The incredibly hot and dry summer days are finally behind us. Our optimism for being able to grow our own veggies ticks up as the rain gauge slowly registers more rainfall. Although the word "garden" conjures up images of lush plants, there are a lot of steps that must be accomplished before the fun planting phase can begin. For us, each step is a great learning opportunity. I get excited when we start each new step in creating our backyard edible garden. Today we finally began setting the posts for the fence that will protect our crops from the myriad of resident deer. After decades of settling for a limited plant palette that was unpalatable to the deer, we realized that the only option for creating a truly productive landscape was to fence it.
Like the chicken coop with its limestone piers, we wanted the fence to reflect local Texas materiality. Furthermore, the fence needed to be relatively open, maintaining a visual connection between the house, yard and canyon.
This image is just like the many pasture fences we saw on our drive to and from Lost Maples State Natural Area last weekend. Note that the posts are simply trunks or branches of cut down trees, likely the prevalent juniper. This style of fence would be a perfect reuse of the wood we have piled from various yard trimming projects, such as making space for the chicken coop to nestle into the juniper trees at the edge of the canyon!
