[Sarajevo]

The orchard survived the 29° temps we had last night, and a lot more blooms have opened. The loquat suffered though. It bears fruit in the early spring, so it needs a very mild winter. In the past 7 years, our loquats have only born a harvestable amount of fruit once.

Anna Apple:

Almond tree

Methley Plum

Harvester Peach

Bruce Plum

Native Texas Peach; This tree produces fruit that are the size of a 50¢ piece, but they are so sweet! Unfortunately, squirrels like the fruit also

As you notice, we have cages around everything. The Texas Hill Country is overpopulated with deer, and they will destroy a tree. We found this out last year when we planted a pear tree. 90 minutes later, we found the tree's cage tipped over, and all leaves were stripped from the tree.

[rightly_dividing]

—The Texas Hill Country is overpopulated with deer—

I used to visit a church in hill country. Always saw deer in the church yard or nearby. One day we counted 22 deer crossing the road about a 100yds ahead of us. Quite a sight.

[greeneyes]

Thanks for sharing the pictures. Nice orchard.

[Marcella]

“The Texas Hill Country is overpopulated with deer...”

I've been to Bandera twice. My friends live on a high hill outside Bandera. My son drove me there both times. The first time we went, my friend warned us about the deer crossing the roads. They have heavy duty guards on the front of their car and truck due to the deer.

We were watching the road as we went to their house and went up the hill on their private road to the house. When we left that evening, we drove maybe 15 mph as it looked as though the entire population of deer in that county was on my friends’ private road and then the road to get to the main highway. There was every size of deer out on the road - the babies, the moms and the dads - it was family night on that road.

My friends are gardeners and have three gardens. One is a raised garden totally fenced in including wire over the top. The other gardens have heavy duty fence around them. They had a landscape company come in and plan the front yard, putting in plants deer hate and plants that take little water.

They suffer from having little rain. They are on well water plus have a catchment for rain water to help water the gardens.

If you are in the hill country, you likely need every drop of rain water you get and you want more as they do.