"A Walk Down the Garden Path"

ESPatch Jul 23, 2008 0 comments

I did a couple of odd things today, I fed my madness and potted yet another 70 Agave pups (under the excuse that Hurricane Dolly had dropped the temperature a little) then I got creative with some bags of decomposed granite I had left over from the potting frenzy. I dumped them in my wheelbarrow and carried them down my yard. I paused at the point where my granite path dissolves into pine bark. I screwed some fresh eyes into my head, raised an eyebrow, and glanced over at my short pronged rake that was now screaming like a Mandrake root from the interior of my shed.

Mmmmm, something was happening here and
although my stomach was rumbling, eating
would have to wait.

Okay, okay, I know this insanity needs to stop – I think I am up to around the 200 mark.

Maybe just a few more . . . . . . . Arrrggghhhh!

I began to scrape back the pine bark, at first in a little area…

So here is the transition area between granite and pine bark.
I was never happy with this, but for some reason I just kind
of lived with it. What was I thinking?

Then I dumped my 4 bags of decomposed granite into the area, which naturally didn’t go very far, but it gave me an idea for a much bigger plan.

“I will have paths, lots of them, and they will
be great and wide, and people will stroll down them!
Down with the transition area”.

I began raking like a madman, everything falling into place. Beds were defining themselves, pathway lines came naturally, as if I were channeling their contours from another life. I had no concept of time, which usually equates to something good happening.

Before my raking madness and after. The bark mulch was raked into mounds that then defined the shape of the walkways…very effective. These flagstones will be removed in my new master plan.

And so I continued…

I decided to create a cross-roads in front of my Post Oak, one path leading to the brush pile, the other to my shed. I am thinking a wooden sign may take advantage of this junction.

you get the idea.

The best thing about defining these walkways was that they, in turn, defined the future shape of my planting beds. It was kind of there before, but lacked definition….not anymore.

I initially contemplated running a pathway in front of my raised pond.

But then I decided to run the decomposed granite right up to the edge of the raised pond for standing/sitting stability. The rocks will be removed and the wooden platform recessed into the granite.

It was about now that I realized I needed a lot of decomposed granite and a lot of moss boulders to define the edges of my new pathways…
1411 Custom Stone!

A Thirsty Visitor:

Stay Tuned for:

“I have Decomposed Granite stuck in my Teeth”

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

"The Devil is in the Details"

ESPatch Jul 21, 2008 0 comments

…..And this tree apparently.

The Devil’s Tree is a solitary oak, with some dead limbs, growing in an undeveloped field on Mountain Road in New Jersey. Local legend, and a book based on it, has it that the tree is cursed or the property of the Devil. Supposedly, those who damage or show disrespect to the tree in its presence will shortly thereafter come to some sort of harm. Even simply touching the tree has been said to cause unexplained effects, such as hands (or toes?) turning black afterwards.

Thats funny I don’t remember touching the tree with my toe,
or even visiting New Jersey?

ooouch!
Oh no wait, now I remember, it wasn’t Satan’s tree,
It was a stroller in my hallway, and it was dark.

Or was it Charlie….
http://www.break.com/index/charlie-bit-me.html

The remakes are all over the net:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rkhbvm5YOo

I know you all could have gone the rest of your lives without having to see my toe monstrosity.

In Winter, supposedly, the ground beneath the tree is free from snow no matter how much has fallen or how recently (sounds like Texas). It is said that slaves were hanged from the tree in colonial times, and that the Ku Klux Klan gathered there for lynchings. The hangings are said to have been done using the branch that runs almost parallel to the ground.

Despite the dire warnings of the legends, enough damage to the tree has occurred that its lower trunk has had to be protected with a section of chainlink fence wrapped around it. The site is now constantly patrolled, and a movie is bound to follow.

Anyway I digress…

When people say that the devil is in the detail, they mean that small things in plans and schemes that are often overlooked can cause serious problems later on………well, yet again I fear the worst.

Pups and seeds mixing it up.
….. I certainly did not count on the beanstalk developing seeds! thousands of them. The fallen Agave was not content with dropping thousands of tiny replicas of itself, oh no, it looks like it is adopting a two pronged assault, a remarkable technique. Perhaps for a grand finale the beanstalk will slowly raise itself vertical again and explode like a missile, sending millions of pups and seeds over the entire neighborhood. You can see that the pups have got a lot bigger since my last few posts. My Midnight Limbo antics under the tiki lamps continue to knock off more and more babies, revealing more and more seed pods.
If anyone in Austin wants some of these pups, drop me a line. I only have a few thousand!

The seed pods remind me of the worms in Dune

Or maybe

Or possibly.

Detail of the seeds. It is dropping thousands of them in a line under stalk. “Feed Me Seymore!”

Oh, I have a very bad feeling about this.

Remember last week I thinned out my pond, well the lillies have relcaimed
their territory, almost entirely.

This water looks way too inviting right now.

And here is a top view of my smaller feeder pond. I anchored a small baby lily under the small pump, and a day later it had reached the surface! There is only about an inch of organic matter in the bottom so I am not sure it will be stable in here. This tank will be the fish tank for a day or so when I put on my waders and clean out the main pool (first time in 5 years). There is so much organic matter in this pond it actually breaks the surface of the water at one point.

Remember my groaning tomato plants . . well a lot of fish emulsion later and voilla….
What?

Other things strutting their stuff right now:

Amaranth getting really big really fast, they need a little
supplimental water in this heat but they are total troopers.
They love to grow and will self seed readily in just plain
old decomposed granite, like these chaps.

Frosty foliage on the Arizona Cyprus, looks like deer antlers.

Contempory Art from the Hoja Santa.

Step across the line and you immediately self combust.

Sit on this at this time of year and you will be immediately
bottom branded, your posterior will bare a remarkable
resemblance to a victorian stained glass window.
I have a couple of these little stools. They fit aesthetically
with my rusty arched gateway and are the perfect height for
pond gazing.

Cosmos and Lantana still burning bright despite the temperatures.

Stay Tuned for:
“A Walk Down the Garden Path”

All material © 2008 for east-side-patch. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

East Side Patch

"A Walk Down the Garden Path"

“I have Decomposed Granite stuck in my Teeth”

"The Devil is in the Details"

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