“Tales of the Unexpected”

ESPatch Jun 26, 2010 12 comments

I thought I would share a recent design scheme that I worked up for a client.

The design proposal addressed three distinct areas of the existing garden:

Front of house…what was once a static lawn becomes a softened low maintenance bed of movement, courtesy of a perimeter planting of bamboo muhly grass and the introduction of an invisible water fountain as a prominent visual focal point on approach to the house.

Onto the back…

A wall garden: The intent here was to create an intense planting scheme close in to the house that would gradually fade out and “naturalize” into larger shrubs and palms as the planting went further up the hill. This area will have a deer fence enclosing the property. The cascading prostate rosemary and trailing lantana softens the vertical wall, adding a little repetition before a looser planting scheme kicks in further up the hill. Small sedums and stone crop will be tucked into the stone crevices for additional wall planting sprawling interest.

Here is the hillside top garden: Does anyone recognize that mock orange? This scene incorporates boulders that already exist on the hillside, planting extends the view up the slope to offer the illusion that the garden continues…

“To infinity and beyond!” … (Buzz almost three light year )

Back inside the Patch…

It amazes me at how fast things have returned to life and stature after our tough-for-Texas winter, even my Barbados cherry (center) has made a decent return from a cut back stump!

As has My Mexican lime tree that I chopped down to just above ground level.

My pole beans have reached the top of their poles and the Hoja Santa is seriously on the rise, not surprisingly, considering I forgot I left the soaker hose running all night…oh yes, it liked that alright!

Here is a tale of the unexpected…

I bet this little amaranth only dreams of a soaker hose, let alone one being left on all night…poor thing. I cannot believe a seed actually germinated in this ungodly environment…worse than a Hell-Strip…the road…THE ROAD! I keep resisting the idiotic temptation to water pure tarmac, especially when I just know this plant is destined to lie under the wheels of a church / funeral going vehicle that consistently line my street. The watering police would have a field-day…

“You are accused of watering on a non-designated watering day”?

“Yes I had to, the plant is growing in tarmac.”

“So let me understand, you are watering tarmac on a non-designated watering day?”

“Oh just go ahead and arrest me.”

It seems like enough of my decomposed granite has been blown off my hell-strip by my hose that the road in front of the Patch can now harbor life…

“Fascinating.”

“Its life Jim, but not as we know it”.

“Have you thought about upgrading to an iPad Jim? Your current tablet PC really is quite embarrassing”.

Live long and prosper little amaranth.

From a really parched amaranth to a refreshing purple Madame Ganna Walska water lily.

My water lilies are once again growing at a ridiculous rate, I thin them out… two days later the pond is completely smothered again, still, the leaves and spent blooms make for the best nutrient-rich composting material.

I started out with two plants for crying out loud!

Blooming pride of Barbados foliage looks even better when it is planted against a dark back-drop.

layered leaves don’t get any better.

And do blooms get any better then Echinacea or purple cone flower, pity they do not last very long before they look like a blow-torch has hit them…oh wait, that would be the Texas sun, and it has! Pass me an iced turban please.

More layered foliage, dark shade areas really help to create a sense of depth, emphasizing the foliage of the plants.

Hello Aloe Vera?

What was once brown and very mushy has now has bounced back with full vigor in the summer Texas heat. But can I eliminate that irritating ivy weed? look closely, you will recognize it, you know the one, it finds its way into the spiniest of plants and is incapable of being pulled up from the roots, ever! Oh yes, it is the bane of my entire gardening existence. This is by far the most irritating character that resides in the Patch, even more obnoxious then the Botox Lady! I feel as though I have been pulling it up, let me re-phrase, snapping it at the base, for more years then I care to mention, without incidentally making a real dent.

I am about to take another approach that involves a really small oil painting brush and an undiluted, super-concentrated round-up palette of immediate death.

I need to quickly Move on:

I made a new acquaintance today…

…who became a close friend…

Okay, that’s enough…Brrr, now you are being creepy…time to leave now, as must I.

(Starts shaking hand)

Stay Tuned for:

“Moi Grande Rain Dance”

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

Oh dear…Oh dear…oh dear!

Winner of an IDSA Silver award:

Nano Garden is a vegetable garden for the apartment kitchen, using hydroponics, so you don’t need to worry about pesticides or fertilizers. Instead of the sunlight, Nano Garden has lighting which promotes the growth of plants. The amount of light, water and nutrient supply is also controllable, so you can decide the growth speed. It lets you know when to provide water or nutrients to the plants, which makes it easier to grow them. Moreover, Nano Garden functions as a natural air purifier, eliminating unpleasant smells.

Designer: Seul Ki Park

Credit: Hyunjung Lee, Jaeyong Park, Changjin Shon and Seulki Park of Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea), and Ill-woong Kwon of Gromo (South Korea)

“The Microcosmic Garden”

ESPatch May 24, 2008 0 comments

The circular bed next to my back deck has had many incarnations, it is a focal point that anchors the back patio area and through its circular form, has dictated the design of the pathways to the rest of the yard.

Here are a few of its schizophrenic personalities over the last few years:

Sedums and a lone bagpiper and a rather ugly combination of everything!

A tropical look and even a fire pit?

As you can see I widened the path on the right hand side to create a better flow around the bed. This picture was taken this last Winter, you can see the “bare bones” structure of the hardscaping. Note the absence of the nasty tunnel on the left,
and how much more open the view looks!

This spring I thought I would try something a little more cohesive: “A Microcosmic Garden”, I thought to myself – a miniature of my cactus and succulent bed, with a backdrop of grasses to reference the rest of the yard.

I planted the Mexican feather Grasses first, directly into the granite path. If anyone can make it in the granite, the heat, and the lack of nutrients, it is them.

I scraped away the mulch and amended the soil with granite and bagfuls of sharp cactus soil (almost to the top of the brickwork). I then went out to a number of nurseries and bought two of everything relevant.

I was a micro – Noah, although my Ark was less of an arc and more of a circle.

Here is the bed newly planted, I brought in the Lava rocks from around my fish pond – you couldn’t really see them there due to the heavy foliage. They were much better suited to my miniature moonscape. I planted quite densely as I wanted the bed to resemble a miniature Jurassic Park when matured. I top dressed the bed with pea-gravel and areas of decomposed granite to tie in with the pathway.

These small plants hate clay soil and wood mulches; the crowns would rot, especially in winter. To succeed you must create something of a moonscape for them. The beauty of these otherworldly gardens is the tiny scale of them, they are a lot of fun when you “get in there” with the macro lens at full blast.

“Honey I shrunk the kids!”

“I like the view from here George, what do you think?” “This is no time to rest, we must keep moving”

“My legs are hurting George”.

“George someone is coming!”

“Mildred, just stay low and still, the mighty gloved “This is it George, home sweet home”
hand will pass right over us, I promise.” “lets have a rock warming”

Here is the bed today – starting to fill in.
The more you observe this rocky world the more obscure and captivating is the flora. The scene resembles a coral reef as much as a rock garden. I am planning a much larger scale of this bed in my front yard – I may even include some dwarf conifers and the rocks are going to be large boulders.

Other show-offs right now:

Cone flowers with Rosemary and Sage.

A newly planted Canna, the container picks up on Tropical Lilly
the color of the foliage. A good layer of bark chips
(also in the same hue) helps to regulate
temperature and moisture.

Figs!

Stay Tuned for:

“My Agave is knocking on Deaths Door”

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

succulents

“Tales of the Unexpected”

“Moi Grande Rain Dance”

“The Microcosmic Garden”

“My Agave is knocking on Deaths Door”

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