. The undersides of the hind wings are decorated with white and orange spots. When they feed, Pipevine Swallowtails rarely stop fluttering, making it hard to get a good look at them, and a decent picture.

Okay, one final purple… and one of my unruly favorite plants is wafting its incredible Gothic scent all over the Patch right now…Evergreen Wisteria:

Millettia reticulata

I say unruly, as this plant requires a significant amount of space and support and pruning.  I have three of these plants in the Patch and they all boom a slightly different times, lucky for me.  This one always is the early bloomer, sprawling over trellises that I have positioned behind my bench.

The aroma sitting on this bench right now is amazing, reminding me of dank, patchouli infused, London Gothic night clubs that I used to frequent as a vampire in another life.

On the vegetable front:

After transplanting last weeks tobacco hornworms my tomatoes continue to produce in large numbers…

Although the pest onslaught has continued…

“Were getting close lads…1st platoon, on my order…”

One of my eggplants also had some rather unsavory visitors:

The bottom fruit of this eggplant had pushed itself into the soil on the inside of the stock-tank, on prizing it to the outside of the tank, I immediately noticed that something was horribly wrong:

Eww, Eww, and more Eww!

“Why you little…”

My tomatillo plants on the other hand are bug free and going completely bananas…I have never grown these peppers before, and I had no idea these plants would get this large.

Pole beans are finally ascending well, after a slow start, with the recent showers and rains we have had in Central Texas.

Finally:

Pride of Barbados is breaking into bloom.  One of my favorite foliage plants.

My Datura silk handkerchiefs have now turned into these droopy, umbrella-canopied seed pods.

In an adjacent loquat, I captured this…

…a silver-spotted skipper, another first in the Patch, and check out that white paint spill!  The war-paint looks like it has been painted on.

Epargyreus clarus

This is a large dark brown butterfly with long pointed forewings and white patches on the undersides of the hind wings, and orange patches on the forewings. This skipper rarely sits with wings completely open. More often they are held together or just slightly separated just like this one.

“Ach! I prefer the white and tan, ah knew the blue was a buug mistake!”

Stay Tuned for:

“Animal House”

All material © 2010 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

What on “earth” was I thinking?

I previously had stopped my hell-strip design escapades selfishly, at the edge of my own property line, and visible line from my front porch…out of sight…out of mind!  I quickly realized that it looked totally and completely ridiculous from across the street!  Like an 80′s half haircut!

The house next door to me is currently unoccupied, so I thought mmm? Why not?  I trudged to my shed for yet another Hell-Strip onslaught to finally finish what I had started.  Like anyone was likely to complain as I removed another swath of weed and rubbish ground?  Actually the ground in front of my neighbor’s house, was so much better then the compacted Terra-Firma in front of the Patch. The recent rains once again made it easier to turn over the soil.

http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

Oh yes, I was performing some guerrilla gardening on the East-Side, and my Hell-Strip espionage was in full shoveling swing.

“Hell Strips are no joking matter ESP, remember that dreadful green-finger incident some years ago?”

My Hell-strip continues to grow, maybe I will just continue down the entire street, why stop here?

Oh I will tell you…

that’s why.

While I was nibbling away in here I could not resist pruning up this crepe myrtle and palm, and just why did I do this AFTER big brush pick-up? I continued the mounding into this area also, oh yes… I will have more artemesia mountains.

As I was excavating the site, I unearthed this…a female Boll’s sand roach (thanks for the ID Daniel) at <whatsthatbug.com@gmail.com>

Arenivaga bolliana

The downy females have no wings and burrow in the dust under houses and in natural rock shelters where they feed on packrat droppings, of all the strangest things.

This female is dragging her oothica or egg case, a behavior pattern characteristic of most cockroaches.  My eldest hobbit kept asking…what is it dragging daddy, look it is dragging something, what IS that? (repeat 16 times). Brrrr!

While I am on the subject of this Hell-strip, I have to warn you about trowels that have these…screws. Have these people never heard of co-molding techniques?  I bought this trowel after my old and trusted digging steed (with no screws) mysteriously vanished a couple of months ago, (I suspect it is at the bottom of one of my ponds).  After I had gone around the curb to clean out all of the weeds sticking to the edge of the hell-strip, these screws were once again loose, causing the whole trowel to rattle…this gets really, really annoying! The trowel should just come with a small screwdriver already tethered to it.

Okay, calm down, deep breaths…inhale in through the nose, exhale slowly through the mouth…and relax.

Moving on…

I have been waging war on this Vitex for years now, it is finally turning into the large shrub / small tree, that I always wanted. It sort of looks old-fashioned and fits aesthetically with our 1890′s house.  Although it does not compare to the trowel on the annoyance graph, this tree will keep you busy.  It always grows up annoyingly from the base (as you can see) and needs a lot of up-pruning to keep it in check and good form.  Insects swarm over the subtle purple-blue blooms at this time of year.

This purple verbena has also brought in its fair share of insects and small gazelles into the Patch, what?

Is it a flying rodent? A tiny pony perhaps?

Hemaris diffinis

or Snowberry Clearwing

These large hawk moths are diurnal, that is, active during the day; they are most often seen nectaring at flowers like this one. They hover and dart about, flying both backward and forward just like hummingbirds, but are actually mimicking bumblebees.

Hawk / sphinx moths are often mistaken for hummingbirds and bumblebees because of their similarities in size and feeding habits. Adult sphinx moths have a long, straw-like “tongue,” called the proboscis, which they keep curled under the head. They use it to suck nectar from the flower. The nectar is rich in sugar, which fuels the energy required for hovering, and avoiding having clear photographs taken of it.

Looking like something from a coral reef the new silver growth on this sago palm develops fast considering how slow the plant grows.  While I was taking this picture the little piece of dirt on the front right frond appeared to move, see it?…I moved in closer…

Oh yes it was moving alright, and quite fast considering all of the “junk” it was lugging around in it’s trunk.  Oh and tell me that is not a roaming eye at the bottom, peering out from under the trash canopy! I think it is!

“Oh very funny ESP!”

Could this be lacewing larvae?

Things noticed this week in the vegetable Patch

Amaranth is on the rise…

…and court jester squash blooms are all over the place, sneaking over pathways, I am constantly tucking them back into their designated beds.

I cannot wait to try these Kungpao peppers.

Finally…

I cut the seed heads from my Gopher plants

euphorbia rigida

today and naturally all of the white blood began to flow. All parts of this plant, including the seeds and roots are poisonous.

“I would never try zis”

Gophers should not be planted near fish ponds as the sap can be harmful to fish if their white blood is spilled.

Inland sea oats are in the process of developing their iconic seed heads.

“Whisper, whisper whisper, Naboo tribe..whisper whisper…The Germinatrix whisper…visiting the Patch…whisper, whisper…photo exhibition in Crimson…how dare you turn your back on me?”

Nothing good can come from this congregation of shiny gossips.

Stay Tuned for:

“I do like to be beside the seaside”

All material © 2010 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.