East Side Patch

"Silver"

ESPatch May 21, 2009 0 comments

Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;
One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
Of doves in silver feathered sleep
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws, and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream

Walter de la Mare

Silvers feature prominently in my planting scheme, I think in part,
it is due to the fact that I actually miss frost, I really do!
When I was a scout in Scotland, we used to play completely
insane games like “Fire Running” and “Flaming Onions” under
full winter moons and frosty, crystal-clear skies.
These games would never be allowed in this day and age,
for all manner of child liability issues, one of them being,
burning to death!

The grounds of the estate where we played
were immense …

Arizona Cypress ‘Blue Ice’
…long, moon-cast shadows would stretch
across the expansive lawn areas
as if it were late afternoon, and It would be
eerily quiet

At least, until the games would begin.

It was also bitterly cold.

until the running started, causing the blood to coarse faster through the veins.

Mass Artemisia and California Poppy planting. Silver Sedum

The scout master (the “Beast”, an ex-army major) used to run around like a teenager
re-administering “lives” (bandages tied tightly around the bicep) to scouts that
would get their bandages ripped off in some Doc-Martin swinging skirmish…
he did this adorning a kilt!
Now THAT would have been cold!

“Ach! ESP, All ye need is a kilt, see,
ye can just throw a wee part of it over
yer shoulder, like this, if yer cauld.
If that doesnae work, ye can….”
Aargh…shut your pie-hole William.

Frosty Santolina.

Although Texas is a long way from Scotland
and just a tad warmer. These frosty plants at least
TRY to trick the brain into thinking it is frosty,
when it is in fact 90 degrees in the moonlight.
I will take every illusion I can get!

Staying on this warmer note…

“Is he making fun of us?”

My cone-heads seem to be as fashionably late in developing as usual,
still, who’s complaining,

when you get flowers within flowers.

These warm embers seem to develop as fast as little nimble fingers can pick them.

Barbados Cherry Malpighia punicifolia, still going strong.

And some finalsizzle from a dwarf papyrus sparkler,
catching the final rays of the…

Moving on to my “International plant of mystery”…

I picked up this small plant immediately I saw the words
“mystery plant” written on the side of the container,
at the Natural Gardener.

At that point in time it looked like a small pride of barbados,
with very similar foliage. I planted it up against the back of our
house where it has continued to grow. The first couple of years
it pretty much died back to the base, so I just treated it like I did
my pride of barbados -and whacked it back to the ground. Then
as it got bigger it started to make it through the winter, and it
continued to get larger. The multi-limbed shrub has small thorns
on its branches and blooms like a pride of barbados (at least
most years).

Speaking of which…

I really like the pre-blooming display the pride of barbados gives, very chemistry model-esque.

Nope, you don’t want to be barefoot in my back garden!
These barrel cacti seem to be handling their transplant into the ground well
although I probably just cursed them…

Don’t even think about it Helena! …like I cursed this poor transplanted bog cyprus
some posts back. I have been drip feeding this tree for about a week now to
try to turn it’s demise around. In a sick way I do like the way it looks against the
burnt orange of the canna lily.
It is like having fall in the spring!

The canna thinks it has died
and gone to heaven with all the
new water it is vicariously receiving.
There are still a handful of green
leaves on the cypress, you can see
them if you look really closely.
There is still a glimmer of hope.

The ice plant (front left) has gone ballistic to the point that I am now having to keep it in check.

And the most recent addition to the ESP (courtesy of my moving neighbors)…

is this Spruce Cone Cholla, or aptly named Pine Cone Cactus
Tephrocactus articulatus.
This one was picked up in Arizona, though they originate from Argentina.
Apparently it is difficult to get this cacti to flowering size, as the stem
segments break off with very little effort. You can see how thin the
segments get. An interesting little plant and just what the middle bed
needed in terms of scale and form.

On a recent expedition through my bamboo grove, I happened to
once again bump into another member of the shy and rarely
encountered “Nabooboo” tribe. This female warrior was adorning
her traditional “Naboo” face mask indicating that she was on a peaceful
hunting andgathering mission. When she turned to leave I did notice
that she was carrying a woven reed basket that was full of what
looked like small unripe satsumas?

I carried on walking on the trail and shortly happened on the tree that the warrior must have picked from.

What is the right policy here?

“To thin or not to thin…that is the question”.

Other observations in the Patch this week…

The inner glow of Madame Ganna Walska

always brightens up a pond. You should check out her life story!

An emerging Brown-Eyed Susan Rudbeckia hirta.

New succulent blooms…

new cacti blooms.

And a gnarly old “trunk” (ahem) of an Elephant Ear.

First shady blooms on my Thryallis,
Golden Thryallis
Galphimia gracilis

First sunny blooms on a wisteria.

Some greens and purples.
And Finally…

There is nothing better after returning
from a hot bamboo grove expedition than
putting your feet up, turning on the misters
and getting blasted.
(I mean from the misters)

Of course some people’s
work is never done…

Sun sets on the patch..

Stay Tuned For:
“Creatures of the Deep“
All material © 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Inspirational image of the week.

"Amber"

ESPatch May 15, 2009 0 comments

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we’re told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that’s bursting into life
Snow Patrol…”Chasing Cars”

I caught this amber Canna indica “Pretoria”
bursting into life with one of it’s short lived blooms.
A very tropical looking plant.

Another amber looking substance has me a little puzzled.
Why was it here? How did it get there? What was its purpose?

Let me back up a little…I was recently aimlessly wandering around outside my cactus bed
(as I do) looking here, grimacing at weeds over there, when I happened to
notice this “blemish” on one of my agaves.

“Blemishes on the ESP agaves?
Bring on the tigers, I cannot
tolerate this”.

I had to take a closer look. Now, this was not as easy as it seems,
considering that the entire adjacent area was peppered with
spikes, thorns, sharp tentacles and a general lack of respect
for un-bleeding limbs. It is a cactus bed after all.
But I had to get in yet closer…

This amber “sap” looked sticky and wet. I clambered further in to
touching distance (which equates to a yoga-esk, physically
contorted pose) and did the only thing that came to my
mind…”must stick my finger into it.”
So I leaned in… and I immediately lost my balance.

My left kidney ended up inches away from being
impaled by a variegated agave. The amber
sap was “set”, no stickiness, no moisture.
It was solid and hard…most bizarre,
what is this sappy process?

On exiting the cactus bed I happened to notice this agave pup waving
its head around searchingly at the end of its umbilical cord,
inches from my face…I remained totally motionless.

One last amber (okay a bit of a stretch).
The first flamboyant bloom on my Pride of Barbados has arrived.
I love the silver-grey, feather-like contrasting leaves on this plant.
It is a carnival in a plant!

Nerd Alert, Nerd Alert!

I was recently doing my rounds with
my fish and seaweed emulsions when
I noticed this black waspy fly, it seemed
to be attracted to the smell.
I tried numerous times to get a decent
picture of it, but it was really easily spooked.
It finally settled down in some ivy where I
shot these two images, check
out the colorful eyes!

Black Soldier fly.
Hermetia illucens Linnaeus
A really interesting looking fly, which adorns some
crazy flapping antenna.

This fly occurs throughout most of the Western
Hemisphere and the Australian region from Samoa
to Hawaii. Adults superficially resemble wasps,
but have no stinger and are completely
harmless and apparently very rarely encountered.
I was happy to encounter mine!

“Can you believe this fly Rodders?”
It is another con-fly, cushty!

Photo by G. McIlveen, Jr.
The larvae of black soldier flies feed on decomposing
organic matter. If you have a compost bin you will most
likely have seen these, I am pretty sure this fly emerged from
one of my bins.

The larvae of black soldier flies
has the beneficial effect of rendering
the breeding media less suitable for the
production of house flies. I am beginning to
like this chap!
Soldier maggots are in-fact the good guys!

Note how the wings, in a relaxed state, fold over each other on the back of the fly. (Hey I warned you with a nerd alert!)

In fact these maggots
(which incidentally have absolutely enormous appetites)

are being used in some settings to break down
household and pig-farm wastes,
(they are natures ultimate disposal units), the larvae
are employed in a technique known as bio-conversion),
and no, they are not salaried.

“Burying our food waste in giant rotting
mounds is ridiculous given the elegant
solution represented by bio-conversion
with black soldier fly larvae”. Want to find out more about this fly and how bio-conversion works?
Then here is some serious bed-time reading just for you..
Thanks for your help J!

http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/

“And now for something completely different”…

Remember this member of
the “Na,Na, Nabooboo” tribe
wearing the agave carcass
“bad hair day” headdress?

Well I think I caught another member
of the same tribe today performing,
what I could only interpret to be
some kind of rain dance…

And rain it did…
I even think he was a little surprised that his rain endusing
gestures actually worked!
I ran up to thank this little pygmy tribal member,
but, like a hobbit, he had already scurried away on fast legs
and large feet into the surrounding undergrowth.

The rain bounced on the roofs…

and pounded our deck (I really must stop
putting off unclogging that gutter)!

It even brought a tear of joy to the Botox lady’s “half-eye”.
Or perhaps she is thinking of Bob at Draco Gardens?
Or perhaps she has conjunctivitis?
Hard to tell.
At least she is no longer bald! Well not quite.

The rain refilled my redneck, everything but the
kitchen sink, rain water collection “system,”

and made for yet another historic “snail harvest”.
Wait, he does not belong in here!

A lilly pad seemed a more apt place to return this tiny gulf coast toad.

“Hi little guy, don’t be afraid we all know how
disgusting you taste! You are safe with us”.

And the snails?

Well, I was treated to the most amazing escargot dish, prepared
to order in our outside “kitchen”, by our resident chief.

But the best thing about the new rain?

Had to be the fresh smell, right after it had stopped.

Here is the view from the street of the ESP. Left is my Vitex shrub / (no you will be a) tree,
in full bloom right now, and right, my desert willow. Left front is my spineless prickly pear
that I have been pruning up to encourage a more vertical habit.

I am trying to create a naturalistic setting here, one that ties in with the architecture of the
1890’s victorian house. The highest point on the left hand side of the picture is actually the
top of my giant timber bamboo at the back of the house…

This one.

Fruits and things pickedthis week in the patch:

We finally started to pick some of the limes from our mexican lime tree, and I have
to say they were really impressive, thin skin, lots of flesh, (hannibal murmurings) and
lots and lots of mouth puckering limey flavor.
It looks like we will be in good shape on the lime front for the foreseeable future.