When the chickens won't lay eggs how about growing some in the garden



I can't get to the garden beds yet - too much snow. But I've been planning! Trouble is I have so much planning time, that I end up with more projects than time when things thaw out. This season I'm taking out a perennial border that hasn't been doing well, and replacing it with low maintenace shrubs and reseeding perennials.

Oh my gosh! I always admire those in the catolog!! How wonderful to see them growing in a real garden. If i remember right, it is an eggplant type a thing? If so, is it edible or mainly (very) ornamental. Or maybe too close to the poisonous nightshades? Oh dear, short term memory failure
What a treat to see it MK xoxo
About those long range project plans, not to fret - it happens down here too, even where we could get outside to do um, most of the year. I have a bag of bulbs in the grnhouse that I can't bare to look into to see what i didn't get around to planting last fall :-0 But the denial is only a temporary solution. :-(

I've never seen anything advertising edible. They are kind of pithy inside. Probably wouldn't be to good. Seems that I did take a nibble straight from the garden :0

I'm still waiting for spring! As you probably heard, the east coast was hit with yet another snow storm. Well we have about 18 inches of ice pellets/snow packed on the ground. Most of the animals can walk on top of it.



We've really had lots of deer coming in to eat at dinner time. 21 last night. 13 put on a show for the motorists by running right down the highway to get to our house. Guess that was easier than running in the snow and ice.



I'm still waiting for you all to send me some warm weather! Are you seeing spring bulbs now?

What a scene! Everyone who sees it must be thinking the same as I am ...... I WANT TO DO THAT !!!
Yes?!
Such a funny thought - the site of them galloping down the road to dinner.

18 inches - I can't even imagine it. Yes, the earliest spring bulbs are blooming down here. There is a new comestrollie on the current ones. And tips of tulips are already protruding for the next color flush.

I have been wondering how the east coast storms had hit you this week.
Terry would be so glad to see your coat is buttoned this year

Maggie asked: "Oh how dreamy it must be, to be so close to them. Do they acknowledge you with eye contact, convey any emotion or feelings of any sort?"

I have a little yearling doe that will give me "kisses". Actually she sniffs my nose and forehead. Sometimes her nose will touch mine, but usually I just feel her whiskers tickle me. After a kiss she gets some food before any others. I really think the majority of them just think of us as a food source.

Did you know that if you don't look a wild deer directly in the eye, they will be less likely to bolt? When we started feeding ours we walked around looking at our own toes all the time. Now I can look at them all. But only a few are brave enough to come within touching distance. The others keep just out of arm's length.

The sheep all lined up so they don't have to step off the packed path of snow.

I'm on the floor laughing here,, sheep all in a row - toooo wonderful. Lars says they look like they are waiting in line for something. I think they just know you had your camera out and about. and wanted to esp please us.

Just I thought - you are the deer whisperer
I want deer xxxkissesxxx !!!!
xoxoo

Oh my gosh those pictures ARE amazing. The deer are just like cattle waiting for the farmer to feed them--I didn't realize they could get so "acclimated"! I had a racoon family get so friendly that they would come to my kitchen dinette window, stand up and peer in with noses presses against the glass. We would then put food on the windowsill. A friend's 8 yr old daughter witnessed this one evening and excitedly exclaimed, "it's like rac-donalds!!" We all had a good laugh, and her mother subsequently gave me a "Rac-donald's" plaque which I hung over the window. Unfortunately, several months later, they just disappeared.

Racoons are much easier to "tame" than deer, I would guess. I see deer tracks down close to a nearby lake. Saw a beaver once IN the lake, but have never seen a deer. Too many people in my area, I imagine.

Although, in Austin TX, people do have a LOT of trouble with deer eating their expensive landscaping. Mamakane, do all the deer that you help through your snowy winters ever come back to haunt you and your garden in the summer?

Rac-Donalds!! love it!

The deer are smart. The tamest of them watch the windows of the house and will make eye contact, as if to say "get out here and feed us".

I was not ignoring your question Sandra, I just don't always get online like I used to.

Yes the deer come back and eat in the gardens! I don't get too upset over what they eat in the fall and winter, the heavy snow and cold will get most of it anyways. But in the spring, i try to make a deal with them -Ii'll feed you plenty, and you stay out of the garden. But they don't always keep up their end of the bargain. As to the vegetable garden, the string beans MUST be covered to grow to maturity! So far they have left the tomaotes alone. Last year I hid the cucumbers in the corn.

Cucumbers up the corn stalks - wonderful!
It is amazing that they don't eat all your blooming garden too, in the growing season. But then as you once said, they seem to have plenty of wild plant food in your mountains in summer. Central Texas wilds are much less verdant during summer droughts, when the only plants that seem to survive wild deer have thorns, or very tall branches.

Love that coon story Sandra! Some neighbors raised a baby racoon in their house like a pet. She seldom left their yard, but one night found her way in to ours. Then followed one of our animals through the dog door. Scared the life outta me, until I realized she was the tame one.

Sure beats the bird table MK, but don't you worry as the numbers start to increase. Just how many can you support.

Sheep in a line, waiting for the "ABOUT FACE" order.

Well we have had a very easy winter, not much real cold, in fact I would guess generally warmer than Texas. Everything is budding in the garden, snowdrops are just about past their best, but they have been exceptional this year.

Maggie I didn't see Snowdrops in your spring garden. If you can do the Daffs and Crocus then Snowdrops should be in with a chance. Mine do best in the driest part of the garden which surprised me. It seems they only need the moisture when in growth.

I've enjoyed reading and catching up on some of the stories.

Terry, Glad to hear your winter was mild. I'm sure you are enjoying the spring blooms. Funny you should ask, I was just thinking last night - just how many will we be feeding when the next batch of fawns happen ? !

You could always open a petting/feeding deer zoo to raise money for next year's deer chow, MK

Lovely to have you back Terry. You must have missed my snowdrops on the January strollie. In this Tex garden, they are gone by Feb., when the Leucojum snowflakes take over.
I started posting picie strollies again back in Nov, replacing the page monthly, around the 15th.

Wonderful to hear you've had good winter weather, after that rainy cold UK summer.
Hope you get to show us some more lovely Yorkshire garden pics this year oxxoo

So glad you got to catch MK's regimented sheep - right up your alley blackadder