Fire-pits & Giggles

ESPatch Sep 28, 2019 1 comment

I have been messing with these old Butler bricks for quite some time…as you do.

I have salvaged them wherever I could…stacking them here, stacking them there,

ancient monuments to remind me of an uncompleted project.

The first crop circle I built with them had a few seats around it and was occasionally used as an unusually painful campground when my kids were smaller.

When I decided to expand on the area, and with the removal of my stock-tank fish pond, it became clear I would have to take the bricks back up and start from scratch with a new center point.

More bricks were salvaged during our recent remodel and the removal of this brick patio.

I did lose a few Butlers to concrete and broken corners.

I decided to go with an in-ground fire-pit this time round.

This works out great as we now use it as a fire-pit in the cold months and a table straddles the pit in the summer.

The crack in between the bricks is like crack for the weeds, apparently. They grow as fast as I pull them.

Only another two more rings of bricks to go…of course it isn’t finished.

I keep getting distracted by things like this:

Ugh, and this:

I mean, what manner of nonsense is really going on on this branch?

These two old rosemary bushes, although healthy in this picture, had developed a lot of dead and brown growth at their bases.

And here they are after I attacked them with the Fiskars.

Wizened rosemary bonsai trees!

With the long hot summer drawing to an end and with minimal precipitation this Fatsia Japonica…well,

lets just say it has looked better.

Some of this summer stars have been the Mexican Honeysuckle,

Lonicera japonica

knockout roses and ‘hardy red’ oleander.

Burgundy Canna remains cool in the heat and it has been a bumper year for the Pride of Barbados.

These plants can take the excruciating and prolonged summer temperatures,

myself on the other hand…

even Kumo looked a little peeky after spending an afternoon outside.

On that note I will leave you with a modern design I worked on for a new build near Mopac in Austin.

Modern Patio — Floating Bench / Steel Planter

Stay Tuned For:

All material © 2019 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“The Perfect Specimen“

ESPatch Jun 26, 2017 2 comments

Our second Bollywood installment is from from Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-leela.

It is getting hot out there!

nitrogen ice cream

When temperatures approach the triple digits it is time for some liquid nitrogen ice cream.

Followed by the obligatory sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia.

Dwayne Godwin, Ph.D., explains how it works:

“One thing the brain doesn’t like is for things to change, and brain freeze is a mechanism to prevent you from doing that,” The brain can’t actually feel pain despite its billions of neurons, but the pain associated with brain freeze is sensed by receptors in the outer covering of the brain called the meninges, where the two arteries meet. When the cold hits, it causes a dilation and contraction of these arteries and that’s the sensation that the brain is interpreting as pain.”

I digress.

No matter how high our temperatures rise, or for how long, I never have to water these three.

Desert Willow, Opuntia and Pride of Barbados.

This stock tank used to hold water and giant King-Tut papyrus but, like my fish tank it recently developed a hole somewhere underground.

End of a work day in summer.

The Tut, now lacking water from the Nile subsequently popped his clogs er-sandals, and the canna, no longer contending with his tyrannical roots, prospered and thrived.

They occasionally parade these red flags as a symbol of their victory.

Big changes are abound for this part of the Patch:

This whole back corner of the house and deck is about to be torn down and rebuilt (with us all living in it). We are enclosing the back deck and juggling the space inside to gain another bedroom and bathroom.

“No WiFi?…Having fun yet kids?”

I will be sure to track our slow family descent into insanity in future posts.

In the meantime here is a skinny side yard I recently finished for a client.

Rectangular in shape, the area had a significant slope and was a nightmare logistically in terms of getting materials in.

Looking up to the top of the slope.

Here is the area prepped and ready for action:

Hey I did leave one plant on the main dance floor!

Before & after.

A future seating area. I grouped a couple of weathered ceramics into the corner to reflect the top wall.

The aggregate also picks up on the coloration of the distressed bricks and urns.

Looking down the slope at the bones of a future side garden.

Lots of rocks and gravel to slow water down the slope.

A couple of loquats to fill in the two bottom corners. They will like the additional moisture.

Top shelf thryallis, trunking yucca, mist flowers and Mexican honeysuckles are dotted around to fill in the scene with foliage over time.

Staying with Yucca rostrata a moment, this one recently caught my eye:

Almost the ‘perfect specimen’ if you like the long haired look – which I surprisingly do.

I say surprisingly as I prune up sotols, softleaf yuccas, sago palms, basically everything, as fast as you can say “Is that frond over there touching the fiskaring ground?”

image copied from: http://www.achat-vente-palmiers.com

Trimmed up they almost have a somewhat surprised quality and look to them, something that for some reason bothers me…sort of.

Does it?

What do you prefer?

Au naturel or trimmed ?

I will find out soon enough as I have 6 of them now planted out front!

Call that 5 and 1/2…(there is a runt in the rostrata).

I will leave you with one of my sausage torturing sessions with Kumo.

I like to think of it as therapy.

Stay Tuned For:

“Cosmic Cacti“

All material © 2017 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

pride of barbados