On Mon, 05 May 2003 19:33:48 -0700,
(paghat) wrote:

(Frogleg) wrote:

(paghat) wrote:

Anyone know of a natural way to keep rabbits out of the garden ?


I'd like to hear some folks' reports of SPECIFIC harm rabbits have done to
rec.gardens gardeners' gardens.

Beans. Rabbits waited 'til the beans were up and had 1 or 2 pair of
healthy real leaves, then ate every single sprout. If the beans
persisted and sent out new leaves, the rabbits persisted more.This
happened to me and about 10 others in a community garden. Of course,
they nibbled on other things, too. I sat in the garden weeding and
watched a "wee bunny" chewing up a tomato plant 15' away (not mine).

The trouble with "cute" wildlife is that you can rarely usher it to a
"shared" portion of your garden. They just don't understand, "you can
have 5 bean plants and the rest are for me." Few would mind if
squirrels ate a dozen pecans from a prolific tree, but they don't.
They bite into and ruin hundreds, and leave them to spoil.

Good points all. I am enamored of wild life &would probably adjust my
gardening around whatever limitations they impose, meaning no beans for
me.

Beans were just one specific example. As I said, they also chewed on
other greenery. My beans were, for me, the most spectacular example of
damage. I do like fresh beans.

Wild European rabbits are Australia's worst animal pest, causing
hundreds of million$ of damage, both to crops and the natural
environment, as well as spreading disease.

Australia is a little different as it's an example of what happens when
alien species are introduced into a new landscape where they never
belonged. Whether that's marine toads in Hawaii or rabbits in Australia.

True. There are, evidently, enough natural predators to keep American
rabbits in check. A good year for rabbits is followed by a rise in the
fox population. My point was that however "cute" some wildlife is, it
is not automatically welcome. A kitten is "cute"; a bunch of feral
cats is a problem. We all love Bambi; not so cool when he's eating all
your landscape. Oddly, many non-cute species are Garden Friends. My
neighbor can't bear the little snakes that appear around here from
time to time, yet they're presumably going after plant-nibbling
critters and minding their own business. She also doesn't like worms.

The Farmer's wife's guide to growing and eating your own vegetables claims
that if you put posts around your garden and tie those light, biodegradable
plastic bags to them, rabbits will stay away because the random movement of
the bags in the wind will make them nervous. I am going to try that as a
secondary line of defence this summer, aside from a 3 foot fence chicken
wire fence that I can climb over.

I agree its no good trying to only plant stuff that the bunnies won't eat.
My mom fought a rear guard action against them for years until she gave up
vegetable gardening. They would eat anything down to the ground if given
the chance, even stuff with nasty leaves like zucchini. We have freinds
whose hostas are eaten to little nubs every summer.

mm

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Opinicus" contains these words:

Iowa883 said:

Anyone know of a natural way to keep rabbits out of the garden?
Dog. Preferably a large one. Preferably also a non-digging sort of dog.

Rabbits feed and scrape at dawn and dusk, when most active dogs are
fast asleep.

Fence the garden, including gates,with a small-mesh wire fence (not a
hard DIY job) and keep the gates shut. It's an investment that will save
you years of lost plants and frustration.

Janet.

They girdled several young trees one year, we now wrap the trunks during
winter when it seems that the trees are most vulnerable and the rabbits
most ravenous.


susan, who was thankful the trees weren't grafted and most came back
from their roots...

paghat wrote:

In article ,
(Iris Cohen) wrote:

Anyone know of a natural way to keep rabbits out of the garden ?

The only sure way is with a fence.
Iris,

Dogs are pretty good for 'em too.

I'd like to hear some folks' reports of SPECIFIC harm rabbits have done to
rec.gardens gardeners' gardens. I know they can do a great deal of damage,
but it would be interesting to hear some typical examples, as I'm
wondering how often they might actually be tolerable (if not numerous) as
cute visitors with whom humans should be more willing to share at least
SOME of the garden. I'd be happy to share with wee bunnies up to a point,
& be tickled to have them visiting; but I'd have my limits no doubt.

When I had a fawn Flemish giant as a kid, Sandy ran loose in the yard &
even went with us to public parks & loped about without a leash, he was
such a cool rabbit who knew to hop in & out of the car. He never even
slightly harmed gardens as he preferred to crop grass, but then, he was
fed rabbit pellets mostly so wasn't in a great harvesting mood while
running about. Still, he was maybe five times the size of a wild bunny,
yet by himself couldn't possibly cause much garden damage even had he ever
tried.

Sandy's last name inevitably was McGregor. When he eventually died, an
Evil Guardian had him skinned & tanned & used him to wrap expensive
silverware kept in a drawer. That really creeped me out. But when no one
was around to see me, I'd open the drawer & pet the silverware wrapping &
hope Sandy could feel me petting him.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

I don't know if it is what I grow, but there are plenty of wild
rabbits where I live (walk down the street at dawn and be amazed!) and
they don't do serious harm to any of my gardens. I tend to mix my
plantings up, and I'm fond of herbs, maybe that has something to do
with it? I've grown cabbage, snow peas, peppers (sweet and hot),
carrots, lettuce, brocolli, cauliflower, tomatos... I generally
scatter marigolds, basil (several varieties), and cilantro seed and
plants around the gardens. The gray squirrels roam thru and dig up
seedlings now and then, but for the most part my gardens aren't
bothered. The rabbits do like to nap under my sage and rosemary
bushes. The lawn has a lot of clover and dandelions in it, so maybe
that satisfies them?

The only time I've seen more than a few leaves, a single fruit, or
what was obviously a single chomp missing was when the 40lb
woodchuck(?) moved in under the neighbor's shed. That ******* (yeah,
I saw the big body print where he rested after the devastation) just
chowed down and ate all my snow pea plants to the ground in 2 days!
He didn't seem to like cayenne powder much though.

There was a squirrel one summer that went around putting a big bite
hole in each pepper, even though there was fresh water available.
Stopped when he bit into a nice orange habanero.

In article ,
(V.R.) wrote:

I don't know if it is what I grow, but there are plenty of wild
rabbits where I live (walk down the street at dawn and be amazed!) and
they don't do serious harm to any of my gardens. I tend to mix my
plantings up, and I'm fond of herbs, maybe that has something to do
with it? I've grown cabbage, snow peas, peppers (sweet and hot),
carrots, lettuce, brocolli, cauliflower, tomatos... I generally
scatter marigolds, basil (several varieties), and cilantro seed and
plants around the gardens. The gray squirrels roam thru and dig up
seedlings now and then, but for the most part my gardens aren't
bothered. The rabbits do like to nap under my sage and rosemary
bushes. The lawn has a lot of clover and dandelions in it, so maybe
that satisfies them?

Now this strikes me as the ideal, really a "dream" of a gardening outcome,
where animals can be spotted lounging & exploring but without doing any
horrible damage.

-paggers

The only time I've seen more than a few leaves, a single fruit, or
what was obviously a single chomp missing was when the 40lb
woodchuck(?) moved in under the neighbor's shed. That ******* (yeah,
I saw the big body print where he rested after the devastation) just
chowed down and ate all my snow pea plants to the ground in 2 days!
He didn't seem to like cayenne powder much though.

There was a squirrel one summer that went around putting a big bite
hole in each pepper, even though there was fresh water available.
Stopped when he bit into a nice orange habanero.

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

"Iowa883" wrote in message ...
Anyone know of a natural way to keep rabbits out of the garden ? Is there a
certain plant or flower you can plant around the outside ?
Or any other good way ? If not what do you all use on the leaves to keep
them away ?
Thanks,
Iowa883

Double row of soybeans around the garden which the rabbits prefer will
slow them down.