Installs

“Taking the Hobbits to Isengarden”

ESPatch Feb 11, 2014 4 comments

Oh Yes,

another

…second place for the ‘most aesthetically unpleasing plant after a freeze award’

has just been awarded to this…

…Agave americana.

It was once a mythical creature that enveloped and sank many a boat crossing my stock tank with sharp writhing arms,

and now it has been reduced to beef jerky. Oh, how the mighty fall.

One plant that turns color and strangely lives up to its name after a few hard freezes is the cardboard palm (it is actually a cycad).

Zamia furfuracea

What were once olive green leaves that feel like cardboard to the touch, (hence the name Cardboard Palm),

turn to a rusty orange-brown aged-mahogany after a freeze. I have had these two cycads for many years now, both usually return from the ground with fresh green growth in the spring. Considering this is a native to the southeastern Veracruz state in eastern Mexico this plant has done quite well for me under the canopy of my post oak.

Note: This plant is poisonous to animals and humans – no treatment for the poisoning is currently known.

Got that?

Enough of the brown and wizened – we have cone flowers on the rise, not to mention larkspur and bluebonnets, and then there is the early blooming

Texas scarlet flowering quince:

Chaenomeles speciosa

The flowers of this small shrub emerge before the foliage develops, a very early and prolific bloomer.

Moving Along:

This is what happens to an iPhone when it gracefully pirouettes through the air and performs a spectacular landing on top of a pointed piece of decomposed granite.

It didn’t stand a chance.

I decided to channel my annoyance on my one remaining pampas grass. It has been long in the tooth for a few years now after all.

I went into the house, put on my dedicated pampas removal outfit (complete with my new magazine and duct tape forearm protectors, an idea I adapted from):

The thinking here being, if these could stop the gnashing teeth of

it should provide adequate protection from a pampas.

The passage of time has been long enough for me to forget just how stubborn these large grasses are to get out of the ground (I started with three) and this one was a monster. I believe it had rooted in two additional areas from the main grass. It was a tri-pampas and it took me all of 30 minutes hacking at it to get it to topple.

It would have been less but every couple of minutes I had to perform my customary

to escape the scurrying unmentionables that boiled out of its rotten interior.

Yes…in there.

At least there wasn’t a snake.

I do like pampas, especially the pink variety and they look great for a number of years, but they do have a garden shelf-life unless work is put into pruning them back every year when they mature. I have heard of people burning them back to the ground in the winter months – I would imagine this helps maintain the original form of the plant, but for fear of igniting my neighborhood and obtaining a Darwin award this is really not practical in the Patch.

Finally:

I recently returned to a landscape I completed.

Here is the water feature that was installed with baby roses as a backdrop:

About a year later,

and the boulder has taken on some great coloration.

And why the post title you may ask?

Nothing more I am afraid.

Stay Tuned for:

“The Doll House”

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

“Deep Breath”

ESPatch Nov 14, 2013 11 comments

Here is a new 360 plan I generated for a property in north Austin,

and here are the renderings that I used to communicate the design intent to the client. I superimposed the new design onto the black and white images.

The homeowners wanted to significantly reduce the amount of lawn without alienating the rest of the predominately turfed neighborhood, an interesting challenge.

The back patio was an assortment of plants and different mediums that made the space feel cramped and claustrophobic. I wanted to open this space up and create an extension to the patio that would lead naturally into pathways on both sides of the property.

The property lacked any real flow from the front to the back, my goal was to introduce pathways that would encompass and direct foot traffic on all sides of the house, but first a lot of tear-out had to happen. About 5 dumpsters worth to be precise.

Lots of overgrown shrubbery had to be removed up against the house and as for the 2ft Asiatic jasmine filled ‘flan’ brick-circle around the oak?

Well, you all know my bias thoughts on this demonic ground cover.

Oh yes, there was a lot more of this going on as the underworld critters living in the jasmine darted around our ankles. The flan actually ended up more like a pizza, it was cut and removed in six horrible slices. The bricks performed their usual trick of exponential expansion after being demolished with a sledge hammer.

Here is the front yard stripped back to its bare-bones. The trunk-flare on the oak is now visible and the tree, being free from the clutches of the dark Trachelospermum, can once again breathe freely.

This had to be one of the longest hell-strips I have taken out. The turf here was mounded and the grade had to be taken down significantly for fresh aggregate to be reintroduced.

Here is the back all cleared out, and here it is,

in its darkest hour,

with a new sprinkler and drip irrigation system being installed (not by me).

The front also received a good pummeling.

Contours were defined, materials brought in, the installation was underway.

Here are some before and after shots of the completed design:

What was once an overgrown planting bed became a wide entryway into the garden from the driveway and front door.

The wrap-round strip of grass in front of the boulders naturalizes the scheme street-side into the neighborhood aesthetic.

The removal of this wall opened up the view and allowed room for this side pathway to run behind the leaning oak.

A paved side courtyard continues

around to expand the back patio. Ornamental grasses and rosemary have been planted to soften the corners and hardscaping over time.

This back area was 12ft deep in nandina – which is never a good thing. (another potential botanical rant could most certainly be inserted here).

EXORIST, I.V.

I cast you out, invasive nandina!

An exorcism was performed along with some sage smudging and cleansing (you have to do this with nandina or it will come back) making the whole back garden feel significantly larger.

A new metal mailbox was installed which works perfectly with the color of the moss boulders and decomposed granite. Here is a link to Urban Mettle, the company that designs and makes these mailboxes…and a whole lot more:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/UrbanMettle

Now to wait a couple of years until the plants fill-in.

Back in the Patch:

This is my favorite time of the year, right before the first frosts start hitting hard.

Hoja Santa is the first plant to complain when the first real freeze arrives,

but for now they are still standing tall even though it got very cold the last few nights.

Cooler temperatures trigger the desert trumpets into action,

and the Mexican bush sage keeps on going at the back,

and front of the Patch.

In preparation for Christmas…

plumosa fern is always first to break out the decorations.

My Christmas present arrived at my door early, I had been looking forward to this moment for months…the wait was finally over.

Was I going to wait to open it?

Oh no…zip, zip…

zip.

It was a brand new set of…

David Naill highland bagpipes complete with blackwood mounts and nickel slides…snort.

My neighbors and Kumo (who, with the first squawk shot under the bed) are going to be so happy!

I will subject you to a wee tune next week if you would like.

Any requests?

Except that one.

Inspirational Images of the Week:

Cacoon Hanging Chair

http://www.hang-in-out.com/home/ca