Fragrant Mist Flower

“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.

“The Normandy Phase”

ESPatch Jun 20, 2014 5 comments

Here is a front garden in South Austin I spent a few days beating into shape and these are the visuals I generated to communicate the design to the client.

The first one incorporates pavers for a more formal look:

This one introduced flagstone for a preferred meandering, organic look.

Both designs called for the existing linear sidewalk to be removed.

And removed it was, expanding exponentially with every tooth rattling blow from the 18lb sledge hammers.

This concrete expansion phenomenon is explained in detail in…

The concrete expanded so rapidly it had filled a dumpster up in the time it took to say “why did my design have to call for the removal of the sidewalk?”

I refer to this part of the installation process as the ‘Normandy’ phase and it can be a little unnerving for the home owner should they come home in the middle of it.

Next came turf removal, grade reduction, flattening and sprinkler capping.

Here is the area almost prepped.

The hedge in front of the porch was removed to open up the view from the front porch. Removal of the sidewalk made the space feel much larger.

Final Implementation:

Grey Tejas black aggregate, Mexican beach pebbles and Silvermist flagstone blend up to the grey lower story of the house.

No more sprinklers or lawn cutting required here.

A solar powered art installation by Melissa Borrell

http://www.melissaborrell.com/

called Glowave is designated for the rectangular area to the left of the front porch.

The existing spineless prickly pear cactus and agave were pruned up and a couple of large limestone boulders were brought in to pull down the white of the house.

Three sculptural whales tongue agave are given plenty of space to spread their spiny wings.

And spread they will.

The rest of the plantings combine rosemary, basket grass, compact sage, gopher plant and a few muhly grasses that will fill in and soften the scene over time.

It is very rewarding to see a space transform like this one. The final result is almost enough to mentally fade away the ‘storming of the sidewalk’ and the battered nerves of the Normandy phase…

…almost.

Back in the Patch:

Talking of transformations,

it seems like only yesterday that he was a small man trapped in a box,

and she was only a few feet shorter than the first cypresses that I planted in the Patch.

Nothing gives you a better appreciation of the passage of time than children and Arizona ‘blue ice’ cypress trees.

Plants and trees have matured over the years, the neighboring house has now receded behind a tall wall of foliage yet

battles rage on and on in the Patch…

…like the stand of Bermuda grass that insists on growing in the safe haven around the base of my barrel cacti

urgh,

and this huge vitex that constantly strains and leans to scrape the roof of my front porch.

The dollop of silver in the middle is ‘Silver King’ artemisia,

Artemisia ludoviciana

a rapid spreader.

I keep mine in check by surrounding it with five rosemary bouncers.

It pairs well with Gregg’s mist flower.

Finally:

The cone flowers have apparently liked the deep soakings we have received this spring.

Stay Tuned For:

“A Change of Scenery”

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