Yucca

Hairy Roger

ESPatch Feb 18, 2019 2 comments

The last time I posted, this cactus must have been a pup!

Yes it has been that long…so long in fact that in the interim WordPress changed its page editor on me and moved all my tools around.

Gutenbergers!

Where to start…where to start?

It has been so long that Loki is now pushing-on the size of Kumo especially clad in her winter coat.

She now uses him as a warm, funky-smelling cushion on our colder nights.

At 10 months Loki is already dominating the patch and keeping the dove and squirrel population firmly at bay.

No complaints from me.

I just hope she doesn’t challenge the local urban fox like she did the other night…that was a screaming match.

I always open the door very slowly to let her in the house at this point, no telling what unfortunate creature may be dangling from her mouth…oh yes.

On an equally gross note my satsuma tree put out an equally disgusting array of bile fruit (as per the annual norm). I do like the winter color they put on though which is the main reason I grow them.

At least that is what I keep telling myself.

As usual I bribed my daughter into some satsuma ‘sampling’, it is now an annual Patch tradition after all and one that never fails to have me in stitches.

“Same as last year Dad…err, disgusting?!”.

You never know, one of these years they might just be sweet and delicious instead of generating unsavory faces akin to the infamous Montreal escargot tasting of 2017, but I highly doubt it.

The tranquil view of a nice sunset is somewhat diminished with a rather large refrigerator lurking around in the landscape and luckily for me it was bulk pick up week. Yes, it was finally time for her to leave for probably less greener pastures.

Eager to stay where she had been for the last 9 months she had one more fight left in her…

…Stupid Refrigerator.

The end of an era.

Or is it?

Now we get to look at the backside of it from our front windows for a few days.

The fridge that just keeps giving.

Staying with major domestic appliances for a moment, we no longer have to go outside (or fight with a tarp) to use our washer and dryer. Oh no, we now have this smart stackable ‘indoor’ solution…

The sheer luxury.

These two Texas sages

Leucophyllum frutescens

have been getting leggier and leggier over the years, it was time for some drastic hook-saw action.

“Owf with their Heads!”

Now to wait and see what happens.

I have read that Cenizo does not respond at all well to heavy pruning.

I think leaving but a few feet of stump sticking out of the ground qualifies as heavy pruning. Worst case I will replant, but I am curious to see what happens and how they will respond to their brutal decapitations.
That adjacent yucca is next on my pruning list, it drives me crazy when there is dead growth hanging down like that.

This one is quite tall and requires some help from a cedar stump to support a spiraling trunk.

Moving Along…

Wheel-barrows full of turf?
Dirt trenches and lots of running back and forth? It can mean only one thing…

Another client ‘Normandy Phase’ was well under way.

This time the war-zone was a large back garden in Austin. The goal was to blend some hardscaping and plantings around the house and introduce a water element while nibbling away at the overall turf coverage (turferage).

Pallets of oversized Oklahoma flagstone were dropped at the front of the property and hauled to the back on dollies…a very time consuming activity. I like to use the natural edge of the flagstone to define planting beds or contouring around turf areas, eliminating the need for any additional and superfluous edging materials that always look unnatural in a landscape.

The good people at https://hillcountrywatergardens.com/ drilled a hole through this attractive moss boulder to create a low-level, naturalistic water feature off the back deck.

Here it is up and ‘running’:

The water feature uses rain water collection tanks to top up levels in the hot months. Cafe river rock was mostly used to hide the water collection basin and was in keeping with the natural color palette of the scheme.

Lighting courtesy of
Steve Serum at keepinitgreenaustin was also introduced to illuminate the area and to broadcast up into the distant oak trees.

Turfstone was used to form a connecting pathway at the back of the garage and to aid drainage. A steel barrier was needed here to hold back the turf and soil.

I will leave you with this very bizarre Opuntia know as Pricklypear (opuntia engelmannii) or fondly known as the ‘Hairy Roger’.

This is on my most wanted list. I would love to grow a hairy 10ft version of this like my regular opuntia tree.

On that note,

Stay Tuned For:

“Fire-pits & Giggles”

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

Gossiping Wheelbarrows

ESPatch Jan 8, 2018 1 comment

Here is a project that kept me busy this summer and fall.

This was the scene that greeted me as I walked up to meet my latest clients at a large sweeping property near lake Travis.

Most of the plantings were as old as the house and were not doing anything to visually lift the property.

The random assortment of pruned boxwoods (You know how I feel about pruned boxwoods) felt cluttered and claustrophobic on approach to the front door.

Boxwood Island!

Everything was lined with small pieces of mortored limestone, the dark mortar made them look like dirty little niblet teeth, teeth that need flossing…no wait, extracting!…

With a sledgehammer!

The homeowners wanted a more modern look and were very open to suggestions and change…a great place to launch a design.

Here are the visuals that I used to communicate the design intent:

The design went through multiple iterations,

especially this front horseshoe area.

And then the real work begins…

First the turf (and it was very thick turf) in this front island bed.

The more we took out, the more it apparently expanded.

A disheartening fact in blistering 100 degree temperatures.

My client cooled everyone down with a steady supply of Paletas…thanks E!

And there goes the final mound of boxwoods!

Up closer to the house…

I think we can safely say the ‘Normandy’ phase was well under way.

New irrigation and electrics going in by Steve Serum of ‘Keepin’ it GREEN’: keepinitgreen@gmail.com:

Turf was also removed left and right of the sidewalk to open up the entryway.

Four or five dumpsters later (I lost count) and the area felt so much better, the house could breathe once again.

The space felt much larger.

Area prepped for the steelwork framing, electricals going in for lighting.

This side area was also very cramped, it all had to go.

It was very satisfying to take out the niblets.

A three-piece basalt water-feature getting positioned in front of the living room window.

These rocks, from some distant alien asteroid, are extremily heavy and have to be supported on a reinforced central cylinder in the cage.

A water top-up valve was installed inside the cage to ensure the water level remains constant even in the middle of summer.

The final result:

Large arcing steel panels expand and better proportion the area.

The steelwork on this project was executed by Andrew Miller (aminc13@gmail.com)

The front horseshoe area also went through a significant transition:

From a sloping mound of thirsty turf to

being a focal point when looking from the house to the street.

A central pathway was introduced to break up the area.

Steps were incorporated to traverse up to the now flattened top grade.

Colors in the flagstone reference the rust of the steel and grey of the gravel.

Back in the Patch:

Urgh!

And I have barely made a dent.

‘Stay in the Christmas spirit…stay in the Christmas spirit’…

Awe COME ON!

‘Fal-a-la-la-la—la la la la’

There is only one thing worse than getting leaves out of sagos – it is getting them out of soft leaf yucca.

Staying with such yuccary for a second,

I have followed the demise of this plant on I35 for years.

I find myself staring at it at the stoplight, wondering how this had happened…what had caused it to buckle over halfway into its existence?

A small low-flying aircraft perhaps, making an emergency landing on the highway?

No, more likely stem rot.

Look the vines are starting to take it over.

Could it be saved?

I have a chainsaw in the back,

Perhaps I should…

Honk!

‘Par rum pum pum pum’

rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pummm’

Exactly.

Fall Aster and Celosia put on a good display this year.

My satsumas are still on the tree.

No reason to pick them really, they have a particularily disgusting flavor and mealy texture this year.

Great color for late December.

Looks are deceiving.

“Who wants to try a satsuma kids? They look really amazing this year!”

Oh yes, they WILL have one each in their stockings on Christmas morning.

With the year quickily drawing to a close,

the wheel barrows are out back relaxing by the shed, gossiping about varying tire pressures and how badly constructed they now are.

The pipes hung on the tree.

And just remember Kumo,

“He knows when youve been good or bad,

…stop eating crap for goodness sakes.”

“Merry Christmas!”

from us all in the Patch.