Tom,
What do they call the countryside brush out your way, Chaparral? I 'think' that is a Mexican word that means "piss-poor browse". It amazes me that deer live in Texas at all, never mind in the numbers they do! Nothing to eat but cactus and creosote bush. It's no wonder they seek out better forage in people yards. The same thing happens in Maine during a hard winter. They will slip out of the deer yards at night and devour Yew trees like they are candy! Almost any ornamental shrub is also in jeopardy.
I haven't seen them eating any fake leaves yet, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Rog
Rog,
I live in East Texas, land of the pine trees and swamps. You are thinking of West Texas where there is more brown then green. Right now my "subdivision" house yard is made up of grass around the house, rose beds along the fence line by one street, a piss poor maple tree (supposed to be red maple but it is not) in the front, roses around my shop, privets in front of the house, pine trees and yaupon holly trees/bushes in the side yard with some mixed hardwood trees in there somewhere. At our farm in Deep East Texas we grow grass in the pasture and 18 acres of southern yellow pine along with a bunch of under brush and hickory trees. Will try to p[ost a picture or two of the house.
Tom