@jimhd, Thanks Jim, I'm jealous. Always wanted flowers and veggies. My well will go dry if I attempt to water a veggie garden, even laid down a drip system with a timer but no good. I posted a picture of my place and it shows a fenced off place 14'x14'. I thought I could do with a small garden and needed that fencing, still not good enough. Would cost 8-10 thousand to drill a well so I make do with my old shallow well.
I'll put up a pic on why I needed the fencing.

@muppey And still in velvet!!!! They can destroy a garden quickly. Nice capture. Thank you for sharing!

@jimhd How delightful. My thumbs are turning greener

Wow -- just gorgeous, @jimhd! What nice talent you have!

@parus,
This conversation is making me smile again, thanks to all.
I've got another picture when there were more than twelve bucks munching in my yard. Then you look around and there are more laying down but hard to count. Landlord is a hunter and was impressed. I don't hunt.
Hey greenthumbs, I can enjoy other things other than a garden. I've got 9 walnut trees, pear tree, an old plum which produces some but not munch, nice blossoms though. All my stuff is growing by itself. Used to have potted plants on the deck but with four years of drought I couldn't even afford to water them, had to haul water from two miles away. Got an army surplus water bladder built for helicopters but I found an old trailer which can handle 250 gallons of water, gotta drive slow but the jeep is strong. Brother Steve gave it to me.
And I'm all out of cigars, but got a nicorete lozenge going.

@parus, When I first got here in 98 I planted a few mellons. I'd noticed the hippies had great plans with a huge water system and grape stakes and they abandoned it all. Anyway I looked at that and thought I'd do a small plot without fencing. Everything was fine until things got ripe. Went out there one morning and just naked vines stretching out like a goofy octopus, with no suckers.
What?
Take care!
Mark

@muppey

I put up the fence for the same reason, as well as to keep the dogs out. I learned that the 5' fence wasn't enough to keep the deer out, so I added some 10' t-stakes and ran a few strands of barbed wire. Trouble is, the gophers and voles still wreak havoc, both in the garden and in the lawn out in front of the house. It's an ongoing battle.

Our well was lowered to 110' a few years ago, but I can only run one sprinkler at a time. I don't want to pour more money down that hole, so we try not to ask more of it than it can deliver. I have around a dozen soaker hoses in the garden and flower beds - more than a dozen, and run a low flow of pressure to them. Too much pressure makes them become fountains. Using soakers instead of sprinklers helps keep the weeds down. Weed barrier cloth and mulch help, too.

My landscaping goal is to make it lower maintenance and less irrigation. And deer repelling. They love roses, so I only have one, a climber, and have fencing around it. I have to have fencing around the orchard, as well. Deer have done serious damage to a few of the trees.

We have a real problem with ground squirrels, too. I spent a lot of time in the spring and summer trapping them. The locals call them sage rats, but they're technically Townsend ground squirrels. They make big holes in the pasture, and I'm afraid a horse or cow will step in them and be injured. Often when a horse breaks a leg it has to be put down. That's a substantial financial loss.

Well, the sun is shining, so I should probably get outside and do something.

Jim

Sounds like some fun work you put into your place. The age old water problem! The only roses that grow around here are wild rose and it's nuts getting rid of it. Some brush killer will take out small roses but when they get big seems they don't die.
How you doing otherwise?

@jimhd I love the photo of the columbine!

@muppey @kdawn32

I do have some rosa rugosa. The deer don't like them, and the hips are as much of a reason to have them as the single rose blossoms.

I love the various flowers of roses, Columbine, Iris, tulips (deer like tulips), annual garden mums, coreopsis, daisies, day lilies, forsythia, and even the cacti. The ones I like the best are the ones that tend themselves with just a little water and grooming.

I worked in the pasture, setting squirrel and gopher traps, and did some weeding in the garden and getting the spots ready where I plant tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and mini pumpkins. I'm paying for it today. My feet are hurting. I need to spray a bunch of Roundup and get beds ready for potatoes and onions and snow peas. I'm looking forward to seeing sunflowers and hollyhocks coming up outside the kitchen and family room windows.

How I'm feeling? That's harder to put into words. I'm trying to focus on Easter weekend and take my focus off myself. Easter is a time to meditate on the amazing work that God did to restore the relationship between Himself and mankind that was broken by sin. The words of a song our choir sang 30+ years ago just came to mind - He only wants to love you, He only wants to care. That truth gives me strength and reason to keep going.

Easter is also symbolic of new life, and seeing plants coming alive, budding and blooming, and where there's new life, there's hope.

Gotta get some soup heated for lunch. Marilyn made a big pot of chicken noodle soup and we've been enjoying it this week.

Jim