Art

“Notre Dame it’s got Cold”

ESPatch Oct 7, 2012 4 comments

One final fling around the water park before the cooler temperatures descend over central Texas.

A water park that comes to life with an amazing light show as the sun goes down.

There are also lots of plants providing great fall color in the Patch,

they may be leggy (pruning negligence on my part) but these Mexican Leucantha still pack a snaking purple punch.

Salvia and the first celosia seed heads are starting to form,

these will be turning little fingers pink when I bribe my halflings with some extra allowance to harvest the seeds.

Thryalis is also putting on a fine performance at the back of my post oak,

head high, they are attracting shiny tiny hover flies / flower flies.

Allograpta obliqua

Flower Flies resemble wasps and bees. Despite their tribal markings, they are totally harmless and beneficial pollinators of flowers.

The larvae are also partial to aphids.

There are a lot of yellow flowers currently in bloom, it has been a bumper year for bitterweed all over Austin this year. Bitterweed is a yellow-flowered annual weed that thrives in poor soil and turban defying Hell-strip temperatures. Bitterweed poisoning is a major problem for sheep in the Southwest, it is a member of the sunflower family and is closely related to Colorado rubberweed both in appearance and in the rather nasty effects it can have on sheep if ingested.

Luckily for me, I do not have any sheep in my Hell strip, an occasional lost chicken perhaps, but no sheep. I like the free-form meadow aesthetic this cheerful plant creates and it works well set against a backdrop of bamboo muhly, another Hell-strip veteran.

“The bells, the bells…Esperanza.”

One more that is in the process of turning yellow:

Satsuma. The fruit this year are particularly large. I wonder if this little tree will beat the previous fruiting record of 97 set in 2009?

http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2009/11/the-leaf-the-witch-and-the-waterfeature/

There may well be a blogging competition in here; guess (or be the closest) to the exact number of satsumas? And no, the winner will not inherit our house elf.

Other things observed this week:

Bluebonnets are on the rise,

and the mysterious “brains” have been spotted, floating once again in the pond.

“ackack-ackack“

Interestingly these have not yet “grown” the disturbing spinal column that I usually see dangling on the underside of them.

This just in…

Remember this?

http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2010/07/%E2%80%9Cgarden-coffins%E2%80%9D/

Well at the persistent and repetitious “aww can we go to that new place, you know the one where the other one was, can we?” monthly monologue from my elder halfling, we finally broke down and took her to the newly reopened restaurant. I say this somewhat lightheartedly as I really had my own hidden agenda for going there, and it wasn’t the food.

I wanted to see for myself if new ownership had decided to tackle the now infamous, sarcophagus restaurant planter.

And to my amazement they had!

I got out of our vehicle, heart pounding, and rounded the familiar strip-mall corner (mild panic attack) only to come face to face with a healthy and centrally planted loquat…a loquat! Squeals ensued followed by a considerable amount of shushing and hand waving on my part in case the front of house was listening to us just inside the establishment doors.

A pleasant end to a rather long, drawn out story I thought to myself, then I remembered the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and started craving shellfish.

Finally:

I will leave you with some before and after visualizations of the latest ESP design:

A silver and gold approach eats into the hell-strip, widening and softening the property entryway. Two ‘blue ice’ cypress sentries stand guard flanking the gate.

The small box store pond was not at all fitting with the scale of the grounds, it was also situated opposite the front door, a natural entry-place to the garden. I replaced this with a wide and inviting limestone edged pathway that draws the eye down into a seating area and up around the second tier planting beds.

Here is the left side of the same bed with a meandering pathway leading up to a second tier shade bed.

Here is something to sleep-on courtesy of my friend Bob over at: http://dracogardens.blogspot.com/

Sweet dreams.

Brrr…and a bit more Brrr!

Stay Tuned for:

“Fantastic Mr Phlox”

All material © 2012 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“Agavephobia”

ESPatch Sep 22, 2012 9 comments

“Ahhh, Differential grasshopper.”

Oh come on, what was I going to do?

Melanoplus differentialis

Did you know that one of their favorite gourmet meals is Giant ragweed?

Ragweed is a plant synonymous with late summer hay fever, and one I struggle to clear my throat of every year. The plant is generally considered the greatest allergen of all pollens in North America.

Today, there is no area in the US that is free of ragweed pollen.

So chomp away my spiny-legged pest, but you better move immediately away from my Mex. Leucantha, if you know what is good for you.

The design on this insect is quite something, the armored plating, the militia graphics on its thighs, the hooks, spines and alien eyes.

“Get them off me…I have agavephobia you know!”

Calm down Gandalf!

I will thin them out soon enough, and I had no idea.

Def. Agavephobia is a condition where the sufferer becomes anxious in environments that heavily feature members of the agave family. Triggers for this anxiety may include serrated edges, unnecessary worry and concern for loved ones, and more rarely in subjects, a fear of sharp soil. Agavephobia is often, but not always, compounded by a fear of sharp points, weevils and drought tolerant, water wise planting schemes.

Changes are certainly in the Patch air.

Pyracantha berries are a reminder that pumpkins are just around the corner.

The rain and the sun has put this satsuma tree back on track for a great fall harvest.

“Aye, she has a nice bunch of satsumas all right, but i’m tellin ye, anymere, n’ she’ll fall apart. Just-one-mere-satsu…”

No more Scotty!

Asparagus Fern,

Asparagus pyramidalis

Asparagus pyramidalis is a hybrid between A. plumosa and tree fern, it adopts a more vertical, layered habit than other cultivars but it is equally as invasive. Asparagus fern is somewhat deceiving as a name because it is not a fern at all, it merely looks like one, it is in fact a relative of edible asparagus. Pyramidalis is more dense and does not wrap round other plants or trees like plumosa.

Both my pyramidalis (above),

and my plumosa (above) ferns are currently displaying tiny off-white flowers.

Moving along…

Soft Mexican bush sage contrasts well with soft leaf yucca.

This stand in the front of the Patch is completely out of control and leggier that I would like it (pruning negligence on my part), though it does have more of a natural rambling look when left to its own devices like this…

…okay it is just leggy.

On sending up a flower spike yuccas

flower very quickly.

A great drought tolerant plant for our area and well worth getting a jab now and then, oh and if you are as obsessive as me,

you may not want to get down low and look into the heart of the plant.

This is almost as annoying as…

I said almost.

You can see where I started in on this stock tank sticker in the top left corner, and the massive progress that I made attempting to remove it.

Stupid stock tank stickers.

Duranta erecta ‘Sapphire Showers’ is very much living up to its name.

Stunted Cone flowers and browning feather grasses signal in the fall.

Inspirational Images of the Week:

Path at Powis Castle in Wales leads to dark trail winding through a stunning yew hedge.

Some beautiful Hipstamatic and filter work by:

http://tinktastichana.tumblr.com/

I will leave you with some serious landscape LED lighting. Forest of Light is a serene forest of 20,000 illuminated stems scattered along a forest walk.

Art Installation: Bruce Munro

Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania

http://www.longwoodgardens.org/lwgHome.html

And here is a link to a free App that allows you to explore the Gardens and installations after hours:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/light-installations-by-bruce/id532235352?mt=8

Stay Tuned for:

“Thats Just Not Blight!”

All material © 2012 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.