Amaranth

“Panic in the Patch”

ESPatch Oct 22, 2009 26 comments

“Hit the button! Hit the button, now!”

Panic is setting in, in the patch. My eyes are being called upon to be extra critical… what needs to be changed? What would a set of fresh eyes see? More importantly what would a camera lens see? Is the lens forgiving? Perhaps there is a camera “weed” filter for the camera? Linda, tell me this exists?

The ESP is scheduled for a “Central Texas Gardener” film shoot shortly, and the Botox lady is very pleased about this indeed. She now shouts at me in her over-the-top Austrian accent every time I pass her…“Yoo-hoo, over zere, over zere, Are the cameraz zere to film me yet? Tell them to get my good side ya ESP, the side with my green hair, …Are the cameraz here ESP, Ya?”

She is diving me nuts!

Oh, have you seen her hair recently? The Botox Lady has turned into one icy, green-headed-mama, well at least on one side. She also has a new gained confidence based on the fact that she now has half a head of the finest green “ice-plant” hair! (She used to be the silent bald-type). She is obsessed with getting her five minutes of fame, I think she desperately wants to impress Bob over there at Draco Gardens, (I hear her mumbling his name occasionally when I am weeding). I can see her from my back window, straining her stone neck to try to see her reflection in the closest golden gazing ball, and she is constantly reminding me that the camera crew will certainly see all my horticultural negligence as soon as they arrive in the patch, UNLESS I clean up the area directly around her head.

Perhaps I will leave that little irritating patch of gravel in her eye and nose for just a little while longer.

The gathering of the Clan “Aphid” also seemed more agitated than usual, I caught them on this satsuma, discussing when to get their kilts out of the dry cleaners. I broke up their discussion rather quickly with a rather strong blast of my hose, which resulted in a lot of “colorful” language.

“Aye, but will all ye wee bugs re-unite and fight wuth me, William Wallace, on the battlefield, against the English”?

Oh shut your cake-hole, William.

Here they are, shortly before becoming high-speed, aquatic projectiles.

This little Satsuma tree is completely buckled over with the weight of the fruit it is wearing…I have not counted them but it is well over a hundred. This is really good as a few people in the patch can really trench their way through these fast. The fruit are really turning orange rapidly now, but are totally palatable for those individuals who just can’t wait.

I have the small branches propped up with anything that will work…chairs, stepladders, grandma Esther? What?

“Oh you think that is funny ESP”?

In an attempt to take some of the strain off the branches. I did not thin the tree earlier in the year, deciding to let nature run its course. The fruit that is touching seems fine, and all is ripening into what should be a bumper crop! And talking of bumper…

These potato vines are on the rampage! I planted these two plants, late spring this year. I always plant about five or six of these vines every year, mostly to hide parts of the patch I have yet to get to / figure out what to do, or areas that are just plain ugly.

They make great invisibility cloaks! These two plants are attempting to cover-up some pond hardware. I like this combination, and use it a lot in containers, for some fast, dynamic foliage color.

Some more foliage color comes from this Burgundy Canna-Lily that I have just shuffled over into its new home between a weeping bamboo, a large pampas and this palm grass (front). It took a bit of a beating in the move but will quickly recover, just in time to die back for the winter. The Canna will provide some well-needed tropical color to this predominately green area. It is satisfying to move something that immediately fills an aesthetic gap. The burgundy color works well with the steel gray of the pampas. Now, why did I not do this a few years ago?

Another new resident who has also moved into this area is this…

Thryallis, center. Nestled into a small pocket of shade, this should provide a small splash of color in here next year.

Another plant not lacking in the “tropical-look” arena is the mighty Century plant or maguey (Agave americana). This plants tribal markings makes it a favorite with the Naboo tribe and myself alike. If you are lucky enough to have a Westerly facing garden these plants take the sacrificial limelight at sunset. Needless to say, I have a “substantial” amount of these scattered perilously around the patch. Can you have too many?

The latest craze in the patch is “races around the pathways”, which invariably leads to “band-aids on the kneecaps” – granite hurts when you fall on it, like falling onto sandpaper…Oh yes, the ESP is so kid-friendly! Hey, it enhances coordination skills.

Ready…Set…

Go!

These tattoos are also all the rage.

Moving on to something you may remember from my last post…

Yes another hoverfly, this time in the depths of a Madame Ganna Walser, performing a precarious balancing act! I have to show one more shot as they are everywhere right now.

I caught this hover, hovering almost motionless around this lily. I must have been so annoying to this fly, do flies get annoyed? With my camera lens repeatedly blocking its path back to the lily interior.

This fly requires a panel beater, he has been in the wars apparently and dented his body armor. It sort of reminds me of my old pick-up truck right now, similar body color, (albeit less shine on my truck), especially after the “Dude, Where’s my Car” incident, unfortunately my trusty old granite-hauler has been declared “totaled”, but…

I will rebuild her…better than she was before, better, stronger, faster!

One final insect…or is it an antelope?

I keep this gazelle in a matchbox and take her out of my pocket in business meetings occasionally to feed her a carrot or two. It always gets a few strange looks, but I don’t care.

Moving more sanely on…

This pin-stripped pink trumpet vine/desert trumpet vine

Podranea ricasoliana

This vine always puts on it’s finest suit this time of year. The vine is popular in South African gardens where it is known as jacaranda. Many South African botanists suspect that this climber may not be indigenous to southern Africa and that it was introduced here by slave traders. All the sites where both Podranea ricasoliana and Podranea brycei are found have ancient connections with slave traders, who frequented the eastern coast of Africa long before the 1600’s. It has become such a widely grown garden plant in all the warmer parts of the world that it may prove difficult to find its real origin.

Podranea ricasoliana can be propagated by means of layering, or by removing side branches that have rooted by themselves. To encourage Podranea to root by layering, take a low growing stem, lay it along the ground without breaking it off the mother plant, bend the tip to a vertical position, stake it in place and bury or cover the part that is touching the ground with soil. My plant actually did this naturally, without any human intervention. These two vines in close proximity have created a monster!

My Amaranth has got so large so fast, I am staking quite a few of them to stop them falling over.

Another purple that pops up sporadically are the morning glories.

Finally, a little more hardscaping…

This area has been looking a bit ratty for some time, there was a completely dead dwarf miscanthus in the middle that I removed, and the one on the right of the picture was also not looking too brilliant, with its half torched side. While I was getting dirty in this little area, I had the idea to have another access point to the main pond. I ripped out a bunch of inland sea oats and the remaining half-baked miscanthus, then moved the potted canna ( the one that I featured earlier). Finally I transplanted the little Mexican feather grasses to make way for a new short granite pathway.

Here is the final, more orderly result. It is really nice to have another angle to view the pond from.

And to finish…

Gregg’s mistflower Oops Mist flower Eupatorium havanense (thanks for the correction Bob) and an ornamental pepper. Candles and fireworks!

One of the first Mist flowers opened up only today.

Stay Tuned for:

“A “Patch” Work Orange”

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

“Purple Rain”

ESPatch Oct 14, 2009 24 comments

“Oh come on ESP…a REAL grasshopper”?

“That’s right ‘Hopper’, and I can pull that CAD face too, look! Oh, and if you bully those ants one more time”?

I caught the real thing lurking in the subterranean environment deep inside one of my large agaves. Is he squinting his beady eye at me?

This character jumped onto one of my decomposed granite walkways, this shot highlights his camouflage capabilities:

A master of disguise! I tried and tried to get the red flashing on his legs, his most distinguished feature, but to no avail.

These blue fingers allow no escape, can you guess who they belong to?

“Stay away from the fingers, don’t go into the fingers”.

Interesting how the color gradates through the lily…there, I told you.

Madame Ganna Walska, Nymphaea x, tropical water lily. I thought I would post these pictures as the plant is about to go dormant, it’s growth has slowed considerably, it’s flowers getting smaller. It is a matter of time now before the plant starts to shrink back into my ponds murky depths for the winter. It has served the patch well, albeit if a tad aggressively since the spring.

Staying on a similar color scheme…

Fall Aster is living up to it’s name and dominating the areas I have it planted with its cheerful blooms.

I like the Artemisia and fall aster combination, silver and pale purples always work well for the “Patch Palette”.

Here are the “Powis Castle” hills in the distance, I need a couple more asters dispersed in the artemisia to really make this scene work. See the little green succulent to the lower right?

This plant has now earned my full respect, breezing through our drought with no additional water, The patch has a couple of these vibrant plants, I want more. This is…

Limón talinum

…and it houses thousands of garden jewels that resemble a chemistry model. The plant is native to the West Indies and Central America and has common names of Fameflower and Jewels-of-Opar. Knowing that a plant has a common name synonymous with a mythical ancient city full of riches should offer a clue that someone thought very highly of this plant at some point in time. This plant made it through last winters mild conditions, I have my fingers crossed for this year.

If you are a fan of Tarzan, then there is a distinct possibility that you have heard the Jewels-of-Opar name before. Edgar Rice Burroughs mentioned the forgotten city of Opar in 1913 in his second Tarzan book, The Return of Tarzan, and then in 1916, he wrote Tarzan and the Jewels-of-Opar.

Opar is located deep in the jungles of Africa . Portrayed as a lost colony of Atlantis in which incredible riches have been stockpiled down through the ages, the city’s population exhibits sexual dimorphism caused by a combination of excessive inbreeding, cross-breeding with apes, and selective culling of offspring. Consequently, female Oparians are physically perfect, while male Oparians are beast-like brutes.

“MMUUSSTT GET MOORREE OF THIS PLAAANNNTT”

The ruler and high priestess of the city is Queen La, who on her first encounter with Tarzan falls in love with him, and subsequently carries a tikki-torch for him. Tarzan, already committed to Jane, naturally, spurns her advances with the most likely phrase “Me Tarzan, you not Jane”, thus endangering his own life, as the religion of Opar condones human sacrifice…poor Tarzan.

More purples…

Another purple taking center stage at the moment is the Mexican Bush Sage. The plant has taken a bit of a beating with all the Texas rains we have been having and it is flopping here and there, with a bit of dryer weather it should perk up, I hope.

This plant is full of life right now in the patch, bees, sphinx moths (too elusive to capture as yet) hover flies, anoles – you name it, it is on it. I have a fair amount of this plant, I love it’s naturalistic, free-for-all aesthetic, and who can resist the fuzz?

Here is some more Bush Sage planted in my front garden.

Another purple just now coming into the limelight, and one of my all-time favorites is Amaranth. This plant exists all over the patch and like the Mexican Bush Sage, it is a creature and insect magnet, and it will remain so for quite some time. Insects swarm this plant. I gather the seeds and distribute every year then allow the plants in the more “appropriate positions” to reach maturity.

There were three Gray Hairstreaks hanging around on the freshly emerged purple seed-heads.

Strymon melinus

as well as a multitude of other insects.

This line of amaranth lining one of the patch’s central paths, sprung up to great heights while we were on our trip to Scotland, it amazes me just how fast this plant grows with a little bit of moisture. This must have grown about three feet in less than the same weeks.

Rosemary in bloom This prostrate rosemary also has it’s fair share of the insect population, the bees are going wild over the blooms. It looks like it is covered in snow right now, it has so many blooms. Behind it is my small satsuma tree completely full with fruit.
This next shot or two I need your help with…I believe we have some new “little people”, smaller than the Naboos, much, much smaller, living in the Patch.

At first I thought these little Pixie Hollow baskets full of metallic rounded pebbles must have something to do with some tribal Naboo ritual or offering to the Gods, but the tribal member in charge of tribal relations, communicated via a series of elaborate mouth clicks that these had nothing to do with their tribe. Although this simple communication between us was brief, it took the best part of an afternoon. I was now even more confused.

Where had they come from? What will these seeds grow into?

I have checked all the adjacent plants but none of them develop seeds like this. Does anyone have any ideas what these are? (Apart from the obvious fact these baskets were manufactured by fairies in Pixie Hollow that is). Can you tell I have watched “A Bugs Life” and “Tinkerbell” 14.25 times (each)?

Here is a wider view of the area, there are loads of these rustic baskets.

I must say with the damp soil conditions, it has been perfect conditions for a pride of pixie’s to move in.

These were particularly colorful toadstools.

Moving on…

The emerging interlocking blood-stained jaws of this agave always demand respect.

Is that spinach?

All my purple heart is now blooming after the rains, and this tiny, super-shiny

Syrphid Hoverfly

wasted no time at all getting stuck into the egg-yolk goodness.

Here is another trying to stare the camera lens out, The wings on these little flies are spectacular in their iridescence. They look like cartoon flies.

“Bzzzzz…Utter nonsense ESP”.

Golden thryrallis

has been blooming steadily throughout the summer with only the minimal amount of supplemental water. A great deep shade plant for a splash of golden color. I have two of these planted under my large Post Oak.

And finally…

Greg’s blue mistflower,

Eupatorium greggii

which is about to pop, butterflies love this plant.

And behind the mistflower, looking like an old-fashioned Victorian Christmas tree, the most enormous ornamental pepper I have ever grown. This is one plant, and it is going to look great when all the individual peppers turn their many colors.

Fish petting area in the patch. My youngest cups the goldfish in his hands, I fear for them knowing that a toddler “squeeze” may be on the horizon for one poor fish, even though I keep drumming it into him to be gentle. He spends hours gazing and throwing things in this pond, you can see toy tractors, pans, cars etc, it looks like a wrecking yard on a clear-water day. The rock on the right has turned into his “pond perch,” he straddles it like Tom Sawyer while he whiles away many an hour in the Patch, tickling and naming the individual fish in his own two-year-old vernacular.

Stay Tuned for:

“Panic in the Patch”

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