What to do about a very cute baby rabbit that has taken up residence in my garden? Every morning when I open the blind and look out to my side yard garden - there he is. Cute as ever. A rabbit is a bit of a novelty here in suburbia. As I watch, he mostly eats weeds I have missed: grasses and clover. Those, oh and the dill, soy beans, and all the perennial trilobia (a pretty black-eyed Susan type of plant) that I grew from seed last winter. But so far, he's cuter than the damage he's doing.
I have plans though. I'm thinking of 12 inches of chicken wire around the garden. My guess is he will eat more as he gets bigger. But maybe I will only put chicken wire around the cold frame (I will definitely add chicken wire around this). The cold frame is in the last sunny section of my side yard.
I am getting more and more disappointed about how poorly things are growing in my shady side yard. The shading trees grow by the day. I'm now moving what I can out to my community plot now. Eggplants and peppers are moving as I pull out spent peas, and harvest onions and garlic. Maybe I'll just sow sweet clover as I move the plants out....
Have you ever heard of a gardener who liked having a rabbit in their garden?
16 comments:
He is a cute little guy. We put chicken wire around the perimeter of our garden picket fence. Our neighbor says she sees a rabbit in our yard almost every day. But so far, it has not gotten into our garden.
I was so thrilled the first time I saw a rabbit in the garden---oh how sweet. A bit later, oh-cute!!!--baby bunnies, aren't they precious. By the end of the summer, I was over run with them. The cuteness wore off fast. Hubby has now installed poultry netting around the entire garden. They went from eating dandelions to most of my sprouting vegetables.
Beware!
:)
What to do about a very cute baby rabbit that has taken up residence in my garden?
Time to look up some stew recipes :)
Beware of the cute rabbit in your garden. The one that lived in my garden eventually ate practically everything in it. He had a special fondness for my heirloom green peppers and didn't even leave me one.
How about a nice organic rabbit stew? He's still young enough not to be tough... mmmmm
You are lucky. My bunnies eat my lettuce!
Is he wild or domesticated. If he's tame, scoop him up and keep him in a hutch. Bunny poop is super! You can let him out under your supervision to munch on weeds.
Like you, I have a soft heart. I don't mind the occasional nibble here and there. However, this year the rabbits devastated my soybeans (only dry sticks remain), and now they are meticulously trimming the green beans. Bar the stew, I suggest a relocation.
I plant stuff outside the garden so they don't bother coming in. My garden has wire fencing and so far they haven't tunneled under. They love chives, which multiply quickly - the perfect food, don't you think? Also, I throw them bolted lettuce and overgrown radish.
Maybe you can plant some things as far as you can from the garden, and away from where your dog hangs out?
Betsy
I know Skippy is a cool, laid back dude but maybe you could let him out in the garden when the rabbit is there to scare it away. That or I have a very good rabbit in red wine with polenta recipe I can send you.
Just be glad you don't have a groundhog. We have a whole family at the community garden. They're eating everything and don't know when they are full.
I like the chicken wire solution. I had some snow fence lying around so I used that, but the bunnies still get in under the gate. Don't know what I'm going to do about that. There have been a huge number of bunnies in our yard this year - way more than usual. My husband thinks it's because of our patches of native "prairie" plants but I'm wondering if there's another reason. Also, if we have so many bunnies, are we likely to get coyotes?
You know - I love all the rabbit fricassee suggestions and rabbit-eats-garden stories, but when the suggestions come to getting a dog!! because dogs always chase rabbits - well - Skippy is busy resting and hanging out. On the bed or the couch ... He doesn't even SEE a rabbit. Now, if it was a mailman! Or the UPS guy...
Anyway, I think I'll get a roll of chicken wire.
And Yes in addition to lots of bunnies, I have heard its also a good year for coyotes and fisher cats here. When John the animal officer stops me for off leash violation (I'm making a point to not do this again!) he has told me that the coyotes here are very bold this year. Lying around in the cemetery field on the hill. He showed me fisher cat scat right on the path. When rabbits are plentiful, the predators do well too.
And thank goodness I don't have a woodchuck! Good luck with that.
I do not know what I have, but I have some creature in my garden chew the corn away. I have something tunnel in as well, I can see loose soil.
I need to do something next year to stop them go under the fence.
They are all very cute, but we need to share our garden vegie with them, they eat all my soybeans, green beans and now corn. ;-(
Kathy, I understand your dilemma and I LIKE that you find the cuteness outweighs the damage. I have 12 inch chicken wire around my garden, but the rabbits CAN jump it. They choose not to because I am in the garden so much they avoid the territory sharing. THIS little bunny grew up here I suspect and enjoys sharing the territory with you. What the wire WILL keep out is skunks.
We get bunnies here in Cupertino. I think sometimes that they are pets that are let loose -- they don't look like wild bunnies, but Alice could tell you if I am wrong. Our cats mostly keep the rodents away from our veggies -- but they do bring them (the bunnies) in the house sometimes, which is not always very nice. I'm sure you can imagine!
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