Tyler Texas in East Texas

[Ghostlady]

I wanted to share these videos of Tyler Texas. It is one of my most favorite places. I almost lived here. Had a job all aligned and then the recession of 2007 hit. But, I still drive up in the Spring for the Azalea trail. This will blow you away... Home of the oil barons in the early 1900's.

[Jen]

Those are beautiful properties. I would hate to be the one responsible for the yard work though

We have a lot of azaleas in this area too but not like that. Rhododendrons, which are a lot like giant azaleas, are more prevalent. There are some old tree-sized ones that are spectacular in full bloom.

[Ghostlady]

Rhododendrons are beautiful too. Most of these people do not do the work for their yards, they hire the Mexicans that come over the border into Texas.

[draclvr]

Holy cow! I had no idea there there were places like this in Texas! Beautiful.

[Ghostlady]

East Texas is really beautiful

[Val]

Stunning houses and gardens!! Thanks for sharing. ♥

[LadyKestrel]

The flowers are lovely. It makes my one red azalea bush look rather dinky.

[JKEerie]

Wow! Just beautiful! Here I am trying to keep the deer out of my yard this winter so they don't eat any more of my shrubs. One got one of my azaleas in my front bed. The deer have been absolutely brutal this year. Found 5 of them just nesting in my yard last week after turning my arbovitae into swiss cheese.

[Ghostlady]

Do they come close to houses because there is a lack of food for them?

[draclvr]

And sometimes, it's overpopulation causing food shortage. Our urban areas in St. Louis are over run with deer, not only destroying shrubs, but also involved in vehicle damage. They had to do some managed hunts to lower the numbers.

[JKEerie]

Do they come close to houses because there is a lack of food for them?

This has been a strange year for the deer. I've seen a few here and there in the subdivision before, but never this many and all the time. There are woods behind the houses on the other side of the pond and once the pond froze over, the deer were just walking over every night. Folks have been saying they are seeing bunches of them, 8 to 10 even, in their backyards. I got some burlap and wrapped my arbovitae. Hopefully I can bring them back over time. We got a big snow this week, so that kept them away for a few days, but looking out today, you can see the deer tracks running through the yard and across the pond. I see that they wandered into my backyard, but didn't stick around as there food source has been wrapped up. You can definitely see how they are searching for food.

[Ghostlady]

I would love to look out my window and see deer running around. On the other hand I would get upset that they were eating plants in my yard. I guess you need to plant plants that deer don’t like to eat.

[JKEerie]

If I can't bring those arbovitae back, I'll either replace them with boxwood or juniper. They are supposedly deer proof.