[Community_garden] Scare rabbits away

[Vicki Garrett]

Thanks, Ken. I hadn't planned to till. I like being free of the weeds that
are NOT growing in my living mulches.

Mike, your story is similar to the situation we often have with deer here.
There aren't many predators left, so sometimes park managers have to have
them shot, which upsets a lot of people. Shooting seems much more humane
than than letting the population grow so large they starve to death and take
down the rest of the ecosystem with them. But I can be hippy-dippy
complacent about rabbits because there hasn't been a big problem yet, and
I'm hoping the hawks and cats will keep them in balance. This is the first
time we've had rabbits in the yard. The live-and-let-live approach has
worked so far, but if they start eating all my salads, I'll look for other
solutions.

Vicki



On Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 1:07 PM, Mike McGrath <MikeMcG at ptd.net> wrote:

> I'd be careful being hippy-dippy complacent about rabbits. I know they seem
> cute and cuddly, but we had a guy from Chicago's park system on my show
> years ago who explained that neighbors insisted the rabbit trapping cease in
> a nearby park and three years later, it was almost a desert; they even
> destroyed mature trees with wintertime bark nibbling!
>                               Best,   Mike McG
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Vicki Garrett" <
> vickigarrett at columbus.rr.com>
> To: <rowsofbuttercups at yahoo.com>
> Cc: <community_garden at list.communitygarden.org>
> Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 9:48 AM
> Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Scare rabbits away
>
>
>  I haven't tried critter lites, but I read years ago that if you provide
>> animals with their natural diet, they won't bother your plants. So we have
>> lots of wild plants growing in our yard: wild grapes on the fence, boston
>> ivy on the walls, hackberry & mulberry trees in the fencerow, etc. It
>> seems
>> to be working.
>>
>> This spring, we woke up to find one new plant missing every morning .
>> There
>> was a rabbit nesting in our front garden, and she was eating the most
>> convenient plants. I did some research on rabbit diets. I planted a cover
>> crop of oats, barley, peas, and hairy vetch near the rabbit hole and
>> bought
>> Plantskydd (natural and nontoxic), supposed to be really effective in
>> protecting plants from rabbits and deer. The Plantskydd is still unopened,
>> but we haven't had a missing plant in weeks. I can't confirm a causal
>> relationship - the clover started to really take off about the same time I
>> planted the cover crop, and the Plantskydd might be working on the same
>> principal as our air conditioner (as soon as we gave in and bought an air
>> conditioner, the weather immediately turned cool). But the soil is being
>> improved where I planted the cover crop, and I have a bottle of animal
>> repellent if I ever need it. My husband tells me roasting with potatoes
>> and
>> carrots would work even better.
>>
>> BTW, I have a friend who complains about the squirrels taking one bite out
>> of every apple (she doesn't mind sharing, but she doesn't want the
>> squirrels
>> wasting her whole harvest). Last Sunday, I watched a wren chase a squirrel
>> out of the oak tree near the wren house. I'll bet there will be a wren
>> house
>> in her apple tree next year.
>>
>> Vicki
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 12:11 PM, carl wayne <rowsofbuttercups at yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>  We have lots of rabbits chewing away in our garden. Does anything humane
>>> work to keep them away? Has anyone tried "critter lites" that glow 2 red
>>> eyes activated by motion sensor?
>>>
>>>
>>>
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