Yucca

“Withering Sights”

ESPatch Jul 17, 2010 19 comments

The head of this dragonfly looks like a futuristic piece of hardware, amazing coloration and detail on this Eastern Pondhawk.

Erythemis simplicollis

This dragonfly has a bit of a reputation for praying on insects of its own size, as well as for cannibalism, yes cannibalism…a habit I fear it may have picked up from the Naboo.

“A cannibal flying around in the sky? Where is it? Where is it? I’m out in the open for Pete’s sake!!”

(Obligatory Lector noises)

“Where is it? I know it is up there somewhere, waiting to dive down and get…”

…crunch…ang, ang, ang, ang. “Grasshoppers are a great source of protein out in the wild, blah,blah,blah.”

This green lynx spider,

Peucetia viridans

(the largest North American lynx spider) took refuge from the lightening-fast-hand of Bear Grylls under this sunflower leaf.

Thanks for the cheerful sunflower and the great garden-related songs Annie…Keep them coming!: http://annieinaustin.blogspot.com/…

Lynx spiders are hunting spiders that spend their lives practically motionless on plants, flowers and shrubs. Don’t be fooled though, the common name refers to their quickness and agile-lynx-like nature. These oddly shaped characters are extremely nimble runners, jumpers and cross-country skiers, they rely on their keen eyesight to stalk, chase or ambush prey. Six of their eight eyes are arranged in a hexagon-like pattern, a characteristic that identifies them as members of the family Oxyopidae. Did I mention that it also has really hairy legs, reminiscent of the stalk of the sunflower it is currently inhabiting?

“Ach man, ma’ legs are mere hairy than that Peucetia viridans”!

“www.ohshutyourpieholewilliam.com”

Moving silently on…

Luurvley!

I think I can safely say that I have recreated in my sunken – zero drainage stock tank, conditions that I like to imagine, rival that of the banks of the Nile. I will try not to mention the multitudes of wavering and extremely disturbing tiny “worms” that were poking out of this swamp the other day, waving their upper torsos in perfect synchronicity, brrr, (slight right knee quiver, right big toe points involuntary north) …What ARE they?

What used to grow in abundance along the banks of the Nile, my favorite wetland sedge…

…King Tut, Egyptian Papyrus,

Cyperus papyrus

is reportedly not so prevalent as it once used to be down the river banks these days.

“Dense belts of papyrus growing along the Nile in Southern Sudan, viewed from a river boat”.

I have only had ten visitors from Egypt to the East Side Patch, ever…so I turn my head to you now my ten visitors, (I know you all live along the Nile)!…Is this true? Surely papyrus still prevails, with its aggressive growth habits?

My papyrus are blooming right now, something I can’t say I have ever witnessed before, I will be gathering seeds! This is a fantastic plant that offers a unique presence and movement in the Patch, papyrus grows 8-10 ft. tall as an impressive, weeping specimen plant. It withstands weather stresses, thrives in full sun, and can basically handle anything that the elements throw at it…Texas tough. Mine dependably comes back every spring.

Moving to the front Patch…

Almost all of the atemesia that I snapped off from my rear hills and planted in the spring has taken, and is starting to fill in the decomposed granite mounds with their frosty foliage. The slow-growing sapphire skies yucca I planted on the top of this mound accents the adjacent palm and will form a crazy trunk over time…starts drumming fingers…

“Finally it is up to four feet!”

Talking of “frosty”…

Here are some before and after shots of a design scheme I am currently working up for a client. I cannot wait to plant the ‘blue ice’ cypress / artemesia and santolina combo, perhaps with a couple of gopher plants for elevated measure?

Back in the Patch:

Sun lovers, now basking in our almost 100 degree Texas temperatures.

Withering sights…has anybody out there got this problem on their rosemary plants?

Pretty bad! By the time I noticed this young rosemary was under siege it was completely covered in these webs…this happened very fast indeed, and I have noticed the same infestation, to a lesser degree on three other, more mature rosemary plants. This warranted further investigated.

I believe this to be a tent caterpillar of some sort? A tent caterpillar that has a tiny tent that is not practical to break open for the wasps, or even camp in, who knows how many of these hard to spot ctitters there are infesting this plant! Has anybody had this issue and successfully treated it? Perhaps with all of our rains the conditions have been favorable for these annoying worms, I also witnessed a lot of them on my mountain laurels this year, a first.

Finishing on a lighter note:

My pokeweed fruit starting to ripen. (Thank you Jenn for the plant ID)

Phytolacca americana

The ripe berries (that look like they have been poked) of this plant yield a crimson juice that was used as a substitute for red ink, the juice was also used to enhance the color of pale wines, an activity that is no longer adopted because the berries are, well, poisonous!

The young leaves and shoots may be cooked and eaten like spinach, (if prepared correctly). The greens are also called poke salet…

Stay Tuned for:

“Nose Boulder”

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

“Men in Blackfoot daisies”

ESPatch Apr 19, 2010 5 comments

“Show yourself, we know who you really are, no point in pretending to be a daisy any longer”…

The Men in Blackfoot daisies turned up in the Patch shortly after my eldest snapped this shot in the sky, not being a conspiracy theorist or UFO advocate, I was initially skeptical of her proud “Its an alien, it’s an alien” claim…but then I decided to look at the picture in more detail, in fact, a lot more detail.

I downloaded a premium digital enhancement program online and zoomed into the pixels faster than Captain Picard could say…

“Pull my finger number one”.

I was shocked to see what the image revealed…

I zoomed in 1000 percent:

I zoomed in 2000 percent:

And at maximum magnification I was shocked to see this “Grey” staring back at me out of one of the UFO’s portholes. He appeared to be scouring our planet with somewhat envious eyes.

“Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.”

Enough nonsense.

This week in the Patch my two strawberries ripened and were devoured immediately. I grew a single strawberry plant this year just for this moment. The hobbits have been following this plants progression from flower to green fruit, to blush and finally to a ripe red…well almost ripe fruit. They could not believe it when I said today “go ahead, pick them”, as I have been constantly telling them not to bruise them and touch them as they developed! They both looked at me with a “is he serious” expression, as though they were getting away with something… then quickly knelt to pick the fruit, fearful that I might suddenly change my mind!

The strawberries were gone instantly…

…even though they were still a little sour apparently!

Sour they might have been but nothing tastes better then something you have waited and waited for. My next vegetable experiment for them? Eggplants… more on this later.

Can you tell I like Mexican feather grass?

The slightest breeze in the patch makes you feel as though you are at sea. This grass adds so much animation and graceful movement to a landscape…

It lines my pathways…

it creates natural theatrical curtains, for who else, but a center stage sotol.

It contrasts great with spikey plants like this soft leafed yucca, but one of my favorite combinations…

has to be feather grass and Gaura

Gaura lindheimeri

I have the white and the pink cultivars. This plant moves around as much as the grasses hence one of its common names: “whirling butterflies”, and if you look real close you will see that the panicles on the feather grass pick up on the pink/purple coloration of the gaura blooms. (Adjusts nerdy glasses)

Oh yes I will be dotting many more gaura around these grasses for quite some time to come. Did I mention how tough this little plant is?

Another new combination I am itching to get going is…

Gulf Coast penstemon and artemesia. I think this should make a great combination, the penstemon being the perfect height to rise out and above the silver artemesia.

Moving on…

The Prince of the inland sea-oats is straining to keep his pale head above them all.

A toadstool spore some how managed to develop high up on the wooden ladder into my post oak tree. I am surprised that the ESP witches have not used it yet in one of their hideous spells.

The color on the leaves of this African Hosta

Drimiopsis maculata

is quite eye-catching right now.

The African Hosta is a native of Africa, but it is not technically a true hosta. The advantages of this plant over it’s more well-known namesake, is that it holds up to our hot, Texas climate. During cold snaps, it will freeze to the ground, but when things warm up in the Spring, the fresh new leaves will have a distinct mottled look like this one. The leaves become more evenly colored as it matures.

I unearthed this colony of pill bugs today, I was about to ignore them when I happened to notice the intricate markings on their armor.

I was told by a Naboo elder that the story of the entire universe is written on the backs of pill bugs. He told me that each plate hieroglyph is unique and if you laid out all the pill bugs on the planet in exactly the right order, on the blank pages of a rather huge book, there would be a coded message that would liberate and save the entire human species. Who am I to argue? And what better creature to carry the message through the ages than the ancient Armadillidium vulgare

Okay, perhaps her!

Stay Tuned for:

“One Too Many Beers”

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