mother nature must have been hitting the datura hard when she dreamed up this plant.
She also did pretty good on the frosty white and tropical coloration of this butterfly iris (also known as Peacock Flower, Bicolor Iris, Evergreen Iris, Spanish Iris and African Iris, phew!):
Dietes bicolor
This little beetle was hiding under one of the plant’s veils.
This plant has been throwing out blooms for some time now…(full sun), it will be divided in the fall.
“uh oh!”
This “Man in Black” pulled up in one of the innocuous grey vehicles the other day, for some reason he kept inspecting the ground below my opuntia tree which is in full bloom right now. As dusk fell he proceeded to venture deep inside the dangerous Naboo territories of my back garden.
I have absolutely no idea why.
“I knew it all along Scully, didn’t I tell you those Mexican gazing balls were in fact beacons”.
“We mean your species no croak…harm”.
FLASH!
Santolina is in top frosty form right now. I always seem to worry about this plant at various times throughout the year, it gets leggy at times and occasionally browns in sections just to give me a scare. This slow growing plant requires some periodic pruning attention, but the results are well worth it. I need more of it.
Here is another one decorating a tree fern.
This evergreen wisteria
Milletia reticulata Benth
has more Gothic blooms on it this year then I have ever seen. It is covered in these old-suit-in-the-back-of-the-closet purple smelling blooms.
I like it. The heavy aroma fills up a good part of the Patch at this time of year. This plant, being the eldest always blooms first and it will keep on producing well into the summer, my other wisterias pick up the hard-to-describe smelling baton a little later.
I made the fatal mistake of planting this one on a metal support which it has consumed and is now proceeding to drag skyward…word of warning.
This beach vitex has almost made it half way round this stock tank, a couple more years should do it. It has also started to bloom.
This plant is a major problem in many coastal regions where it flourishes and smothers native plant species.
Polihale Beach, Kauai. Image by Forest & Kim Starr.
The same stock tank is also currently full of toad spawn,
wrapping the emerging water lilies shut…Madame Ganna Burrito.
Finally:
Feather grasses catching the breeze.
Gaura or aptly named “Whirling Butterflies”.
I am still trying to get to the bottom of these Datura seedpod strings that are touching the ground. What are they? Why are they there?
With the excitement and anxiety of Santa’s arrival and passing, the interior of the Patch has taken on a very bizarre Blade Runner atmosphere, especially at night, when all is quiet and still.
It is like some mad genetic experiment is now being conducted inside our home.
“Err, I don’t think you want to touch that one Deckard!”
“Priss…not the nose, please, not the no…”
“I make friends. They’re toys. My friends are toys. I make them. It’s a hobby. I’m a genetic designer”.
The late night journey to bed is no longer for the faint of heart, oh no, there are now numerousengineered “creatures” no doubt manufactured by the evil “Tyrell Corporation” lying in wait in the shadows to either drop an egg loudly on our stucco tile, howl, scream, chirp, woof, burp, giggle and generally scare me to an early grave. They are also all extremely loud with their brand new Christmas Duracells lining their cybernetic stomachs.
The slightest physical disturbance can also set off a chain reaction between some of these creatures, especially the ones that react to sound, one small chirp or bark can ultimately culminate in a crazy chorus of electronic voices all reacting to each other (the equivalent of waking up the entire house). When this happens I irrationally and frantically find myself “shushing” them, in a vain attempt to regain order. This of course just activates even more of their circuits.
These creatures have even forced me to adopt a ridiculous sneaking affliction in an attempt to get into bed without disturbing or touching one of them. A flashlight is now as necessary a tool as a toothbrush is at bedtime. I have experimented and light is about the only thing these creatures do not react to, with the exception of the “Follow-me Thomas the Tank Engine”… I deal with him totally separately.
Here is a line up of the motley 2010 Christmas Replicants:
All waiting extremely innocently and patiently until nightfall once again descends on the Patch.
Still, I suppose it could be worse.
Oh yes, needless to say, they both had a great Christmas…
Her first dangly earrings…
and a new all-terrain chopper to carve up my decomposed granite pathways, (thanks M&D).
Moving On:
Back in the garden…80’s last week, freezing this week, classic central Texas weather, and just when I thought it would never rain again, it did, not too much but enough to lift the sad heads on a couple of my loquats.
The Dusty Millers looked even colder than usual…
with the moisture freezing to their furry leaves.
The ice crystals have finally taken care of all my purple hearts, turning them to the consistency of seaweed.
All this damp scene needs is a…
selkie acting all dramatic on one of the moss boulders.
Selkies are creatures found in Faroese, Icelandic, Irish and Scottish mythology, and my daughter is as obsessed with them as she is Ponyo. Selkies can transform themselves from seals to humans. The legend apparently originated on the Orkney Islands, where selch or selk(ie) is the Scots word for seal. Selkies are able to change into human form by shedding their seal skins, They often do this to sunbathe upon the rocks, (a rarity in Scotland, sunbathing that is, not rocks). They can revert to seal form by putting their skin back on. But if their skins are lost or stolen, they are trapped on land and are forced obey the one who holds their skin.
“Images taken from “The Secret of Roan Inish”
Stories concerning selkies are generally romantic tragedies. If a man steals a female selkie’s skin, she is in his power, to an extent, and she is forced to become his wife. Female selkies are said to make excellent wives, but because their true home is the sea, they will often be seen gazing longingly at the ocean. If a selkie finds her skin again, she will immediately return to her true home, and sometimes to her selkie husband, in the sea. I have my wife’s selkie skin under tight lock and key, hidden deep inside my garden shed. I occasionally catch her staring deep into my water-filled stock tanks, and I have caught her inhaling deeply over a bottle of undiluted fish emulsion on more than one occasion?
“Hey, you kept talking about skin ESP”!
Brrr!
There is only one plant that looks worse then purple heart after a good freeze…
You guessed it, my “Ho Ho Hoja Santa” is not looking quite so jolly since the frosty nights have kicked in. These disgusting handkerchiefs are once again blowing proudly on winter breezes. Another wet handkerchief this week comes courtesy of my elephant ear:
I thought I would leave you with a couple of simple planter platforms that I have just implemented on an install I have been working on. I flattened the ground, loose laid the bricks then dumped decomposed granite on the top. A few minutes of sweeping the granite around the top with a stiff bristled broom works the granite in between the gaps in the bricks, setting them solid whilst still retaining the ability to easily move them at a future date(I avoid mortar almost as much as Bermuda grass in the landscape).
A future layer of mulch will take the grade up to the same level as the top of the bricks to finish it off…works a treat, and immediately draws attention to a cool planter you may own, would work great with a four of five foot urn, or an invisible fountain. These two brick circles were added for formality and to visually anchor an otherwise very loose planting scheme, the one on the right will form the base of a future above-ground multi-tiered fountain.
As this post turned out a little more “Blade Runner” than I initially anticipated, I just bet it put you in the nerdy mood to want to leave those little origami unicorns everywhere you go, like Gaff left for Deckard in the movie? No?
You will find instructions how to construct this noble creature and impress your friends here:
This is me Philip Leveridge,
I am a designer (landscape and product), gardener and bagpiper in Austin Texas (zone 8b)
You can visit my professional landscape design website by clicking on the image below:
View more of my projects and hear what my clients have to say about Leveridge Landscape Design on Houzz:
Echinacea…
the story book flower.
mother nature must have been hitting the datura hard when she dreamed up this plant.
She also did pretty good on the frosty white and tropical coloration of this butterfly iris (also known as Peacock Flower, Bicolor Iris, Evergreen Iris, Spanish Iris and African Iris, phew!):
This plant has been throwing out blooms for some time now…(full sun), it will be divided in the fall.
“uh oh!”
This “Man in Black” pulled up in one of the innocuous grey vehicles the other day, for some reason he kept inspecting the ground below my opuntia tree which is in full bloom right now. As dusk fell he proceeded to venture deep inside the dangerous Naboo territories of my back garden.
I have absolutely no idea why.
“I knew it all along Scully, didn’t I tell you those Mexican gazing balls were in fact beacons”.
FLASH!
Santolina is in top frosty form right now. I always seem to worry about this plant at various times throughout the year, it gets leggy at times and occasionally browns in sections just to give me a scare. This slow growing plant requires some periodic pruning attention, but the results are well worth it. I need more of it.
Here is another one decorating a tree fern.
This evergreen wisteria 
I like it. The heavy aroma fills up a good part of the Patch at this time of year. This plant, being the eldest always blooms first and it will keep on producing well into the summer, my other wisterias pick up the hard-to-describe smelling baton a little later.
This beach vitex has almost made it half way round this stock tank, a couple more years should do it. It has also started to bloom.
This plant is a major problem in many coastal regions where it flourishes and smothers native plant species.
wrapping the emerging water lilies shut…Madame Ganna Burrito.
Feather grasses catching the breeze.
Gaura or aptly named “Whirling Butterflies”.
I am still trying to get to the bottom of these Datura seedpod strings that are touching the ground. What are they? Why are they there?
Stay Tuned for:
