Animal Behavior: Lovesick Buck

In this particularly mild winter in San Antonio the whitetail deer in our neighborhood seem confused.  The deer rut or mating season occurred as usual last fall.  We saw all the activity among the local herd, and then they formed bachelor herds which occurs when there is no competition among the bucks.  This bachelor herd walked through last week.  The new fawns should be showing up soon.

Over the weekend we noticed a couple of bucks looked injured as if they had been fighting which seemed odd at this time of year.

Visiting Yeya's Part Two: The Find

Yesterday I shared my recent visit and the new plants I picked up at Yeya's last week, but I saved something special for today. I'd been considering this faux bois planter with the bad paint job for a while and I decided to purchase it.

Yeya's and more new plants for the new year

One of my favorite places for garden things is Yeya's Antiques and Oddities just east of downtown San Antonio.  I first wrote about Yeya's a year ago and I have been back there many times since.  It's about time for an update.

This area is known as "the yard".  Mario brings in lots of cool stuff on a daily basis.  The vintage garden chairs near the entrance sign (above) were being unloaded by one of his pickers just as I arrived.

First new plant of 2013!

In my last post I asked for recommendations to fill the spot in the front garden where two Texas sages had recently been removed.

The votes were cast by readers, tallied in a secret location, and delivered by computer. The unanimous choice of the Academy of Blog Comments (ABC) was......Envelope please! 

 The "New Mexico Agave" or Agave neomexicana!  Here it is just after I brought it home.  Isn't it cute?

Winter Garden Projects: Removing Texas Sage in the front yard

Winter is a great time for major garden projects in south Texas.  The mild weather allows us to enjoy working outside longer and most plants are dormant making them easier to move.  Back in November we removed a Texas sage from the mailbox bed near the street and this weekend we pulled out two more sages in the driveway island bed.  They had outlasted their value in the front garden and even with frequent trimmings they just didn't look right with the new landscaping.  The sages are the tall gray shrubs in the center of the bed.

Before

Mosaic Monday Fun

A few weeks ago David of Tropical Texana posted results of testing free online collage formats.  One of his collages reminded me of my favorite effect in Fotoflexer.  It's the "pop-art" effect which will turn your photos into a Andy Warhol style masterpiece in seconds.  I played with several photos and my favorite is this agave.






Printed out on poster paper or canvas it would be a fun piece for a wall.

Scene on the Street: A slice of garden

Since it's slow in the garden I'm going back through photos for interesting things I've found along the way in the past year or so.

This pie-shaped spot surrounded by two retail parking lots often catches my attention as I drive by.  A tall yucca with opuntia and ornamental grass at the base are good choices for landscaping in our climate.  Nice looking, simple, and low maintenance.  I think David at The Desert Edge would approve of this arrangement although you might not see this combination in the wild.