“Men in Blackfoot daisies”

ESPatch Apr 19, 2010 5 comments

“Show yourself, we know who you really are, no point in pretending to be a daisy any longer”…

The Men in Blackfoot daisies turned up in the Patch shortly after my eldest snapped this shot in the sky, not being a conspiracy theorist or UFO advocate, I was initially skeptical of her proud “Its an alien, it’s an alien” claim…but then I decided to look at the picture in more detail, in fact, a lot more detail.

I downloaded a premium digital enhancement program online and zoomed into the pixels faster than Captain Picard could say…

“Pull my finger number one”.

I was shocked to see what the image revealed…

I zoomed in 1000 percent:

I zoomed in 2000 percent:

And at maximum magnification I was shocked to see this “Grey” staring back at me out of one of the UFO’s portholes. He appeared to be scouring our planet with somewhat envious eyes.

“Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.”

Enough nonsense.

This week in the Patch my two strawberries ripened and were devoured immediately. I grew a single strawberry plant this year just for this moment. The hobbits have been following this plants progression from flower to green fruit, to blush and finally to a ripe red…well almost ripe fruit. They could not believe it when I said today “go ahead, pick them”, as I have been constantly telling them not to bruise them and touch them as they developed! They both looked at me with a “is he serious” expression, as though they were getting away with something… then quickly knelt to pick the fruit, fearful that I might suddenly change my mind!

The strawberries were gone instantly…

…even though they were still a little sour apparently!

Sour they might have been but nothing tastes better then something you have waited and waited for. My next vegetable experiment for them? Eggplants… more on this later.

Can you tell I like Mexican feather grass?

The slightest breeze in the patch makes you feel as though you are at sea. This grass adds so much animation and graceful movement to a landscape…

It lines my pathways…

it creates natural theatrical curtains, for who else, but a center stage sotol.

It contrasts great with spikey plants like this soft leafed yucca, but one of my favorite combinations…

has to be feather grass and Gaura

Gaura lindheimeri

I have the white and the pink cultivars. This plant moves around as much as the grasses hence one of its common names: “whirling butterflies”, and if you look real close you will see that the panicles on the feather grass pick up on the pink/purple coloration of the gaura blooms. (Adjusts nerdy glasses)

Oh yes I will be dotting many more gaura around these grasses for quite some time to come. Did I mention how tough this little plant is?

Another new combination I am itching to get going is…

Gulf Coast penstemon and artemesia. I think this should make a great combination, the penstemon being the perfect height to rise out and above the silver artemesia.

Moving on…

The Prince of the inland sea-oats is straining to keep his pale head above them all.

A toadstool spore some how managed to develop high up on the wooden ladder into my post oak tree. I am surprised that the ESP witches have not used it yet in one of their hideous spells.

The color on the leaves of this African Hosta

Drimiopsis maculata

is quite eye-catching right now.

The African Hosta is a native of Africa, but it is not technically a true hosta. The advantages of this plant over it’s more well-known namesake, is that it holds up to our hot, Texas climate. During cold snaps, it will freeze to the ground, but when things warm up in the Spring, the fresh new leaves will have a distinct mottled look like this one. The leaves become more evenly colored as it matures.

I unearthed this colony of pill bugs today, I was about to ignore them when I happened to notice the intricate markings on their armor.

I was told by a Naboo elder that the story of the entire universe is written on the backs of pill bugs. He told me that each plate hieroglyph is unique and if you laid out all the pill bugs on the planet in exactly the right order, on the blank pages of a rather huge book, there would be a coded message that would liberate and save the entire human species. Who am I to argue? And what better creature to carry the message through the ages than the ancient Armadillidium vulgare

Okay, perhaps her!

Stay Tuned for:

“One Too Many Beers”

All material © 2010 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“Lady-bug-Gaga”

ESPatch Apr 16, 2010 20 comments

“Aw, I make a great ladybug, don’t you think ESP?”

“Oh yeah, looking real good now Lady Gaga!”

Ladybug! Ladybug!

Fly away home.

Your house is on fire.

And your children all gone.

All except one,

And that’s little Ann,

For she crept under

The artemesia plant.

In Britain ladybugs are referred to as ‘ladybirds.’ It is believed that the word Ladybird was substituted for Ladybug in the American version of the nursery rhyme, due to the word association with Firebug meaning an arsonist or pyromaniac. There has been some speculation that the rhyme originates from the time of the Great Fire of London in 1666.

photo by Steve VanGunda

Farmers of old knew the value of having the ladybirds around, reducing the amount of pests in their crops, it was traditional to cry out the rhyme before they burnt their fields following harvests.

I have a bumper infestation of ladybird larvae and ladybugs on my artemesia this year,

I had no idea this plant was such an attractant or host, another good reason to have a bunch of it.

I caught up with another large ladybug looking creature that was actually a beetle, a Milkweed Leaf Beetle:

Labidomera cliviollis

It was clambering around rather clumsily in this feather grass, the grass not able to hold it’s weight.

While we are on the subject of insects:

This metal dragonfly from the creative iron-working hands of Bob over there at: http://dracogardens.blogspot.com/ was a real hit in the Patch this week, and no accidents so far Bob!

It gets a tweaking at every opportunity:

The scorpion hook has taken pride of place in our hallway, I hung it down low for the hobbits to hang their coats on, the pincers are great for holding their Tolkien rings.

Thank you!

The elder hobbit now keeps asking…“so who is Bob”?

Oh yes, someone giving her gifts? She has to get to the bottom of it.

One last bug communication I overheard this week…

“Wait lads! Let me make sure the coast is clear”…

(Dog Whistles back over shoulder) then moves a bunch of legs in a series of marine-like gestures…

Winged reproductive termites

“Go! Go! Go!

I first noticed these alates (winged) or primary reproductive termites when a mocking bird dove over my head, did some mid-air aerobatics to snag a couple as they emerged from the side of my house. I quickly honed in with my camera…first one, then a few, then they began streaming out of my house like bats coming out from under Congress bridge. This exodus is referred to as a dispersal nuptial flight, it is commonly referred to as swarming. If I wasn’t there taking pictures of the event I am sure the birds would have been in a full-on feeding frenzy. When the alates receive the proper cues (warm temperatures, bright sunlight, low winds, for example) they will leave the colony and fly away to start their own. Male and female termites shed their rainbow colored wings and will pair up when a suitable mate is found. When termites swarm they are often misidentified as “flying ants”, due to their visual similarities.

“Enough of this insect nonsense ESP, move with haste towardeth the plant talk!”

Central Texas has had some sporadic light drizzles this past week, and a little rain…

…drizzles that left water jewels defying gravity on the grasses…

and a dusting of dew on my hearts…

“Yes, yes” (obligatory noises).

…moisture that made the ragworts perspire.

Along with the moisture naturally came the now traditional, ESP snail hunt…

…and quite the bounty there was to had for nimble picking fingers, by the time they had finished, this bucket was three quarters full.

When the sun made it out again, later in the day, I was emphatically summoned to the back of the garden for some sushi…the goldfish! Oh no the goldfish!…Could they? Would they?

“Allez cuisine!”

Thankfully this was the vegetarian feast that was awaiting me at the end of the garden, complete with post-oak chopsticks. I thought the bamboo husks were a nice Michelin-star touch from my elder hobbit. While I was devouring my garden sushi, (holding my head back and dropping it to the ground), I noticed that my oldest clump of giant timber bamboo had developed fresh growth at it’s base…

…the funny thing was, the foliage was variegated? Very odd, but I am not complaining.

The sun also dried out the barbed seeds that have now formed on my feather grasses, not sure if I should go around and strip these seeds now before they have a chance to blow around and germinate, what would you do? I must have…

“Hmmm”…

“A million seedlings?”

My loquats are in loquat heaven with the recent moisture, combined with a rather wet winter.

My stone crop waterfall is also starting to bloom with tiny white pendants that hang over the slabs. This great little plant seems to grow where there is no soil. I think it is now rooting on the debris that my Post Oak is emitting.