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Gossiping Wheelbarrows

ESPatch Jan 8, 2018 1 comment

Here is a project that kept me busy this summer and fall.

This was the scene that greeted me as I walked up to meet my latest clients at a large sweeping property near lake Travis.

Most of the plantings were as old as the house and were not doing anything to visually lift the property.

The random assortment of pruned boxwoods (You know how I feel about pruned boxwoods) felt cluttered and claustrophobic on approach to the front door.

Boxwood Island!

Everything was lined with small pieces of mortored limestone, the dark mortar made them look like dirty little niblet teeth, teeth that need flossing…no wait, extracting!…

With a sledgehammer!

The homeowners wanted a more modern look and were very open to suggestions and change…a great place to launch a design.

Here are the visuals that I used to communicate the design intent:

The design went through multiple iterations,

especially this front horseshoe area.

And then the real work begins…

First the turf (and it was very thick turf) in this front island bed.

The more we took out, the more it apparently expanded.

A disheartening fact in blistering 100 degree temperatures.

My client cooled everyone down with a steady supply of Paletas…thanks E!

And there goes the final mound of boxwoods!

Up closer to the house…

I think we can safely say the ‘Normandy’ phase was well under way.

New irrigation and electrics going in by Steve Serum of ‘Keepin’ it GREEN’: keepinitgreen@gmail.com:

Turf was also removed left and right of the sidewalk to open up the entryway.

Four or five dumpsters later (I lost count) and the area felt so much better, the house could breathe once again.

The space felt much larger.

Area prepped for the steelwork framing, electricals going in for lighting.

This side area was also very cramped, it all had to go.

It was very satisfying to take out the niblets.

A three-piece basalt water-feature getting positioned in front of the living room window.

These rocks, from some distant alien asteroid, are extremily heavy and have to be supported on a reinforced central cylinder in the cage.

A water top-up valve was installed inside the cage to ensure the water level remains constant even in the middle of summer.

The final result:

Large arcing steel panels expand and better proportion the area.

The steelwork on this project was executed by Andrew Miller (aminc13@gmail.com)

The front horseshoe area also went through a significant transition:

From a sloping mound of thirsty turf to

being a focal point when looking from the house to the street.

A central pathway was introduced to break up the area.

Steps were incorporated to traverse up to the now flattened top grade.

Colors in the flagstone reference the rust of the steel and grey of the gravel.

Back in the Patch:

Urgh!

And I have barely made a dent.

‘Stay in the Christmas spirit…stay in the Christmas spirit’…

Awe COME ON!

‘Fal-a-la-la-la—la la la la’

There is only one thing worse than getting leaves out of sagos – it is getting them out of soft leaf yucca.

Staying with such yuccary for a second,

I have followed the demise of this plant on I35 for years.

I find myself staring at it at the stoplight, wondering how this had happened…what had caused it to buckle over halfway into its existence?

A small low-flying aircraft perhaps, making an emergency landing on the highway?

No, more likely stem rot.

Look the vines are starting to take it over.

Could it be saved?

I have a chainsaw in the back,

Perhaps I should…

Honk!

‘Par rum pum pum pum’

rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pummm’

Exactly.

Fall Aster and Celosia put on a good display this year.

My satsumas are still on the tree.

No reason to pick them really, they have a particularily disgusting flavor and mealy texture this year.

Great color for late December.

Looks are deceiving.

“Who wants to try a satsuma kids? They look really amazing this year!”

Oh yes, they WILL have one each in their stockings on Christmas morning.

With the year quickily drawing to a close,

the wheel barrows are out back relaxing by the shed, gossiping about varying tire pressures and how badly constructed they now are.

The pipes hung on the tree.

And just remember Kumo,

“He knows when youve been good or bad,

…stop eating crap for goodness sakes.”

“Merry Christmas!”

from us all in the Patch.

Stay Tuned For:

“The Sheer Luxury”

All material © 2018 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“Under the Knife”

ESPatch Oct 23, 2014 7 comments

Oh yes, we have been quite busy of late.

Meet Cactus Man Jr II, an intellectual currently working on his doctoral thesis “Humans Obsession with Opuntia Paddle Personification.”

The slots/wounds at the side of his head will heal over (and secure) the glasses over time…at least that is the goal.

crazy-clown-doctor

Cactus Man Jr II’s grandfather wasn’t quite so lucky when he fell under my knife a few years back.

As you can see, I was significantly less ‘invasive’ with my surgical procedures this time around so I have high hopes for a full recovery.

We each claimed a paddle and got creative,

or somewhat disturbing.

Mist flowers are one of my favorite insect attractors this time of year. They work really well along side steely blue basketgrass and artemesia Silver King, but any artemesia will do.

Just add a splash of Esperanza, a hint of rosemary and stir slowly over a number of years.

I have been performing enough yucca and sotol haircuts recently that my forearms resemble pin cushions.

joe-dirt11 I can live with this mullet-look for a while but then the control freak in me kicks-in and I reach for the Fiskars.

Ahh, it can breathe again.

I even had some pine-cone cactus growing at the base of the plant that I had forgotten about.

This sotol at a clients house was a monster, it must have had 10+ years of old growth at the base, some of it buried.

It took me about an hour to work around it, trimming its spiny locks. I was spiked, bitten by fire-ants, clawed at and by the time I was finished both of my ears were bleeding.

Next time I will were some protection. I think a couple of these with an iced turban should look significantly ridiculous.

Here is a before shot of the front area:

And after clean-up:

A fresh layer of Tejas black gravel was put down in the front of the house and a planter planted with…

a bonsai Juniper tree.

I think I will have to get one of these twisted trees myself.

Two additional steel planters were planted up with spineless sotol

Dasylirion longissimum

…if any plant can take the heat, this one can.

At another clients house I was called out to perform a postmortem on an agave that had recently gone into decline.

Here is the agave a few months ago:

and now:

There were some tell-tale signs; holes in the leaves, unearthly odor, it was a mess. A gentle tug released the heart of the plant confirming it was once again the work of the notorious agave villain:

Dum dum duummm…

Mr Snout-Nose…AKA: “The Evil Weevil”

Known to his inner circle as:

Scyphophorus acupunctatus

This time the sneaky villain had managed to clone himself.

This poor agave was full of his duplicates and a disturbing amount of the weevil’s grubs that were now furiously devouring the inside of the agave, causing it to turn to mush and collapse on itself.

It wasn’t a pretty site,

and it wasn’t a pretty smell.

This beetle is deadly for agaves.

I have lost many a fine specimen plant to the trunked-tyrant myself, particularly Agave Americana which, as I understand it, tastes like freshly baked pecan pie and cream to Mr Weevil.

If infected I take out the dying plant and cover the entire area with diatomaceous earth. I avoid planting in the same hole.

As for other plants that may be effected or at risk, I put a thick circle of diatomaceous earth around the base of the plants and replenish regularly.

Oh, and when I find a dead weevil or one journeying in the open looking for a host agave to decimate, I turn into Vlad the Impaler. I leave tiny clumps of them on ceremonial skewers to deter others…and I like insects.

“No Bear, it is not a waste!”

On a brighter note after retching a few times getting the rotted limbs of the agave into the bed of my truck, I did take some time to snap a few pictures of the landscape that I installed last spring.

Before:

Lots of linear lines, patchy turf and odd stepping-stone flagstones needed to be taken out.

There were some nice corten steel planters to work with though.

Here is the visual I generated for the space to communicate a more organic and naturalistic aesthetic:

Installation:

Linheimer Muhly grasses filling in well,

along with the gulf coast muhly.

No more grass to water and cut here.

Snapshots in the Patch:

Celosia is setting seed.

Mexican firebush threatens to ignite some crusty old inland sea oats.

Miscanthus grasses glow gold this time of the year,

and Salvia Leucantha just keeps on going…yes the Vitex is still there!

Stay Tuned For:

“Shelling Out”

All material © 2014 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.