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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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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