Can I safely prune back old and straggly azaleas and rhododendrons?
--
John Lloyd, West Midlands, UK.

The message
from wind'n'stone contains these
words:

Garden being overrun with rabbits. Not long moved here and had problems
getting anything to establish due to wind. Took advice and have planted
beech, juniper, heather and holly.

Were growing away nicely and now holly all nipped off at base, same
with young beech. Heather been 'trimmed' back to about 2" high. Juniper
ok but I'd like a bit of variety.

Any ideas?

You can get plastic coiled protectors.

Otherwise, rabbits are excellent in pies and casseroles.

Recipes available.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

I trimmed back an azaelia in my mothers garden a few years back and it came back ok. I was advised to trim back about one fifth of stem and not to do all but half one year, half the next.

I'd say it did cut back the flowering for a couple years but the end result was a bushier shrub and flowers this year look great.

On Wed, 21 May 2008 19:56:45 +0100, wind'n'stone wrote
(in article ):


Garden being overrun with rabbits. Not long moved here and had problems
getting anything to establish due to wind. Took advice and have planted
beech, juniper, heather and holly.

Were growing away nicely and now holly all nipped off at base, same
with young beech. Heather been 'trimmed' back to about 2" high. Juniper
ok but I'd like a bit of variety.

Any ideas?


I was once advised that the only way to stop them is to rabbit-proof the
entire garden. We have done that slowly over a few years and we have over
an acre. The only ones we get now are the occasional young one brought in by
the cats, or the odd one which can find its way across the bridge over the
steam.

It can be done; take your time if you need and bury the netting and take it
out in an L shape from your garden so that the rabbits can't dig under.

--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
Posted through the usenet newsgroup uk.rec.gardening

Rusty Hinge 2 wrote:
The message
from wind'n'stone contains these
words:

Garden being overrun with rabbits. Not long moved here and had problems
getting anything to establish due to wind. Took advice and have planted
beech, juniper, heather and holly.

Were growing away nicely and now holly all nipped off at base, same
with young beech. Heather been 'trimmed' back to about 2" high. Juniper
ok but I'd like a bit of variety.

Any ideas?

You can get plastic coiled protectors.

We found that the plastic spiral protectors are not particularly good
against rabbits, at least not long term. We have an orchard of about
60 trees and, after much trial and error (and rabbit damage), I have
little tubes of plastic perforated fencing around each tree. It takes
a while to do but it seems to be lasting well.


Otherwise, rabbits are excellent in pies and casseroles.

Recipes available.

What for a couple of thousand?! :-)

--
Chris Green

"wind'n'stone" wrote in message
...

Garden being overrun with rabbits. Not long moved here and had problems
getting anything to establish due to wind. Took advice and have planted
beech, juniper, heather and holly.

Were growing away nicely and now holly all nipped off at base, same
with young beech. Heather been 'trimmed' back to about 2" high. Juniper
ok but I'd like a bit of variety.

Any ideas?




--
wind'n'stone

Don't be squeamish.
Air Rifle.
Make friends with your local ferret man.
Find someone who keeps carniverous birds that eat rabbits and invite him
over.
I don't believe there is such a thing as a rabbit proof garden - they
*always* find a way in so the above measures are necessary.

On Wed, 21 May 2008 19:56:45 +0100, wind'n'stone wrote:

Any ideas?

Rabbit pie.

--
Cheers
Dave.

The message et
from Sally Thompson contains these words:

It can be done; take your time if you need and bury the netting and take it
out in an L shape from your garden so that the rabbits can't dig under.

But be sure to bury the horizontal leg *OUTSIDE*.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

The message
from contains these words:

Otherwise, rabbits are excellent in pies and casseroles.

Recipes available.

What for a couple of thousand?! :-)

I have two big freezers...

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

On 21/5/08 20:04, in article ,
"Rusty Hinge 2" wrote:

The message
from wind'n'stone contains these
words:

Garden being overrun with rabbits. Not long moved here and had problems
getting anything to establish due to wind. Took advice and have planted
beech, juniper, heather and holly.

Were growing away nicely and now holly all nipped off at base, same
with young beech. Heather been 'trimmed' back to about 2" high. Juniper
ok but I'd like a bit of variety.

Any ideas?

You can get plastic coiled protectors.

Otherwise, rabbits are excellent in pies and casseroles.

Recipes available.

You can get electric rabbit proof fences.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Sacha wrote:
On 21/5/08 20:04, in article ,
"Rusty Hinge 2" wrote:

The message
from wind'n'stone contains these
words:

Garden being overrun with rabbits. Not long moved here and had problems
getting anything to establish due to wind. Took advice and have planted
beech, juniper, heather and holly.

Were growing away nicely and now holly all nipped off at base, same
with young beech. Heather been 'trimmed' back to about 2" high. Juniper
ok but I'd like a bit of variety.

Any ideas?

You can get plastic coiled protectors.

Otherwise, rabbits are excellent in pies and casseroles.

Recipes available.

You can get electric rabbit proof fences.

They are a maintenance (as in mowing etc.) nightmare in my experience.
We have 9 acres of land on which there are hundreds if not thousands
of rabbits. We have electric fencing for our horses so, if it really
worked well, adding some rabbit proof electric fencing woud be easy.

The problem is that any low level electric fencing of a significant
length presents (as I said) problems of keeping the grass and other
weeds down. You can't mow close to the fence without damaging it,
strimmers are almost guaranteed to come to grief (and/or destroy the
fence). It might be OK for a small (i.e. few square yards) rabbit run
to keep rabbits in, or even for a small vegetable plot, but for
significant areas it isn't a good solution. Farmers use electric
fencing quite extensively but not for rabbit proofing.


--
Chris Green

Graham Harrison wrote:

"wind'n'stone" wrote in message
...

Garden being overrun with rabbits. Not long moved here and had problems
getting anything to establish due to wind. Took advice and have planted
beech, juniper, heather and holly.

Were growing away nicely and now holly all nipped off at base, same
with young beech. Heather been 'trimmed' back to about 2" high. Juniper
ok but I'd like a bit of variety.

Any ideas?




--
wind'n'stone

Don't be squeamish.
Air Rifle.
Make friends with your local ferret man.
Find someone who keeps carniverous birds that eat rabbits and invite him
over.
I don't believe there is such a thing as a rabbit proof garden - they
*always* find a way in so the above measures are necessary.

The above measures are pointless, they'd not have any significant
effect on an area with lots of rabbits. We have a man with a ferret
who potters around occasionally, I have a brother-in-law with an air
rifle. The *only* point of what they do is to kill a few rabbits for
eating, they have no significant effect on the overall population.

To keep the rabbits down by shooting them you'd need several people on
patrol all the time, and they'd have to be good shots as well.

To give an idea of the sort of number involved my brother-in-law
counted over 20 rabbits in open view within 50 yards of the house, the
population is denser further from the house. When we go to feed the
horses there is a sort of wave of rabbits retreats across the field.

--
Chris Green

wrote in message
...
Graham Harrison wrote:

"wind'n'stone" wrote in
message
...

Garden being overrun with rabbits. Not long moved here and had
problems
getting anything to establish due to wind. Took advice and have
planted
beech, juniper, heather and holly.

Were growing away nicely and now holly all nipped off at base, same
with young beech. Heather been 'trimmed' back to about 2" high.
Juniper
ok but I'd like a bit of variety.

Any ideas?




--
wind'n'stone

Don't be squeamish.
Air Rifle.
Make friends with your local ferret man.
Find someone who keeps carniverous birds that eat rabbits and invite
him
over.
I don't believe there is such a thing as a rabbit proof garden - they
*always* find a way in so the above measures are necessary.

The above measures are pointless, they'd not have any significant
effect on an area with lots of rabbits. We have a man with a ferret
who potters around occasionally, I have a brother-in-law with an air
rifle. The *only* point of what they do is to kill a few rabbits for
eating, they have no significant effect on the overall population.

To keep the rabbits down by shooting them you'd need several people on
patrol all the time, and they'd have to be good shots as well.

Contact your local Air Rifle Club(s) and give the members an open
invitation to come over anytime on an ad hoc basis and help reduce the
population. The shootists might jump at the chance of an invite. You
could also extend the scope by giving them permission to do night
lamping if they want.

The message
from wind'n'stone contains these
words:

I have a rabbit net fence at the back which is dug down about 12", but
not bent out. Honestly can't be bothered uprooting it and starting
over. Problem is surrounded by our own fields and it is impossible to
keep it all rabbit proof.

Then get some ½" (or metric equivalent) wire netting and either cut it
into foot-wide lengths or if you can buy it like that, so much the
better.

Peg it down flat round the outside your existing fence, and attach it
every now and again with a twist of wire.

The grass will soon cover it, and it's just as good as being buried.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

wind'n'stone wrote:

Garden being overrun with rabbits. Not long moved here and had problems
getting anything to establish due to wind. Took advice and have planted
beech, juniper, heather and holly.

Were growing away nicely and now holly all nipped off at base, same
with young beech. Heather been 'trimmed' back to about 2" high. Juniper
ok but I'd like a bit of variety.

Any ideas?
I wouldn't do this myself, as it is illegal. But within the Farming
Communiity there has for many years been a thriving trade in rabbits
suffering from "myxamotisis". You buy or catch one rabbit suffering
from that disease and release it amongst the healthy population on your
land. The result will soon be a lot of dead rabbits. Farmers have been
doing this for years, but as I said it is illegal. Something about the
intentional spreading of disease.

Don't reply to the address shown, it is a "spam trap".
--