Frost

“The Evil Weevil”

ESPatch Mar 15, 2011 8 comments

After weeks of denial I knew it was time.

I ventured to my shed to get my murderous hook saw and immediately smelled the fear from all things living in the Patch. I grabbed the saw from a dimly lit corner of the shed and noticed some green “blood” caked to the teeth from the implement’s last tragic victim…I believe it was some mushy aloe.

I approached this bed accompanied with ranting and screams from the B. Lady: “Its ze veevled agave, he is going for ze agave everyone…didn’t I tell ze, didn’t I te…?”

This agave needed to come out before my weevil had more weevils that would inevitably consume the Patch and everyone in it. I rolled down my sleeves, made peace with the plant and slowly started to amputate some of the lower limbs, not with the precision of a surgeon but more like:

Hey agaves are hard to cut! With equally as many sinuous fibers – brrr.

After hacking off the lower limbs I dug out the agave and hauled it out onto a nearby pathway for a rather unpleasant and messy postmortem.

After the removal of a few more limbs I had opened a pathway to allow my saw to go through the heart of the plant.

Some frenzied sawing and facial expressions commenced.

I had a few brief conniptions as a result of a rather large and unknown brown spider that kept appearing then disappearing back into the middle of the plant. Then, as if on cue, I glimpsed what I had been looking for under one of the dismembered leaves.

“Stop it Vader! I already told you I will not pull your finger”!

I turned it upside-down and came face to face with the dreaded Darth Invader himself.

This was the culprit I had been searching for, the evil weevil…

Agave Snout Weevil

Scyphophorus acupunctatus

Many people believe that Agave americana is more susceptible to the weevil than other species, and may actually act as a weevil “magnet” to your garden however no agave may be totally immune to this evil weevil, even some species of Yucca have been attacked like Y. brevifolia and Y.elata.

Mary and Gary Irish suggest in their book: Agave,Yuccas and Related Plants: A Gardeners Guide (2000, Timber Press), that if one of your Agaves die from weevils, DON’T use its surviving pups in your landscape. Instead, try to locate pups or bulbils from an Agave that successfully flowered and may have had some genetic resistance to weevils and likely passed that resistance on to its offspring.

I did discover this poker-red chrysalis as I dug down where the agave came out, making sure I had not left any evils in the earth. I believe this to be a Mexican Tigermoth pupae:

Notarctia proxima

I put it back in the earth.

Going back to Agave americana for a moment:

The specimens that did survive the freezes have recently adopted another odd trait – the agave lean. I suspect this can not be a good thing. I have wedged small boulders under a couple of them, but I fear the internal core rotting may worst than I initially anticipated, especially after I pushed on this one I have had for years in this container:

It wasn’t pretty…

…its head rolled over and a whole bunch of small flies flooded out of the stinking cavity.

The warmer weather has brought on insect hatches, the emergence of flies and the long dangly-leggy wasps that are now eagerly searching wooden decks and patios for suitable spaces to start new colonies. These wasps are causing some serious ducking mayhem on my back porch.

I try to set a good example, putting on a brave face as one comes straight at me a couple of feet above my head, but as its swinging legs get closer and closer I can feel my face starting to twitch, my arms wanting to manically flail around above my head…

I even let out a subtle audible noise the other day as one approached that strangely sounded very Hawaiian, it went something like “wha, ho-HAH”, the volume peaking with the end syllable and with the hanging legs of the wasp close enough to cast a shadow on my face.

This next creature caused my youngest halfling to face his own personal demons down at my main pond. I looked up after hearing his own audible conniption followed almost immediately by a retreating swagger away from the edge of the pond where he had witnessed the creatures, his hands moving in an erratic up and down motion against his chest. I shouted up the garden to him…“whats the matter”? he replied “there are spiders in the pond”…(he unfortunately hates spiders after prematurely witnessing the Harry Potter sequence)…naturally I had to investigate.

Water Striders live throughout North America. Water Strider is a common name for the Slender Water Bug. Its family is Gerridae. In Canada they call the Water Strider “Skater” and here in Texas they call them“Jesus bugs” (walking on water and all that)…and I had had a good spring hatch.

They are quite horrible giant-tick looking creatures, I can relate to his frantic over-reaction.

Moving on to green, a bit of brown, then greener ground again:

My beach vitex has recently sprouted new growth from a rather benign looking 6ft stem.

Even my little brown Barbados cherry has new growth breaking through:

I am so glad I waited before cutting this plant back to the ground.

The years first fresh canna leaves are pushing through…

and the sea oats are new and chartreuse.

Blue bonnets have started to bloom curbside, but the best thing that happened this week…

was the removal and hoisting up on the compost pile of this old pampas grass with only the minimal of lacerations. I am getting pretty adept at taking these monsters down at this point, (I am down to three now in the Patch). This plant was old and scraggly and besides I have been wanting a perimeter sabal texana for quite some time, it will create visual repetition down three adjacent back gardens.

I love the East Side.

A baby monster. Another one of these has also gone in at the front of the Patch.

Stay Tuned for:

“Swaying in the Tree-Tops”

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

“Tickling Leopards”

ESPatch Feb 18, 2011 11 comments

I tickled this giant leopard moth

Ecpantheria scribonia

caterpillar into submission today with a feather, it screamed a tiny scream and thrashed it’s multiple legs,

before it submissively rolled into it’s customary protective posture, predominately displaying it’s brightly colored bands. Woolly bear or fuzzy bear caterpillars are often found in the fall and winter in Texas after they have left their food-plants in search of a dark and sheltered spot where they can hibernate as larvae for the winter, usually under a deep layer of leaves. When spring kicks in, these caterpillars will become active, feeding then fashioning cocoons out of silk and body hairs…

And what fine creatures these huge cocoons turn into…

The Great Leopard Moth.

Hypercompe scribonia

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The ESPatch has been very quiet of late, like it has had the wind knocked out of it with the recent harsh weather and is in a period of shock, denial and I hope complete recovery. Very few creatures are seen roaming the plains and I have witnessed distinct signs that the Naboo are once again heavily into their cannibalistic tendencies. Worst of all, the Botox lady has lost half her bottom lip to frost bite, she is totally devastated as you can imagine.

Remember this frozen scene?

These are my tropical Madame Ganna Walska water lilies, submersed under a rather thick layer of ice, not their preferred habitat of choice.

Oh yes, they came out the thaw looking a little shocked to say the least. While I pulled on the worst hit slushy pads, I happened to dislodge one of these sci-fi abominations…

“Number one, we need to try and establish communications…see what it wants, determine what its needs are”!

These very odd stems are affectionately known as, and casually referred to in the Patch nonchalantly as brains, as in…“Look dad, there is a brain!” “Oh yes, well spotted! 2 points for…” These reproductive lily pods rank up there as some of the strangest phenomena to grace the interior of the Patch pond, very primordial, and they never fail to induce a conniption when one unexpectedly decides to roll over the back of my hand. I cannot tell you how many times I have slapped and tore at my own hands when one accidentally alights on it.

Unwell, agaves.

Also looking very primordial right now are the remains of my agave americana. The recent freezes really took a toll on these once magnificent plants. All of the foliage has been decimated but the singular vertical spike dictates that the plant’s core still is alive and kicking. I trimmed back all of the soggy foliage to allow the plants to focus their energy on new foliage replenishment…these singular tusks, dotted all around the Patch look very odd, to say the least.

This one prematurely aged in the freezes.

At least the americana are doing better than my octopuses.

“Shaken, and most certainly stirred”.

No need for the gun here Roger! Out of all of the pups that I painstakingly planted from: http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2008/07/backyard-ocd/, very few have made it due to the last two years of harsh winter freezes.

I come across them dotted here and there, oozing onto the granite like beached mythical creatures.

Just when I thought that my Mexican lime tree could not get any brighter:

There is still some green in the branches so I am hoping I will not have to cut it back to the base like I did last year.

Even my satsuma is showing some strain this year, unheard of.

My Buddha’s Belly Bamboo also looks bad right now but it will quickly green-up come the spring’s warming temperatures.

On a brighter note…

all my small sedums breezed through the freeze with ease,

and the rising bluebonnets offer a visual reminder that color is once again around the corner. (Thanks Jenny).

And I am ready for spring. My trusty steeds have been having quite the workout of late implementing this design scheme:

The front has been simply re-structured to match the new back aesthetic…

And the back has had a bit of a nip and a tuck…

…the back beds are now fully prepped and ready for planting. The circular feature is the future home of an Arizona ‘blue ice’ cypress, what else! The two curved kidney beds will incorporate prostrate rosemary, a weaving line of bush sages and dotted dwarf miscanthus.

Last and most certainly not least:

Happy 6th Miss P. xxx

Stay Tuned for:

“Mad Birds and Englishmen”

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