This is part of our front yard. It’s pretty wild looking.. we live in the wilderness…. a formal garden would seem out-of-place.
The large bushes are a native called California Coffeeberry…..
There is a deer browsing in the bush.
There is a deer browsing in this photo
Having deer in this garden is a daily thing… right now the doe has a buck following along behind her…. it is mating season here.
We are in the far middle of the dry season here. We’ve been some five months with no appreciable rain, we’ve got another two before we can expect the big rainstorms that refill reservoirs and the groundwater in the California hills. So deer have their babies here in the winter, when the grasses are just sprouting, so the mother deer can have plenty of good food to stimulate her milk, and when the young start to forage, they will have the tender sprouts and forbes of spring to start their life of eating on their own off.
We don’t often water this section of garden…. such a large garden would require horrible amounts of water if planted to water-loving plants. And many of the California natives will rot if given regular water in the dry season. Their life-cycle requires a summertime ‘hibernation’ called aestivation. Tryting to keep them ‘alive’ in the summer when they naturally lose leaves to reduce transpiration and save water will actually lead to disease. It is better to let them get dry in the summer… they can get sparse, but with the winter rains, they will throw out a large amount of tender shoots and new green leaves. It’s actually much rpettier here in the winter in many respects.
There is a deer browsing in this photo