I have never thought of myself as a violent or aggressive person. Sure, I can vent and tell someone “my perspective” like the best of them, but violence? No. Not me. I am not even sure that I have ever even thought about inflicting violence on something. Ever.
Until recently.
I say this knowing that I am going to sound like a barbarian, or like I am anti-nature. I am not against nature. Not at all. BUT….I really love my new backyard. The one where I have taken the care to root Jasmine in the winter and plant it in the ground instead of a plant. The garden where Principessa and I have spent hours bonding over planting. The one where I sit to relax, admiring the blooms, flowers, and and beauty.
But a family of neighborhood rabbits is threatening the very beauty of our space. In fact, I would say that the primary purpose of our garden lately has been to feed this family of rabbits their abundantly large breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Literally, Rocket planted five new plants on Sunday. By Monday morning, two of them has been dismembered by our friendly neighborhood rabbits.
To say that I am frustrated would be an understatement. I get it, rabbits are “awwww” cute. But really, after four months of watching my plants be mutilated (yes, ok, I get it….this is how nature works, food chain, blah blah blah)…I have HAD it.
I have searched on line for how to stop rabbits from eating our plants. My husband searched. We went to the garden centers to talk experts on the habits of rabbits that like to eat plants.
Our first effort to stop the rabbit from eating our plants was a horribly awful spray that is intended to keep the rabbits away with its disgusting odor. In truth, the only thing it has kept away is US because it is hard to be outside after having sprayed. And? I am not convinced it worked.
The next recourse was a trap. A trap filled with carrots. And flowers of course, from OUR garden, since they seem to like them so much. But alas, now that we are presenting the flowers to our furry friends, on a silver platter, they are becoming picky. And just so my animal loving friends know, the idea with the trap is that once caught, a neighbor will release the rabbit back into nature five to ten miles away. (this process repeated as many times as it takes to catch the entire family). Except that my theory is the rabbits has such a good life in our neighborhood, they will find their way back.
But even the trap…there were all sorts of suggestions for bait. Flowers, apples, peanut butter, apple cider being sprinkled around the area. You would think we were inviting the rabbit over for afternoon tea.
Even Principessa tried her hand at solving the mystery of how to stop the rabbits from eating our plants. Not even she, who is wildly creative, could come up with a good plan.
The good news is that on the third day of having placed the trap. It worked. We caught ourselves one plant eating rabbit. The bad news is that there are many many more family members of this now displaced (into a local park, a few miles from our home. I promise, no harm was inflicted on the rabbit).
For now, I will have to be thankful that one rabbit has been stopped (momentarily) from eating our plants.
Although….a neighbor tried telling us that he saw a rabbit on the side of the road not far from hear trying to hitch hike its way back. I would not be surprised.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
You’ve need to do some thing against the rabbit, if you want to save your dream. Am i wrong?
There are tons of rabbits in my neighborhood and they were eatting all the flowers we had planted. Someone told my husband to blend a couple of jalapeno peppers with some water until you had a soupy mixture you could put in a spray bottle. Spray the plants every couple of days and after a while the rabbits will not like the taste of your plants and move on to another yard. I just laughed, but he tried it and it worked! I imagine that you may need to wash your veggies very well though before you eat them yourself!
Ugh! it is so frustrating, and there isn’t a good solution. Cracking up at your daughter’s story.
love that story – we have groundhogs. . .they ate EVERY single beautiful pea plant that I had. =( AFTER I put up fencing – they climb right in. . .incorrigible. It drives me crazy!!
Hillary
Love your daughter’s story. So darn cute!
We have a fence, but when we first moved in there was obvious spaced that rabbits where getting in. I repaired the fence but forgot to to a clean sweep of the garden. Yup I inadvertently filled a family of rabbits. I assume the died off dehydration. I felt so bad.