How to Protect a Garden From Rabbits
The clipping teeth of rabbits are capable of eating their way through any garden. During spring and summer, rabbits like to devour a wide variety of flowers and vegetables. Come fall or winter, they target woody plants. In their order of preference, young trees occupy the pride of place for their smooth, thin bark. If you have a vegetable garden, rabbits will spare nothing except squash, corn, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. Put simply, rabbits are a nightmare for your garden.
In order to protect your garden from rabbits, you can put up a two feet tall chicken wire fence with the bottom tight against the ground or buried a few inches in the ground. So that smaller rabbits cannot make their way, the mesh should not be more than one inch or even smaller. Although costly, a fence will last several years and you will be able to replace the cheap chicken wire every few years. As an alternative option, you can try commercial tree guards or tree wraps to protect your garden.
You can also use some chemical repellents to protect your garden from invasion by rabbits. Most of these taste or contact repellents can be applied with a brush or sprayed on plants. Some of them should not be used on plants or plant parts meant for human consumption. Taste repellents can protect only those parts of the plant to which they have been applied. However, post-application new growth is not protected. In the case of heavy showers, you may be required to reapply some repellents. The best method is to use repellents and other damage control methods at the first sign of damage.
Another effective way to protect your garden from rabbits is to tamper with their habitat. Take away brush or stone piles, weed patches, junk, and other debris where rabbits live and hide. This method is particularly suitable for suburban areas where rabbits find fewer suitable habitats. And if you won’t mind to be a bit cruel to protect your dear garden, you can even encourage the rabbit’s natural enemies like hawks, owls, snakes, and even the family dog or cat can to counter the rabbit menace.
You can also place traps where rabbits usually feed or rest to protect your garden from them. While carrots, apples, cabbage and other green vegetables are good baits in warm weather, dried apples and cob corn are excellent in winter. You should check traps daily to replenish bait or remove the catch. Shift the trap to a different place if there is no catch within a week. You can cover wire traps with canvas or some other dark material to make them more effective.
Some people prefer home control remedy to protect their gardens. The items used can be anything like blood meal, marigolds, a piece of rubber hose to mimic a snake, or a glass jar filled with water since rabbits are believed to be scared of their own reflections. However, their reliability or effectiveness remains questionable.
