Mexican feather grass

“While the Neighbor’s Away…The Patch will Play”

ESPatch May 18, 2010 10 comments

What on “earth” was I thinking?

I previously had stopped my hell-strip design escapades selfishly, at the edge of my own property line, and visible line from my front porch…out of sight…out of mind! I quickly realized that it looked totally and completely ridiculous from across the street! Like an 80’s half haircut!

The house next door to me is currently unoccupied, so I thought mmm? Why not? I trudged to my shed for yet another Hell-Strip onslaught to finally finish what I had started. Like anyone was likely to complain as I removed another swath of weed and rubbish ground? Actually the ground in front of my neighbor’s house, was so much better then the compacted Terra-Firma in front of the Patch. The recent rains once again made it easier to turn over the soil.

http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

Oh yes, I was performing some guerrilla gardening on the East-Side, and my Hell-Strip espionage was in full shoveling swing.

“Hell Strips are no joking matter ESP, remember that dreadful green-finger incident some years ago?”

My Hell-strip continues to grow, maybe I will just continue down the entire street, why stop here?

Oh I will tell you…

that’s why.

While I was nibbling away in here I could not resist pruning up this crepe myrtle and palm, and just why did I do this AFTER big brush pick-up? I continued the mounding into this area also, oh yes… I will have more artemesia mountains.

As I was excavating the site, I unearthed this…a female Boll’s sand roach (thanks for the ID Daniel) at <whatsthatbug.com@gmail.com>

Arenivaga bolliana

The downy females have no wings and burrow in the dust under houses and in natural rock shelters where they feed on packrat droppings, of all the strangest things.

This female is dragging her oothica or egg case, a behavior pattern characteristic of most cockroaches. My eldest hobbit kept asking…what is it dragging daddy, look it is dragging something, what IS that? (repeat 16 times). Brrrr!

While I am on the subject of this Hell-strip, I have to warn you about trowels that have these…screws. Have these people never heard of co-molding techniques? I bought this trowel after my old and trusted digging steed (with no screws) mysteriously vanished a couple of months ago, (I suspect it is at the bottom of one of my ponds). After I had gone around the curb to clean out all of the weeds sticking to the edge of the hell-strip, these screws were once again loose, causing the whole trowel to rattle…this gets really, really annoying! The trowel should just come with a small screwdriver already tethered to it.

Okay, calm down, deep breaths…inhale in through the nose, exhale slowly through the mouth…and relax.

Moving on…

I have been waging war on this Vitex for years now, it is finally turning into the large shrub / small tree, that I always wanted. It sort of looks old-fashioned and fits aesthetically with our 1890’s house. Although it does not compare to the trowel on the annoyance graph, this tree will keep you busy. It always grows up annoyingly from the base (as you can see) and needs a lot of up-pruning to keep it in check and good form. Insects swarm over the subtle purple-blue blooms at this time of year.

This purple verbena has also brought in its fair share of insects and small gazelles into the Patch, what?

Is it a flying rodent? A tiny pony perhaps?

Hemaris diffinis

or Snowberry Clearwing Moth,

These large moths are diurnal, that is, active during the day; they are most often seen nectaring at flowers like this one. They hover and dart about, flying both backward and forward just like hummingbirds, but are actually mimicking bumblebees.

Snowberry Clearwing moths are often mistaken for hummingbirds and bumblebees because of their similarities in size and feeding habits. Adult moths have a long, straw-like “tongue,” called the proboscis, which they keep curled under the head. They use it to suck nectar from the flower. The nectar is rich in sugar, which fuels the energy required for hovering, and avoiding having clear photographs taken of it.

Looking like something from a coral reef the new silver growth on this sago palm develops fast considering how slow the plant grows. While I was taking this picture the little piece of dirt on the front right frond appeared to move, see it?…I moved in closer…

Oh yes it was moving alright, and quite fast considering all of the “junk” it was lugging around in it’s trunk. Oh and tell me that is not a roaming eye at the bottom, peering out from under the trash canopy! I think it is!

“Oh very funny ESP!”

Could this be lacewing larvae?

Things noticed this week in the vegetable Patch

Amaranth is on the rise…

…and court jester squash blooms are all over the place, sneaking over pathways, I am constantly tucking them back into their designated beds.

I cannot wait to try these Kungpao peppers.

Finally…

I cut the seed heads from my Gopher plants

euphorbia rigida

today and naturally all of the white blood began to flow. All parts of this plant, including the seeds and roots are poisonous.

“I would never try zis”

Gophers should not be planted near fish ponds as the sap can be harmful to fish if their white blood is spilled.

Inland sea oats are in the process of developing their iconic seed heads.

“Whisper, whisper whisper, Naboo tribe..whisper whisper…The Germinatrix whisper…visiting the Patch…whisper, whisper…photo exhibition in Crimson…how dare you turn your back on me?”

Nothing good can come from this congregation of shiny gossips.

Stay Tuned for:

“I do like to be beside the seaside”

All material © 2010 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“Knotty Dreads”

ESPatch May 8, 2010 8 comments

Now these are some knotty dreads man, all matted and stuck together. The panicles on my Mexican feather grasses had created such a dense matting situation, that it was making their heads fall over.

They looked pretty bad all stuck together like island hair… mmm, what to do, what to do? I picked my first test subject and just like…

I went to work, frantically snipping out all the seed heads with my prosthetic shearing fingers…

…unlike Edward’s reputable pruning results, mine were not so good, not so good at all (left), it just looked really unnatural. As I pondered what else I could do to remedy this situation, I grabbed one of the seed heads and pulled it, it easily came away from the plant….that was it! I went to another grass, grabbed a small chunk and sure enough the seeds and a length of the panicle stalk came away from the plant. This technique ensured that the plant retained a more natural look while getting rid of the matted dreadlock situation… it worked a treat to lighten the entire grass (right).

Here they are back to their former glory once again. I systematically went through all my grasses pulling their hair out. I did get a little greedy on the amount that could be removed in a one extraction a couple of times, resulting in a small clump of the grass coming up out of the ground, oops! No, there was a fine balance to be heeded in this hair-pulling activity. By the time I was about halfway through my grasses I had the technique mastered, gathering the dreadlocks into clumps and working my way around the plant as though it were a scalp, I must have looked insane, especially when I started to lay out a cape (courtesy of my professional hair cutting wife) around each plant to catch any falling hair follicles, errr…I mean seeds!

I shoved these seeds into a large bucket as I went on, and on, and…

A couple of hours later, I had about four of these seed-bales filling up my trash can, there must have been millions of seeds.

Moving on…

Butterflies, moths, all manner of things a’ flutter were feasting this week on copious amounts of the sweet stuff. This one it seems had the whole salty / sweet thing going on. It stayed on my tee shirt for a few minutes (quite salty at this point). I am guessing there was enough moisture on the garment from the feather grass thinning in our 101 degree (with the heat index) temperatures to extract something nourishing out of it? Whatever it was getting from my garment, it was liking it.

More from the bench area…

Ever since I finished my bench the spaces to the left and right of it seemed somewhat lost, floating around in space.

“Roger that Houston, both sides of the bench, but can I say “gimbal lock” one last time?”

I decided to reflect the opposite bed to the bench and continue the same brickwork design to form a couple of small beds to finish these areas off, and to visually anchor the bench.

And the other side.

Must remember to move that first canna away from the dwarf Palmetto, it is getting a little crowded right there! The brickwork really helps to make the bench a focal point and destination.

Are those more feather grasses?

“I have some rather disturbing news”…

The Cactus Man has apparently returned from the grave…he is re-animating!

“He is an opuntia ESP”?

I could not believe this when I saw it today. It appears the deceased Cactus Man is attempting to re-create his face and re-animate himself on a new cactus paddle that has grown in exactly the same spot from the same plant where I originally killed him and his family. Now what are the chances of that?

“About 4504 to the power of 10 ESP, now… can’t you see I am busy engaging the Borg?”

Data!

This was one tiny spider. I shot this blind with the camera. I was amazed what shapes and translucent coloration the camera caught.

Sedum potosinum in decline, turning a rust color at the end of it’s bloom cycle.

Vines are on the move…

…pond-life is feeling good…

…and the pole-beans are on the rise.

Captains Log supplemental: Check out my new “ESP Design Services” at the top of my blog, and I hope you like the new sidebar.

ESP.

Stay Tuned for:

“Emergance”

All material © 2010 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.