Sunday, November 2, 2008

Silly Rabbit- stay out of my salad!

My experiment with a salad bed was going very well. I actually had the first harvest a few days ago. I thinned out the over-planted bed of young greens and have been happily adding them to sandwiches and enjoying every bite.

However Halloween brought some silly rabbits to my yard, playing tricks and taking treats. I woke yesterday to find my lovely little salad bed was no more. I am pretty sure it must be rabbits as they ate every tender leaf in sight.
Here is a picture of my one and only harvest:




This is what was left of the tiny spinach plants.





I believe this one was a broccoli before someone munched it away.



Not content to just eat the edibles, the silly rabbit decided to take a taste out of my split rock plants. He put a big bite in one and dug all three out of the pot, and leaving them on the ground- they must not have tasted very good!




I replanted them and will hope for the best.

Anyone know any good rabbit deterrents? I am not interested in hurting them but I sure would like to keep my plants safe.


On a brighter note, my Hibiscus has put out some interesting pods. I don't recall seeing these last year, and the other smaller Hibiscus does not have any. They formed in the cups, that once held blooms. I am guessing this is where the seeds come from. In the picture below the one to the right is the pod, next to a bloom getting ready to open. This plant is still putting out gorgeous blooms in my Fall garden.



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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although it smells horrid, Liquid Fence works great as a rabbit deterrent. I don't know if you can use it on food crops, though. The nice thing about it is that it is somewhat persistent and will "train" critters to stay away. Other than that, a hardware cloth tunnel might work. And I have heard plastic forks stuck handle down in the soil help.

Anonymous said...

Okay, calling Sarah Palin is definitely out... and since it's food, I imagine so is some strategically place coyote poop (although I'm not sure that one works all that well anyway). How about some chicken wire fencing that extends down (how deep to rabbits dig?) into the ground? Of course, all that may be a lot of effort and possibly expense for a little fresh lettuce, but think of the satisfaction!

tina said...

Bad ole rabbits. I bet they were thinking, Silly gardener planting food just for ME:)

A Colorful World said...

A dog that alerts when rabbits come around, maybe? I had the most interesting idea one time, though this would be a lot of trouble...to build a little short fence around my garden bed with a cutout of a fox that "runs" back and forth along the fence, on some kind of spring gear that would make it go back and forth. I think it would make a rabbit so nervous about when it might head back their way, they wouldn't stay long in the area trying to get at the plants. But, you never know...

So sorry your garden greens were so well eaten! I hope you can find a deterrent of some kind.
Marie

Rock rose said...

I'm so sorry about your lettuce. A physical barrier is about the one sure fire way to keep your rabbit out.