phorbin wrote:
songbird says...

i think we could avoid a lot of bunny
damage here if i could convince Ma to mow
the little bit of lawn we have left at a
higher level so that more clover and
plantains would be left for them to graze.

The only way to avoid a lot(all) of rabbit damage is to exclude them.

we have fenced the area where we grow most of
the veggies. the areas i'm writing about are
those outside the fenced gardens. where i plant
all sorts of things and see what happens and
try different things.


The more rabbit food you have, the more rabbits you will attract.

within some limit as there are only so many
rabbits around. the hawks and feral cats eat
some. if i see too many at one time i'll
break out the air-rifle (i hate to do it) and


In numbers, you can't count on clover and plantains to draw them away from your
desirable plants and vegatables or to satisfy them.

even if i can decoy them a little bit then that
takes the pressure off certain plantings. it's not
a all or nothing situation and never has been when
it comes to these outside gardens. most of what i
plant are dry beans or extra strawberry plants, some
beets, turnips, onions, green and wax beans, edamame
soybeans, squash, cucumbers, melons...

they have tons of alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil
available, along with some other spots of red clover
and white clover.

what i am hoping to do is to continue increasing
the desireable plants in the green manure patch to
encourage them to stay back there. perhaps also
would help to trim back different areas more often
so that there is tender new growth to tempt them...


The other way to avoid 'some' rabbit damage is to have a predator balance.

feral cats and hawks do ok. with more open area
they would likely do a bit better, but i'm not quite
up to clearing the northern edge which has become
over grown.


Randy, a neighbour's cat was a specialist hunter that kept the rabbits and
chipmunks under control. -- Since he left the neighbourhood, the rabbit and
chipmunk population has grown to nuisance levels with generation piling upon
generation.

For the rabbits, I will build an exclusion barrier with trap refinements right
around our near quarter acre this month because I no longer want the issue this
season and it should be in place for next.

I've yet to decide what to do about the chipmunks.

heh. little buggers are cute and active. most
the garden damage in the fenced garden is from these
as we did not put down a fine enough mesh to exclude
them. if i ever redo or put in new fencing it will
include the finer mesh and i'll probably look into
a solar electric fence charger/capacitor setup to
include at the top of the fine mesh to really keep
them out.

i don't mind sharing, but they do a lot of damage
that seems frivolous (pick fruits and drop them, pick
another one and drop that one too, etc.). and i don't
want to keep cats.

as it is i do encourage snakes by keeping nice
warm rock piles for them and other habitat and i do
know the snakes take a few here or there, but it
never seems to be that they get the one that is doing
the most damage...

once in a while the air rifle discourages them
too, but i have better things to do that to hunt
the half dozen chipmunks running around. i'd never
get anything else done. like bunnies and raccoons
there's always plenty more around to come along
once the offenders are removed.


songbird