deer Archives | Page 2 of 4 | Diana's Designs Austin

Visitors

The deer are coming for food and water several times a day these days.

I put fresh water and some old lettuce out and two adult does watched me from the field and then came to eat and drink.

15 minutes later, I saw the babies peering over and realized the food and water was gone.

So I went back out and refreshed the supply and put down some bird seed (They eat it out of the feeders anyway!) and more water. They watched my every move from near by and then hurried over to have dinner.

I snuck back in the house and took these pictures. They’re not very good, but I got them.

They are all so thirsty and hungry that they are less and less skittish about humans.

I think they’ve figured out that I bring good stuff!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:40-05:00September 3rd, 2009|Blog, deer, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Crispy, tender and slinky…

Well, the Death Star continues its relentless torture of people, pets and plants in Austin, Texas.

CRISPY

It hit 106 today and that’s 16 days out of the last 17 that we registered more than 100 degrees. Sheesh! And it’s still June. I guess we are in for a repeat of last year, so I’m gonna hang onto my hat and my sunscreen and put on my big-girl panties and deal with it. (don’t hold me to that!)

See my poor Toad Lilies — I was amazed that they even came up, but I think it’s just too much to hope that they will actually grow, or, heaven forbid, bloom. Many things in the garden are getting crispy. And I pulled out all of the snap dragons from the fall — they were all dead and gone.

This is sad, though — this is my first Heuchera, and I was hoping it got enough shade to protect it. I sure hope it wasn’t my fault, watering when it was too warm out and burning the leaves….

This Kangaroo Paw hails from Australia and was supposed to love drought conditions. Apparently not!

Patches of grass come an go in between watering. I’m trying to keep it to the bare minimum, but it’s not easy. We have irrigation, but I’ve taken to spot sprinkling a few bad places where there must be some huge slab of rock underneath.

Tender

Here is my sweet little friend of the season. Emmy and Lulu have moved on and this little girl has come calling almost daily. I have lots of fresh water out every day – 5 birdbaths and one giant deer water bowl — and I know she’s hungry. When I was worrying about her last week, my dear husband went and bought a protein block for deer at the local feed store. In this 3-year drought, I hate to see them starve to death.

Slinky

Sunday morning my DH took this picture of one of our smaller garden friends who thought he might like to read the papers in the driveway! My sweetie said, I’m going to take his picture for you to post on your blog!

What a great husband, huh? And today is our wedding anniversary. I’m such a lucky gal, he loves me and he loves my garden and my garden friends. What more could you ask for?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:42-06:00June 29th, 2009|106, Blog, deer, drought, Sharing Nature's Garden, snake, weather|0 Comments

A preview of tasty morsels and, oh No … It’s BAAAACKKK!!!

Some more green beans are growing in my garden. These little blooms are a foreshadowing of a side dish to come.
And this pale little strawberry will soon be ruby-red and ripe and juicy — ready to eat while I am standing right in the garden. (But be careful, the juice will run down your hand and get all over you if you’re not careful! These strawberries are NOT white and hard inside, like those in my grocery store.)
The variegated lemons are small but powerful — a few more months and they will be delicious and ready to pick.

But WAIT.

Oh NO!

As I was picking weeds in the pathway, what do I see?

Do you recognize this little leaf?

It’s the EVIL Malabar spinach that threatened our very existence with take over last season.

It crawled up the house wall, scaled the garden and tried to come out into the yard. You can check it out on my pulling my hair out post, “Ok, don’t laugh!”

It was a heck of a lot of work to keep it from taking over and smothering the rest of the veggies in the garden.

And then I had the epiphany. I would rip it out and feed it to the deer, who were suffering last September from the drought and 40+ days of 100 degrees.

So, here’s the deal. We’ve had about 10 days at 100 already. It’s dry as a bone and the drought is STILL going. And the last few days I’ve seen a yearling doe in the woods looking for bird seed and her waterbowl.

My DH bought a protein block for the deer today.

And now I am thinking I might let that evil Malabar keep growing in the path and use it to feed the deer.

What the heck…

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:34-05:00June 20th, 2009|Blog, deer, malabar spinach, Sharing Nature's Garden, vegetable garden|0 Comments

Are my deer sheepish?

Well, well, well. What have we here?

Does this look like the remnants of a little rutting going on in my front yard on MY MAGNOLIA TREE???

(Can you tell I’m annoyed?)

Of course, it’s the girls that I’m feeding, and this was the handiwork of the young boys the other night when it was very cold out.

Unfortunately, this means that my Magnolia, should it live to a nice, ripe age, will simply not have those full, traditional low branches that we love in the structure of the Magnolia. Mine will look like an fruit tree, instead!

Oh well.

Okay, Carol, I’m “embracing” my bucks!

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:51-06:00November 19th, 2008|Blog, deer, magnolia, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Mmmmmm…’maters!

Yumm-O as Rachel Ray would say! Tomatoes are a’comin’ on the vine. These cooler evening temps helped the blooms set and now they are growing like mad, hoping to beat the first frost. Here that’s normally not until early December, but we’ve had unseasonably cold temps at night this week – into the 40s at my house, so they’d better grow quickly!
They are pretty tasty — not quite as sweet as last year’s but we are enjoying them.

See that little clump of green near the middle of the photo? That is the LAST of the Malabar spinach — my DH and I cut off all the vines threatening to take over our garden and our house. We fed them to the appreciative deer and they will get that last clump tonight for dinner. Then it will be done! Whew!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:45:06-05:00October 29th, 2008|Blog, deer, malabar spinach, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomatoes|0 Comments

Oh, my…

I know a picture is worth a thousand words, but I just don’t have one.

But I do have a story to tell.

Tonight as I was closing up outside, I heard rustling on the other side of the fence where Kallie and I placed more Malabar spinach vines for the deer. So, I snuck in to peer out the window, and there was … not Emmy, but a young buck with pretty antlers munching on my spinach. He turned and cocked his head in my direction – saw me, and ran off. I had my camera in my hand, but it would have never worked … it would have been a photo into the dark, far away and through the window…talk about a challenge.

But, it was so nice to see him there, having a late dinner and a drink from the water bowl, knowing that these animals are desperate for moisture and food since we are down 13 inches below our normal rainfall (and our normal rainfall isn’t much to begin with).

I’ll change my tune when he tears stuff up later in the week, but tonight, I’m soft-hearted and touched.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:45:08-05:00September 30th, 2008|Blog, deer, malabar spinach, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

deer

Visitors

Crispy, tender and slinky…

A preview of tasty morsels and, oh No … It’s BAAAACKKK!!!

Are my deer sheepish?

Mmmmmm…’maters!

Oh, my…

Escape in the garden