the gang’s all here

One of the reasons I have not been blogging lately is that it’s so darn hot outside and gardening is a bit on the miserable side. Also, anything I do spend time sweating over, the deer eat. They’ve become so desperate that they knock down my fencing.

Yesterday, my brain, overloaded by cherry panna cotta, made a startling discovery: The deer are NOT EATING my HERBS! DUH!!

I woke up early this morning to find a cool breeze and a temperature in the mid 70s. Perfect for pulling out munched down squash and cantaloupe vines. I started “weeding”, slowly working my way from the left side of my garden to the right. All was well until I nearly stepped on one of the culprits of my garden’s demise. Right under my nose was Bambi’s stunt double. A tiny deer was napping between the house foundation and the plumbago.

At first I thought it was dead.

Then I noticed it was faking dead. So I walked off hoping it would run away. I returned a few moments later to find the little bugger in a new position, but same spot. So I kept working, it breathed heavily as I puttered a safe distance around it. I’m sure it’s mom had said not to move and if you see Kate she’ll want to kill you for having eaten her tomatoes. But my cold, gardener’s heart melted as I imagined what terror this poor kid felt and so after I cleaned up I willingly exposed on of my carefully protected cherry tomatoes.

I went to dress for church.

I returned to find it sill in place, napping and breathing normally. PHOTO OP!

Bambi hiding between the foundation, septic control thingy, and my plumbago.

I was so worried this precious but destructive animal was hiding in my garden to die (drought is so bad this year…I wonder how any of these animals survive – oh wait, they’ve had more tomato sauce this year than I had the whole semester I studied in Italy). I feared I would return from church to find dead Bambi. Luckily, when I got home, she/he was gone and all was well.

And so I easily continued forth with my herb garden bonanza. Already in my garden I had 11 varieties of herbs. I planted 21 more varieties (but 31 4″ pots total).

Left side of raised garden - pre planting

Left Side planted

Right side planted

While planting I almost hit a bunny with my hori hori knife as it came sprinting out of the oregano. GOOD GRIEF!! I looked around to find bees buzzing near me, a humming bird, some sort of sparrow like bird, and a huge dragonfly. I’m becoming a Disney princess! Can I use these animals for good, to clean and weed, like Cinderella did?

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Deer Fence

KEEP OUT!

Here’s a shot of my wacky deer fence system. I bought 6 sections of 2.5′ tall fence at Home Depot. I think total it cost me about $70 – much cheaper and easier than a real fence.

The layers keep the deer out as there is no space for them to jump in. I wonder if they will ever realize that with a flick of the head they could probably uproot these fence lines. Let’s hope they don’t wise up.

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Wildlife Welcomed

In the past few weeks I finally managed a system for keeping the deer out of my garden. I rearranged the small fencing in layers. One layer runs along the edge of the raised stone bed. Another layer runs just a few feet inside of the bed and one layer wraps the lettuce for extra protection.

This has worked so far… I keep expecting to wake up one morning to find the fencing completely flattened.

Lately I have been spending a lot of time walking the property (1.5 acres). KR Bluestem is taking over the area where the Zoysiagrass has yet to spread. KR Bluestem is beautiful but invasive and the cows can’t eat it which means the ranchers are going nuts over it. In large fields it has a purple/rust tinge that mixes with the gold-colored native grasses and the effect is more than striking.

During my time outside I’ve noticed all the wildlife and insects. Deer laze about in the taller grass at dusk. During the day there are tons of birds flirting in the Bay laurel and cotoneaster. Bees are everywhere as are lizards, preying mantis, and the like. As a landscape designer I spend a lot of time on people’s properties and I notice a huge lack of wildlife and insects aside from mosquitos. We have never once sprayed synthetic chemicals in are garden or on our grass and almost all of our garden plants are native. It’s amazing the difference. I’d be curious to do some restoration on an urban/suburban lot and see if the wildlife/insects return. Most of my clients are trying to discourage those “pests” so I doubt I’ll have that opportunity. One can dream.

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Come and get it

I woke up this morning to find that the deer have discovered the salad bar I planted in the side yard. It took a week and a half for them to jump over the little fence.

Damage done:

– three butterhead lettuce
– chamomile
– topped off the herb salad mix with a strawberry for dessert.

Now I have to think up a new way to discourage them. I don’t understand why after 5 months, not a single deer has munched on the volunteer tomato plant.

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Is it really Fall?

October finally arrived and with it a touch of “cool” weather. I have spent the majority of the past few days outside, much of it in my garden.

At my house there is a troubled planting bed. It is in prime location, facing northwest, and is bound by a rock wall my father built using stone from the property. Traditionally this bed has been an herb garden but many years ago, after the rosemary took over, we tried to convert it to a flower bed. For some reason the bed refused to cooperate. We left it alone for the most part. Every fall and every spring we’d jump at the change in weather and try to plant a few vegetables, hiding them behind other plants and hoping the deer would not find them. They did. We left it alone…completely. And for a long time.

The zoysia grass took over, carpeting the bare soil around the two large agaves that have survived and entangling itself in the thyme, plumbago, and esperanza that remain.

I am tired of grass in my herb garden. It’s completely unfair. Grass has it’s place, but like an empire it cannot be content to merrily stick to it’s own boundaries, it must lord over the lands that it feels are not being utilized correctly.

With renewed vigor I spent days turning the soil and removing as much grass as possible. Some areas are stubborn – like the tufts protected by the spines on the agaves. But for the most part I have cleared it away and at the moment I am moving 1.5 cubic yards of soil into the bed. The mocha colored Double Thunder dirt from Geo Growers smells so … earthy.

As for protection against the invading hordes of deer – we are setting up a fence at the top of the stone wall making the barrier about 5-6 feet in height. The fence is tan with a touch of decoration at the top; it gets set right into the soil and the design allows for us to easily pull it out so as to get access to the vegetable patch.

I have no idea if this will really work at keeping out deer. I don’t know if the agressive grass will stay in it’s place. But I am having fun.

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