We had a couple of ‘energetic’ Springer Spaniels at the time so the back yard needed to be of a sufficient size – lucky for us it was – it even came with a towering Post Oak perfectly situated central at the rear of the lot.
We bought the house – we moved in – we started painting – we finished painting – (we hated masking) – the usual.
And time passed.
And the Lantana and Ligustrums grew and grew.
Austin Texas – 1890 |
lots of scrappy perimeter trees, a flat plain of Bermuda, and a sea
of Lantana.
Did I care – absolutely not.
We quickly erected the obligatory chain-link fence and let out the dogs
to exlore their new domain, well at least part of it, 6th sense told them
not to venture too deep into the darkened realm of Lantana.
It rained one day and with the weeds and grass past my knees, I realized
I needed a lawnmower,- quickily. And so my deep rooted (ahem) hatred
for Bermuda grass was born.
And time passed.
And the Lantanas and Lugustrums grew and grew.
left: backyard circular bed needing help right: view of the distant Lantana ‘sea’ and badly placed shed
We eventually prevailed and celebrated the last Tap-root thrown onto the shrub pile – we were done! I thought naively – how difficult could the Bermuda Grass eradication be after this?
. . . . Quite difficult indeed as it turned out.
Oh and what is this on the Post Oak? See it now? staggering camouflage.
happened. The space under the Post Oak suddenly
became inhabitable, and I started to think about how this
terrain may be utilized. A rough plan was hatched which
was centered around a water feature. The Bermuda Grass
would just have to wait a little while longer – this was
way more exciting! I found myself eager to work on
something a little more creative than hacking out tubers.
Initial layouts led to more refined plans like the one
above that encompassed the back yard in its entirety. I
became determined to carve the land roughly into the
shape of the these sketches – subsequently an obsession
was formed that remains with me today. I would spend the
next five years making and learning from my mistakes,
buying books and generally loitering around garden centers.
ridiculas stories of my humble initiation to the world of
gardening and landscaping. I will also throw in some
pictures and annotations as to what is currently cool,
strange or bizarre in my yard. In fact here are some now. . . .
Giant elephant ear growing fast! amazing form, tossing the caber!
More on the water feature saga and how it attacked me later!
Stay Tuned for:
“I Used a Sledge Hammer on my Water Feature ”
All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.
(Anonymous) wrote:
May. 4th, 2008 07:48 pm (UTC)
Your mystery plant
Hi There, I found you on Blotanical and came over to read awhile. You don’t mind taking on a large project, do you?! (You don’t have to answer that :) Interesting to see all you have done. I think your mystery plant might be Goose-neck Loosestrife. Here is a link (I hope it works.) to photos you can compare it to.