Early Morning Beauty

Early this morning, about 1:00 a.m., I opened my front door to let our cat back in the house.  Across the street, under the light, was a mother deer and her baby.  She was nibbling the leaves in the tree and the baby was eating grass.  They were so beautiful.  I watched them for about 5 minutes until they began making their way through the neighbors yard and when the mother went to step on the driveway, it looked like she tried to tip toe across the concrete driveway....I guess they have learned their hooves make noise on the concrete.  She walked so carefully and quietly and then her baby followed.  At this point, that put them on the side of the street where our back yard is and I just  knew our dogs were going to start barking, but they managed to stay so quiet it didn't even wake our dogs.  As I quietly opened the screen to let our cat in the door, another female deer came up to the road and followed the pair.  Beautiful.

The down side to all of this is that we live in town.  The deer population continues to grow and there have been times we've seen as many as 10 deer across the street.  Part of our neighborhood sits up on a hill and the yards slope down into a valley like setting with a dry creek and lots of trees.  It's a perfect setting for the deer.  They can quietly walk behind the houses and feed off the bushes and grasses.  Once in awhile they get curious and walk up to the street. 

As beautiful as it is to open your door or look out the window and have the opportunity to watch the deer, I feel sad that they are coming in to town more and more.  It is not good for them to be in town and not good for us either.  I have friends who will no longer plant a garden because the deer eat it up.  They even jump the chain link fences to into yards and eat the plants. 

Considering that all around our town are rural farm areas and fields, and densely wooded areas, it's hard to believe that the deer are coming in to town in large numbers.  There does not appear to be a shortage of food or water for them.  You would think the lights, barking dogs, cars, and strange smells would make them fear being in town but it doesn't appear to.  It's almost like they are curious.

Apron!

Well, I promised a picture of one of the aprons I was making so here it is......I'll be selling aprons along with produce from our garden. 

You Know You're Addicted to Gardening When...

Your neighbors recognize you in your pajamas,


rubber clogs and a cup of coffee.


You grab other people's banana peels, coffee grinds,


apple cores, etc. for your compost pile.


You have to wash your hair to get your fingernails clean.


All your neighbors come and ask you questions.


You know the temperature of your compost every day.


You buy a bigger truck so that you can haul more mulch.


You enjoy crushing Japanese beetles because you like the


sound that it makes.


Your boss makes "taking care of the office plants" an


official part of your job description.


Everything you touch turns to "fertilizer".


Your non-gardening spouse becomes conversant in


botanical names


You find yourself feeling leaves, flowers and trunks


of trees wherever you go, even at funerals


You dumpster-dive for discarded bulbs after commercial


landscapers remove them to plant annuals.


You plan vacation trips around the locations of botanical


gardens, arboreta, historic gardens, etc.


You sneak home a 7 foot Japanese Maple and wonder if your


spouse will notice.


When considering your budget, plants are more important


than groceries


You always carry a shovel, bottled water and a plastic bag


in your trunk as emergency tools.


You appreciate your Master Gardener badge more than your jewelry


You talk "dirt" at baseball practice.


You spend more time chopping your kitchen greens for the


compost pile than for cooking.


You like the smell of horse manure better than Estee Lauder.


You rejoice in rain...even after 10 straight days of it.


You have pride in how bad your hands look.


You have a decorative compost container on your kitchen counter.


You can give away plants easily, but compost is another thing.


Soil test results actually mean something.


You understand what IPM means and are happy about it


You'd rather go to a nursery to shop than a clothes store.


You know that Sevin is not a number


You take every single person who enters your house on a


"garden tour"


You look at your child's sandbox and see a raised bed.


You ask for tools for Christmas, Mother/Father's day, your


Birthday and any other occasion you can think of.


You can't bear to thin seedlings and throw them away.


You scold total strangers who don't take care of their


potted plants.


You know how many bags of fertilizer/potting soil,/mulch


your car will hold.


You drive around the neighborhood hoping to score extra bags


of leaves for your compost pile


Your preferred reading matter is seed catalogs


And last but not least:


You know that the four seasons are:


Planning the Garden


Preparing the Garden


Gardening


~and~


Preparing and Planning for the next Garden






-Author Unknown


(If you know the author, please share the info)