Bamboo

“Flying Walnuts”

ESPatch Sep 10, 2011 7 comments

Captain Enrique “Squirrel” Monastario has been waging war on the Patch, throwing discarded nut shells on me and my metal roof…I guess the pecans are finally edible. There have been many heated squirrel disputes of late over who has the chomping rights to these two nut-laden trees, sometimes forcing one of them out of the tree and very close to the sharp blades of …

Zorro’s feet, lying in wait at the base of my giant timber bamboo.

I have a rather ill-conceived and ridiculous theory that all the nuts that were buried by the squirrels last fall actually vaporized underground during this summers intense heat, making food for the squirrels very scarce. I have never seen such an intense pecan feeding frenzy:

I sweep this mess up every few days and if it continues,

IF IT CONTINUES…

“Relax amigo, I will will take care of this or my name is not Don Diego”

This is where Zorro takes refuge when his partner Kumo, plays a little too rough.

I have a suspicion that this magnificent Red-shouldered Hawk (thanks for the ID Mikael), who has been showing up recently on the top of some adjacent pecan trees also has his keen eyes on these squabbling squirrels, either that or my goldfish. Here is a rather interestingly disgusting fact…by the time they are five days old, nestling Red-shouldered Hawks can shoot their feces over the edge of their nest, no they really can. Bird poop on the ground is a sign of an active nest.

Hmm, I wonder…

My Weber…my brand new Weber!

“How very dare you”.

” Shhh, snicker, I mean cooo, coo”.

Moving disconcertingly along:

I found this moth on my deck and it looked exactly like an old leaf. You have to get up really close to it before you can see it is actually a

Walnut Sphinx

Amorpha Juglandis

Rather strange that the caterpillars of these amazing creatures make squeaking sounds when disturbed.

Caterpillar Photograph: Seana Saxon

Even though we are once again in triple digits we must be finally entering fall as the grasses are starting to put on their annual display.

Red / purple fountain grass is one of my favorites.

Pampas is also pushing out plumes this week,

and this blooming Texas sage (aka the barometer plant) must surely be confused…a change of weather or temperature in central Texas?

I think not.

Honey bees were going berserk on it.

Talking of bees this baby bee caused a wee bit of drama the other day when my youngest halfling stood on it and got stung.

It took us a while to find it, it was so tiny. Poor little guys.

This week in the Patch…

A replacement stock tank goes in,

and order and leaks are now restored and watertight once again.

This sunflower was pecked to death and stripped of all its seeds in a single day.

I was hoping to save at least a few for next year.

Stay Tuned for:

“The Haunted Garden”

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

“Hey Dad, I can see all your dead plants from up here”.

“All that Glitters is not Gold”

ESPatch Aug 14, 2011 6 comments

I considered starting this post once again with a rather long drawn out moan about the current conditions in central Texas, but then decided I would not subject you to another barrage of images of scorched foliage…at least not immediately. No, this post will start on a very different tune,

a fancy glittery tune.

This glittery mess on my back deck could have been the result of an arts and crafts project, or perhaps some sort of face painting mishap, but this time it wasn’t, this time it was caused by something much less predictable.

Our young puppy Kumo has been devouring considerable amounts of rather odd artifacts (of which there is no shortage) he finds lying around our house. On this particular occasion he came nose to nose with a vessel filled with glitter which, feeling very proud of his discovery, he quickly ingested…(I think you know where I am going with this)…Now I will spare you the rather disgusting details of the party that exited him some time later, but I will say that all that glitters is most certainly not gold.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Now back to the burnt and crusty foliage and incessant moaning you have come to expect from me in this, our year of relentless triple digit heat.

Nothing is crusty in this bed though.

Lets take a peep through some barrel cactus eyes and see where the latest heat damage has occurred.

First out of hell’s kitchen and looking more than slightly overdone,

is this Persian ivy appetizer. Followed by a main course of Flambé Mexican bush sages and roasted artemesia on a bed of dry soil, drizzled with a dressing of absolutely nothing, naturally.

“Excuse me sir, would you like a side of

crispy cast iron with that”?

For dessert witness this poor post oak quickly seared on its extremities over my neighbors fence. This old tree has been getting watered regularly since the damage was initially noticed in the late spring..

It is going to take quite some time to see the extent of the carnage of this prolonged drought, especially on our larger mature trees. Keep a close eye on your specimens extremities and should you see some defoliation, just remember, long slow soakings are the ticket. (Now that is something you don’t get to say every day without a few odd looks).

The yuccas continue to perform well in the heat.

After my last attack from the snout noses (the evil weevils), I put down generous amounts of Diatomaceous earth around all the rest of my yuccas and so far it appears to be working, of course having no precipitation helps to not wash it away…a rare drought benefit. I think I will stick with this regimen for a while as I hope the Diatomaceous earth sticks to the noses of the weevils.

Check out Wizzie Brown http://www.urban-ipm.blogspot.com/ discussing the uprising of the snouts on a recent CTG episode, and thanks Linda http://www.klru.org/ctg/blog/ for the image credit on the show and your blog.

Moving on:

It has been a poor year for butterflies in the Patch, they have been few and far between. I did come across this Western Gulf Fritillary

Agraulis vanillae incarnata

this week on one of my yellowing rosemary plants. I leaned in close, hoping to catch a subtle breeze as it slowly fanned the surrounding heated air with the most amazing of wings.

More dead giant timber bamboo culms were felled this week…

“Thou shalt not pass!”

Talking of Gandalf the Gray,

he was looking a little dustier than usual so I swept off the cobwebs with an impromptu hosing…that took his breath away.

Evergreen wisteria continues to bloom as it has done sporadically since the spring,

and this purple oxalis hovering above a soaker-hose offers a welcome illusion of wetter and cooler days.

This brickwork is destined for removal in the fall,

Stop being dramatic William.

mainly for drainage issues. I have decided to continue the decomposed granite around this circular bed for better continuity.

Stock tanks are still providing color and

the opuntia tree in my Hell-strip seems to raise up its paddles to gather in even more of the sun’s rays. This is one tough trio.

and fitting to finish on a Mexican fire bush.

Inspirational image of the week:

Here is another idea for a rather unique garden shed should you have the time and the wine.

Images credit : The Bottle Houses

Edouard Arsenault started collecting bottles in 1979.

In the spring of 1980, at the age of 66, he began his construction, a mere hobby yet. As his six-gabled structure was taking form, visitors started coming in. Impressed by his work, they encouraged him to continue and to advertise it as a tourist attraction. And so, in 1981, the first Bottle House was open to the public. From 1980 to the spring of 1984, he cleverly cemented over 25,000 bottles of various shapes, sizes and colors, into three fantasy-like buildings.