As I water my tender, young broccoli seedlings, which will be ready for the garden in a few weeks, I'm gearing up for war. Every spring since I started gardening at our current home, I have done battle with the rabbits. And, every spring, my garden has experienced some form of vegetable casualty. I have to grudgingly admit that, thus far, the rabbits have won.
The first year it was the bell pepper plants. I didn't think rabbits even liked pepper plants; perhaps the bunnies in my neighborhood have less-than-discriminating taste. The following year, I placed hardware-cloth cages around my pepper plants, and instead they ate my broccoli plants. Last year, I enclosed the broccoli in chicken wire, and they chewed my swiss chard down to the ground, then dined on my sugar snap peas.
I have at times engaged in chemical warfare by sprinkling my garden beds with blood meal, the scent of which supposedly repels rabbits. I'm pretty sure they've obtained some form of bunny gas masks, or maybe they just hold their breath while eating. So, this year, I'm pulling out all the stops.
My arsenal of bunny repellents might include the following, supposedly-effective rabbit deterrents: old music and computer cd's hanging from strings (their reflections are supposed to frighten critters); a mulch of human hair, obtained from a local barbershop; various sprays concocted of soapy water with hot pepper sauce, vinegar, onion and/or garlic added; bars of strong-smelling soap skewered on sticks in the planting area; a scattering of mothballs around the plants; pieces of old garden hose laid on the ground to look like snakes; a double row of onions planted around each bed; fox or coyote urine sprayed around the plants and, of course, a 2-foot fence around the entire garden with an additional 8"--10" of the fencing buried below ground. All of these suggestions come in the form of military intelligence gleaned from other victims of rabbit attack. (Images from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" immediately come to mind.)
Each of these alleged rabbit repellents comes with certain problems: creating fence-type barriers is work. Sprays, mothballs and blood meal have to be reapplied after it rains, and putting bars of soap on sticks or cd's on strings creates the potential for me to be permanently labeled as the "neighborhood crazy lady" (a title I may very well have already earned.) But, regardless of the potential cost or risk, I am determined to emerge victorious with my vegetable seedlings intact. This, after all, is war. This year, bunnies . . . you're going down! In a few weeks, I'll post an update from the front. . .
--Susan Rodebush © 2010
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I don’t recommend any home remedies. They don’t work well and are a mess to make. You should just get DeFence. It’s got the OMRI logo on the label which means it’s organic. Plus, it works really well. It even repels deer.
Here's the spray you should get:
http://www.havahart.com/store/animal-repellents/5600
Posted by: Latasha | April 20, 2010 at 04:17 AM