East Side Patch

Harry "Potter"

ESPatch Dec 6, 2008 0 comments

All was quiet last night in the patch… well at least it was for a while. We all were settled in to watch our 105th viewing of the new “Tinkerbell” movie, when we realized we were being burgled. There was a tremendous commotion on our back deck, I scurried outside to startle the perpetrator.

“Run away, run away”! “What the………” “Racoooooooooooooooon”!

When I burst through the back door, with camera in tow, this masked bandit jumped on top of our child proof gate in a rather Johnny Knoxville “Jackass” fashion. The gate crashed to the ground, and this is the shot I blindly took of him, scampering down my steps and away into the night dark…

...and this was the carnage he left behind. Fish food “Blub, Blub..So inconsiderate”!
everywhere! I decided not to clean it up as I figured this bandit would be back a few minutes later to finish off what he started.
I was right, the next morning all this fish food was pretty much hoovered up. I now keep the fish food in my outdoor refrigerator.

“Francoise, have you ever seen a more perfect place?
“No Richard, it is fantasteek, all that sweet smelling artemisia!”

I wanted to investigate this tiny hut further but a small sound turned my head to a clearing. I turned my camera (naturally on full macro) and caught these two tiny castaways in the middle of one of their daily chores.
I surmised that the hut had to be theirs, then wondered how many years they had been marooned out here?, cut off from any miniature human contact. I wondered if they had heard the recent rock gig in my Asparagus fern amphitheater.

The cooler temperatures we have been experiencing have been a welcome relief (still no rain though). Imagine my surprise when I happened to stumble upon this tropical micro-climate hidden in the depths of my silver artemisia “Powis Castle”. I was amazed to find this swiss family robinson hut perched on a stone slab that looked remarkably like sand! The tropical vista looked like a scene from “The Beach”.

“Aaargh! this Powis Castle is so dense, how is the fire coming along?”
“One more stick and we are ready to start cooking sis”.
“What is on the menu tonight bro, tell me it is not another one of those spiny crabby “Orb Weavers” that taste like chicken?”

“Afraid so sis”…

“Oh and we also have some potato vine to
accompany it for a little starch”.

I had no idea that the potato on this vine existed so close
to the surface, and that they were so large.
But all he kept ranting on about was a ball called Wilson.

I neglected to mention that I did encounter one other castaway in
the higher altitudes of this patch of Artemisia:

Japanese Fatsia Fatsia japonica.…….Its a fly magnet (zzzoom in)!

“I don’t know what it is about that Fatsia plant,
but I am curiously drawn to it.”

(You don’t want to plant this one too close to a back deck!)

Shade tolerant evergreen shrub from Japan.
Grows best in loose, well drained soil with regular watering and full shade.
Always the last plant of the year to bloom in my yard, perhaps being a native of Japan and South Korea it is simply confused by our seasons.

The creamy white flowers appear in late fall and early winter, offering a final meal to any late-flying insects, unfortunately mostly flies. I have never seen a plant that attracts so many flies, anyone know the scientific reason for this?

An ornamental cabbage arterial tree. “I Vant you”

And finally to the front yard, and a few more purples… Amaranth in all of it’s purple fall color.

“You will read my journal Mr Man” (Misery,1990)

Stayed Tuned for:
“A Purple Harvest”

All material © 2008 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

"Snakes and Ladders"

ESPatch Nov 28, 2008 0 comments

Easssssst-Side-Patch finally has a sssnake?

Whoa! an urban snake!

I was on my way down the yard to challenge William Wallace to our usual weekend stone throwing competition (he prides himself on his accuracy). After a brief conversation with him about the English, I turned around to see this snake, stretched out across the path! I realized I must have stepped right over it without seeing it. At this point I realized that to get across the snake I would have to jump back over it. I was flanked left and right by my pampas grasses, and venturing anywhere close to them would have been as bad as a snake bite. This was the largest snake I have witnessed in my yard, and my jump across it must have looked hilarious, so exaggerated!

“Must avoid the snake, must avoid the snake”.
I must have got four feet airborne!
I really wanted to get up close with the lens, but was a little leary
as I did not know his identity.
Snakes are not a strong point of mine.

“Hey Malfoy did you hear what he just said”?
I was happy to find that this was a Texas Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta lindheimeri)
and they can give you a good old fashioned biting if cornered,
in fact, they have a bit of a reputation.

“What you looking at?”.
The Texas Rat Snake is a fairly large snake, capable of attaining lengths past six feet.

Here are a couple of larger examples of a Rat Snake.
This snake has a voracious appetite, consuming large amounts of rodents and birds, and sometimes lizards and frogs which they subdue with constriction. They are agile climbers, able to reach bird nests with relative ease. They are often found around farmland, and will sometimes consume fledgling chickens and eggs, which leads them to be erroneously called the chicken snake.

“DDDid he just say a chicken s s snake”!
I am so happy to have this beneficial snake living under my shed, I assume that is where it may be living as that is where it slithered off to. He must have been having a veritable feast with my shed “issues” this past summer.

Talking of feasts:

Could it carry any more pollen!
This honey bee was very busy on my purple heart plant which is blooming right now…filling his pockets like:

The tunnelers in the “The Great Escape”.
Staying on a war theme:

Purple Heart sprawling inbetween some moss boulders.
The blooms look like they are riding in dugout canoes.

Another (almost) bloomer right now, Meyer Lemon, I have just moved my container
up onto my porch for a little extra protection over the winter.
It is always a trade-off, heat verses light.

Containered burgundy maple tree and a blue echeveria. I am not sure of the name of this one. It must be in an ideal micro climate though, as it’s color and shine is more intense than it’s brothers and sisters positioned elsewhere in my yard. Echeverias are tougher than they look. They make ideal potted plants, but will grow in flowerbeds, and are fairly tolerant of wet and cold. Like all succulents, they do best in coarse, well-drained soil that is allowed to go dry between waterings.

I have been trying out a whole bunch of succulents in many different places to get acquainted with some of the different growth habits of some of the more common ones available in Austin. These are a couple of pots that I planted early last spring at my in-laws’ house. They have gone berserk. This treasure chest looks like a fantasy scene… dragon scales, mermaids scales…etc, etc…you get the idea. It really works well, referencing the back drop brick color, pebbles, and glass chunks.

Here is one more.
I can’t wait to get planting my new succulent bed…only five
more months to wait!

Another great plant for fall color is the Mexican Fire Bush.
This is also a new plant for me this year, and even though
it is still small I have not been disappointed.

Also called Hummingbird Bush or Scarlet Bush.
Firebush is a fast growing, semi-woody evergreen. Firebush produces showy
clusters of bright reddish-orange or scarlet tubular flowers.
The flower stems are also red. Even the clusters of berries
are showy; they ripen from green to yellow to red and finally to
black.

Flowers attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and birds love the berries;
Very tolerant to heat and drought…perfect for Texas!

Looking like black stuffed olives, the fruit on the fire bush also
offers unusual fall interest.

And now we are way overdue for an unidentified bug:

This was a tiny, tiny, and I mean tiny wasp looking fly thingy. Perhaps a hoverfly Syrphus ribesii?
Great coloration and amazing iridescent wings.
click then click again for detail. (It was about 5mm long)

This has to be the final canna lily bloom of the year.

Emerging lavender flower head…
reminds me of the Art Deco
Chrysler Building in NY.

All my ornamental grasses are now putting on their brown winter clothes to match the granite pathways and moss boulders. They will stay like this until I see new growth appearing in early spring.