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Re: War on Rabbits

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Bill,


Thanks for the reply - some comments.  

> I don't remember anyone mentioning the most effective deterrent - a
fence.  > Rabbits are not very persistent (unlike the woodchucks that
plague me) and a > minimal fence will keep them out.  A three foot high
fence of chicken wire > or the green vinyl clad wire if esthetics is an
issue, should work fine.

My garden is flanked by a ten foot wall one side and either five foot
fences or five foot wall on the other three sides.  The rabbit proofing
comes up to 18 inches around the fences.  
Rabbits clear the 5 ft wall at the front like they are on springs. 
Those rabbits devastate the coloured weeds (roses, pansies, delphiniums
and so on).  They have also destroyed several cherished unusual holly
varieties.  

Little rabbits get in between the fence slats above the chicken at the
back fence.  They are the ones that eat the vegetables.  

> They can really devastate young plants;  if you have any remay cloth,
you > could put that over your plants until they get large enough to
survive a > rabbit assault.
> 

Agreed

> Also,  over the years, I have learned which things rabbits won't eat
(a > fairly short list) and grow them outside my fence;  

I am not so sure - rabbits, to me, seem inconsistent on what they eat. 
It looks like they attack different plants each year.  One year in
Spring, they ate every crocus that turned up.  Now they dont touch them.

I also have a patch of > clover down near the bramble bush that is their
home;   I don't mow that and > they tend to hang around that area.  It
is a lot of fun to watch their > antics, so for me a fence is worth it
(although I wasn't saying it when 

they > nibbled twenty four sun flowers down to the stalk.> > Bill McKay
in E. Massachusetts

I had 200 pansies nibbled (probably one only bite each) just behind the
flower head one night.  I found perfect stalks and perfect decapitated
flowers the following morning.  

Know how you feel . . . 

Regards

Brian


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