Having an oasis at the edge of the desert is sure to draw attention, even though the garden is located within a city. Our initial garden planning did not take into consideration the competition with wildlife which developed into a complicated game.

The garden bed is bounded by a concrete and stone enclosure. The soil was spaded and a ton of naturalized iris rhizomes were removed. Imported soil amendments were a necessity since the garden is perched atop a limestone hill in Tombstone, Arizona. "Tennessee Walker" nodule by-products were added with the guarantee that these droppings would produce the best garden ever. This material was turned into the already once-dug soil. The result was a light humus base ready for the germination of seeds.

Each day about 6:00 am the seeds were watered. Humming birds darted through the sun filtered spray and curious birds fluffed their feathers and welcomed the early morning showers. Once the tiny green seedlings peeked through the warm moist soil, a floating cloth was placed upon the plants, protecting them from the birds and creating a mini-greenhouse effect. When the plants became large enough to start pushing the floating material into small hills, a more permanent barrier was installed. A small chain link fence enclosure assured absolute security (except for birds and insects, of course). In addition, the west side of the fence was covered with black shade cloth to block the hot afternoon rays.

This chain link enclosure did not cover the entire garden plot. The remaining exposed area was lined with horizontally placed boards which were covered with chicken wire. This worked fine until the plants were of sufficient height to poke through the wires.

Once this wire barrier was removed, Bambi and Mama Doe began their nocturnal visits to the garden. They first began to nibble the blossoms of the potato plants. Wire, buckets, and boards were placed throughout the garden to discourage their visits. When that ploy proved to be unsuccessful, ocotillo limbs were placed between the established plants. The "dears" pushed the limbs into lengthy piles and pawed up the potatoes they had come to appreciate. More than one person told us that because of the drought the poor deer were just hungry. It seemed to be discretionary dining to us, though, since the rear yard full of green, soft grass was pretty much ignored.

The portion of the garden enclosed by the chain link fence yielded much, howsoever ugly in appearance it must have been to the neighbors.

Returning to the house with an armful of produce was always a coup. Being out-of doors, bending the limbs, tugging and lifting and hauling and spading is a truly solitary delight. Each moment in the garden a sort of relaxing peaceful physical endeavor.

The pleasure of gathering includes the harvesting of the seeds. This exercise triggers grand expectations for next season's crops. To share the bounty with the desert critters deer, javelina, rabbit, mouse, and bird-is not such a bother. Outwitting them, however, is a time consuming futile exertion.