“Jings, Crivvens, Help ma Boab!”

ESPatch Dec 14, 2012 5 comments

Bulk “Jings, Crivvens, Help ma Boab indeed!”

The front of the Patch is quite an eyesore at the moment as we approach our bulk pick up date.

I have a suspicion that the distinguished “Sir Digby Chicken Caesar” and his counterpart “Ginger” have taken up residence in the inner-pallets below the tarp.

A cold snap finally arrived in Central Texas this week, taking care of most of the outdoor mosquitoes.

“Spike”

The ones current dwelling in our house are another matter. My daughter and I have become so close to these insects that we have given them names, we are constantly amazed just how punctually our daily blood-letting get-togethers are performed.

Mosquitoes mid-December, that is ridiculous.

It got so cold the other night that “Kreature”, our grumbling house elf wasted no time bedding himself down into his stinky robes.

One plant that will visually warm you up on a brisk Texas day:

Crimson passion vine,

Passiflora coccinea

This vine dies back to the ground after a hard frost, but it has returned reliably for the past six years in the Spring.

Celosia always looks festive at this time of year.

The birds have been going crazy eating the seeds from these plants. I thought I had better seed a few to ensure next year’s harvest.

I paid my hired hands the ever increasing fee and set them to work extracting the seeds from the husks…“you can stop when your fingers turn purple.”

Her expression says it all.

Muhlenbergia lindheimeri fire cracker.

I would have decorated this Arizona ‘blue ice’ cypress,

but I do not own a step ladder large enough. That is my story and I am sticking with it, besides I just know this Darwin award winning activity would have ended with me taking an impromptu icy dip in that stock tank.

I couldn’t stand it any longer…yes it was out with the brushes and rakes this week to execute my least favorite of garden chores,

…must not think,

…must not think,

must not think about…

I have had an irrational phobia about assassin bugs lurking in the leaves ready to assassinate one of my fingers ever since I researched them. I won’t even go into Chronic Chagas’ Disease:

http://theassassinbug.com/2009/12/26/a-chagas-disease-primer-part-1/

Brrr.

A quick glance down at the current condition of my work gloves did nothing to fuel confidence.

Come on Santa!

The leaf cleanup uncovered piles of pecan nuts that were immediately stamped on and eaten or chewed up in Kreature’s case.

Other observations this week:

Keep still.

Seeding mist flowers looking misty,

crispy sea oats and

an up-to-no-good gate keeper. The plumosa fern that I planted earlier this year has almost reached the top of the gate.

[snow id=1 custom=1 width=576 height=300 upload_image=http://www.eastsidepatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/DSC09000-1024×701.jpg number_snow=50 rotationtype=2D path=http://premiumcoding.com]

Stay Tuned for:

“Eggs & Soldiers”

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

images

“The Tent in the Woods”

ESPatch Nov 20, 2012 6 comments

Artemesia and copper canyon daisy,

Tagetes lemmonii

Sara and John Lemmon-camping on Mt Lemmon

John Gill Lemmon, a self-educated botanist, respectfully called the “professor” and his wife Sara collected Copper Canyon Daisy in southeastern Arizona sometime in the early 1880s. The descendants of these plants were then introduced into the nursery trade.

Sara and John met in 1876 at a lecture he gave in Santa Barbara, California. A keen botanist herself they were married four years later and, as you do, embarked on a “botanical wedding trip” to Arizona in 1881, a part of the world at that time very few botanists had visited.

Photo: Wikipedia

If running around collecting and cataloging plants was not enough, they also climbed to the peak of the mountain they christened Mount Lemmon, after Sara, the first European-descended woman to make the ascent.

Sarah was also responsible for the designation of the California Poppy as the state flower (1903), (another plant that pairs well with artemesia).

Both the Lemmon and Plummer surnames are used in the scientific names of many Arizona plants discovered by this prolific husband-and-wife team.

Red Admiral

Vanessa atalanta

These butterflies seem particularly fond of the copper canyon daisies. This species over-winters in southern Texas. They have descended in large numbers this week in the Patch, on the final stretch of their migration.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/the_great_butterfly_migration.html

The pungent foliage of the copper canyon daisy is either liked (citrus-like, anise – licorice tones etc) or disliked

by humans, but it sure does a good job of deterring foraging deer from eating it…

…Jenny.

Moving along:

Short-lived mist flower blooms are now turning brown,

creating their unique “fluffy-cloud” aesthetic as they float through this basket grass in my front garden.

Basket grass takes a while to mature but when established it requires nothing, and I mean nothing, no water, no cutting back in the winter – it just looks steel-blue-good all year round. The only maintenance required is to cut back the occasional cream-colored bloom stalk at the base when they brown.

Mexican bush sage keeps on going with its

purple fuzzy flower spikes. Mine are now so leggy I have almost got two separate plants courtesy of the new central growth.

I cannot bring myself to cut it back quite yet as the bees are still swarming the old growth / flowers.

I think I can safely say that this red passion vine is doing quite well on my front porch:

Finally:

Celosia ranks up there with the mist flowers for attracting a wide variety of insects.

It will soon be time to bribe and set small pink stained fingers to work gathering seeds. The price unfortunately goes up with each passing year.

Inspirational image of the week: