And now for a pleasant stroll through the Mulder Gardens. Despite the lack of rain, there is much beauty in the Mulder Gardens this time of year. The pond is full of life including two goldfish that showed up out of nowhere last summer and lived under the ice this winter.
Many things are sprouting new. On the left you see Pepe's Mango tree. It was planted in honor of Pepe's creation and seems to be growing faster than Pepe. Very exciting news it that after being planted 6 months ago, the Baobab seed that I received in my stocking finally sprouted. These trees grow huge. In about 500 years I can build a house out of it. So far it's only four leaves big.
The avocado that Sarah planted when we started dating is doing very well. I fear that after this summer, I will not be able to fit him in the house anymore. He lives happily next to the garage. Elsewhere in the garden things are blooming all around. We have a few orange day lilies, some fantastic purple Pickerel weed in the pond as well as a delicious apricot water lily that blooms constantly. Even the Venus Flytraps in the bog are flowering. It's a wonderful sight. There is trouble in paradise however...



The trouble lies in the vegetable garden and surrounding gardens. These gardens are at the back of the yard quite a ways from the house, so I can't keep a close eye on them. Imagine my horror when I came out to find my peppers pilfered. They were the first to go. The plants were eaten down to just sticks with some peppers hanging on them. Now I had some raccoon problems in previous times, but they had never gone after pepper plants. I was baffled. Later I noticed that every single flower bud was eaten off of the day lilies in the back. No sea of orange along our back fence this year. A few days later the leaves from the cucumber and acorn squash were disappearing. Then came the last straw. My big beautiful zucchini was devoured. I was (and am) furious.
The culprit turned out to be quite amazing. I knew that I would not be deemed credible by the majority of my family, so I took photographic proof. Yup... DEER!! You read correctly. Urban deer tough enough to go after peppers and spikey zucchini leaves. We see these two guys each evening that we spend in the garden. They are brazen enough to hang out in the neighbors yard while we have a group a friends around the fire pit. Who can blame them with the impressive antlers that they have. The photos don't do them justice, since I counted an impressive 14 points on the bigger fella. Even the one we call "the little guy" has 8 points. I guess with no hunting pressure they grow big around here.
So I suggest to Bo that he bring a shot gun next time he comes down. If you rid me of these pests, I promise not to let Pepe use the mango tree on you. Venison anyone??