"A Beer in Time Saves Nine"

ESPatch Aug 6, 2008 0 comments

(I was not in time and it took me 9.5 beers to realize what needed to be executed!)

I looked at the whole central area of my yard and pondered and wondered, wondered and pondered, and drank a few more cold ones.

BBuuuurpppp!

I could do all of this pondering without immediately passing out because It was a little cooler outside tonight thanks to the total charlatan wimp “Eduard” tropical storm, or more commonly referred to as “drizzler-good-for-nothing”. He promised a biblical flooding and gave thimbles of dew.

The only thing he was good for was a slight reprieve in the overall ambient temperature… it was now only 90 degrees. I knew I would have only half a day to “freeze some turbans” and work, before Texas turned back into the red planet again.

My new pathways have opened up a new central bed that needs significant prep-work if I am to be ready to plant it up in the fall …if I can only bring myself to wait that long. (mmmust control my syndrome.)

Mmmmm mulch.
The trouble is, this bed is still a foot deep in pine bark mulch, and has plants in it that I need to relocate (as well as the pine bark) to other parts of my yard.

Pine bark removal.
What I have in mind requires much more drainage and a certain type of soil that requires further research….I have decided on Lavender! lots of it! so much In fact that I intend the Lavender to fill the entire area!
One plant – one mass planting.
This book may have had something to do with this!

This bed requires some low-level shrub otherwise it will block the view to the other parts of the yard, not acceptable. I have such a diversity of plants in my other beds that if I continued this randomness it would make for a “too busy” aesthetic. I also considered a mass planting of Dune grass/Lime grass but became leery of the”creeping” – I wanted something different here, something quiet, something easy on the eyes…
If anyone has any experience with ground planted Lavender in Central Texas, I would very much like to hear about it.

“As Ceaser, I demand more experimentation, more risk taking. I say give Lavender a try!
Down to more randomness”.
This is a particularly daunting endeavor considering every Lavender I have ever planted in the ground has died really quickly, (I believe to excess moisture), but this time…………. this time, things will be different, this time I will be better prepared.
After all nothing could be more of a disaster than my spluttering tomato plants…could it?

“I am Maximus, the general who became a slave.
The slave who became a gladiator.
The gladiator who defied an empire and said…
I WILL grow a large swath of Lavender on the East-Side
of Austin in Central Texas, and it SHALL be great.”

The remnants of my home depot “figure of eight” bed. The Sand Cherry shrub will stay for now, I am afraid if I move it at this time of year it will surely die. The little succulents that I removed from this area, I tucked into the crevices between some of my new moss boulders.

Here is the future Lavender bed cleaned out except for the Cacti – this I intend to move to the front yard soon. The large Rosemary on the right should work out well with the Lavender.

Vew of the future planting area. The fallen Agave beanstalk will shortly be removed (as soon as I have taken another 100 pups from it!)…
(do I hear sirens and a straight jacket opening?)

Must have another hundred! Must have anoth……
The Agave felling is going to make for a great future post, I am thinking…..lighter fluid……more limbo dancing…..An Agave sawing ceremony, complete with tequila induced mariachi yelling etc. etc. You get the picture.

Talking of more pups, remember this? It has filled in
quite well…in fact..

It is starting to spread!

I only noticed today that these octopus suckers were falling off the host, some have already germinated in the surrounding decomposed granite!

Tiny, tiny, offspring, amazing!
I pulled off a whole bunch more of these suckers and threw them into my adjacent cactus/succulent bed to see if they will do the same. I love the random possibility.

Staying with the octopus theme for a moment….

Okay, okay, so a giant squid then!

Here is another succulent from the same circular bed that has developed a more linear approach to self seeding…there is one of these on each leaf. I love this bed! I am interested to see how many of these plants will make it through the winter, because I cover nothing.

On a final note, I broke down and planted another Agave. This one should provide a good color contrast to the Loquat.

Other “Tom Jones’s”: in the yard right now:

Purple Fountain Grass

and more purple: “Err I think I will go with the sage please, oh and could I have a side of blackened Echinacea purpurea with that as well please”.

I intend to keep these Sages as compact as possible, tightly pruned
for the rest of their lives. I love this plant, but leggy
it is a different animal….not in my zoo.

One more with purple heart as a backdrop.

Talking of being extroverted!

This crown of jewels is out of control!

Stay Tuned for:
“Ten Teeshirts Later”

"A Garden in the Works"

ESPatch Jul 30, 2008 0 comments

This was a quick design I did a few months back for a friend’s backyard, also on
the East Side of Austin. I thought I would share it. The idea here was to create an environment that once established will, for the most part, take care of itself.

Early concept sketches defining the main hardscaping features & elements

planning gate position and access around the yard

settling into a more refined concept, utilities and plants are integrated into the plan.
I then worked into some of the main features a little more…

From a Shed…

to a jungle temple, surrounded by large ornamental grasses. The bamboo will have the lower shoots removed to highlight the green culms against the white shed. The bamboo softens the edges of the shed, and blue river rocks suggest water at the base.

A seasonal herb tank will be the future star of a
circular courtyard.

More refined sketch, isolating some of the main features.

Here are the final images. I took photographs of views that visually “describe” the yard layout. I then worked up photoshop images based on the design and plantings defined in the earlier plan. I pulled plant images from my own yard, and found the rest online to create the following after shots.

looking back to the rear door              same image with photoshopped design. Recognize that gate? she has one too! The gate is set at an angle to the house and represents the end of the side yard. The gate is flanked by two bamboos which help soften the edges of the gate and house. The gate leads into a circular courtyard area.

before shot                                                    same shot photoshoped. The circular courtyard has a 900 gallon herb container as a center piece. The area adjacent to the house has a mass planting of Dwarf Miscanthus with a line of Giant Timber Bamboos behind to create some evergreen, light privacy. ( a request for the scheme)

Before shot. These trees will go. There  is the gate against the tree. Pathway from the back door to the gate with low maintenance planting. The fence on the left is hidden with a line of Loquats to create a tropical feel. All of the grass in the yard is removed in the new plan.

All these scrappy trees down the property line need to go, replaced with Timber Bamboo. The sunken area to the right of the shed is to be the future home of a carport. This was screened with a horizontal line of Loquats so that from the house this area would not be visible. Curved seating was introduced to the courtyard area to fit with the circular courtyard theme.

Photo-shop is a good tool to visually communicate how a yard will
look at different stages of its development. The images here visualize a future planting scheme at around the 4 year mark.

Other Notables I noted on notepaper:

This emerging Agave “needle” reminds me of the scary chaps wrist weapon on the movie “Signs”.

“That Austin garden blogger was right about these “Iced Turbans” they really do keep you cool in a heatwave, as well as not allowing aliens to read your mind”!

look how big the culm that jumped ship is now!        “she is approaching the culm!”

Gazing ball and Gopher plant.

Aloe and Azure       “Reflections, all those reflections, reflections within reflections etc,etc.zzzzz”

Looking into your Purple Heart

Can someone tell me if this is dwarf campanula, or something else?

Sad peppers wilting in the heat.                              “look over there dad, he hasn’t watered today”!
“Son, I hope this will never happen to you.”

A gnarled old planter is now a sculptural feature in one of my beds.

Firecracker Plant, Cigar Plant
Latin: Cuphea ignea
The plant gets its common names from the reddish-orange flowers which are cigar shaped and about and inch and a half long.The tubular red flowers of this summertime bloomer make it an attractive plant for hummingbirds and butterflies.

And to finish, a couple of dragons!

Stay Tuned for:

“A Beer in Time Saves Nine”

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