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RABBITS!!!!

Beelucky2Beelucky2 Posts: 2
in Problem solving

Just moved to a cottage with a half acre plot, surrounded by beautiful Herefordshire countryside. However I have a major rabbit problem!!. Any advice would be really appreciated

Thanks

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Posts

  • Nicky NickyNicky Nicky Posts: 76

    Invest in a small air gun. If you find any other solution please do let me know as I have the same problem here also. Minus the access to the air gun. YET !

  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,407

    A good cat - mine can keep themselves fed on rabbit in the summer!

  • LynLyn Posts: 21,896
    Find rabbit proof plants, there are several listed on the net.
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 83,852

    image

     Get one of these image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • a1154a1154 Posts: 1,058

    I fenced all mine, then added rabbit proof wire and they still get in.  Mr Yodel leaves the gate open.  The neighbours catch the wire sometimes with their strimmer. they just  wait on the borders for a breach to occur!

    if you are in a very rabbity area its hard to be rabbit free all the time.  

  • WicWic Posts: 5

    We had the same problem. I am now a reluctant expert, but there is no complete solution. Garden sites tell you to build a fence around the whole place, but that's not always practical.

    For those of you who don't know them, rabbits are very destructive. They not only eat vegetables and flowers but they will dig big tunnels beneath beds to get at the roots. And whatever lists you might find of plants they don't like, it only refers to one rabbi's preferenceS. As a species they will go for anything. If they don't like it they will just bite bits off. I planted a lavender hedge and found, one morning, that they had bitten off all the flowers and left them scattered on the path. They have also leaned up against a tree and bitten off the lower branches. 

    Here are some things that are useful here.

    I have built a fence around the vegetable plot, and one around a small border, which means the things inside are safe. I used half height chicken wire. You don't see it when the plants grow up.

    Our raised bed is a metre high.

    I use metal hanging basket cages to protect things when they are small and raise them up on bricks to give a few inches more as they grow. They will usually leave larger, older plants alone, it's the young shoots that they go for.

    Scrunched chicken wire over seedlings can help.

    If there is something you like, plant a lot of it, a rabbit is guaranteed to go for it.

    If I think of anything else I'll come back. It is possible to garden with rabbits around, but you need to be on the ball all the time.

    Good luck!

     

  • Olwen TolhurstOlwen Tolhurst Posts: 6

    Plants like nepeta, hardy geraniums, lavatera, hardy geraniums and alliums are usually rabbit proof in my experience. I thought prickly leaves wold not  a favourite but they decimated young holly plants  a couple of days . They will eat virtually any young plant so buy big plants and protect hem until established ! Good Luck 

  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 21,902
    Get a comfy chair and a glass of something refreshing. Take them down the garden. Make yourself comfy. Read the Peter Rabbit stories, which you have also brought along with you, very loudly. It won't solve the incursions but it will calm your nerves.



    All the best.
    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • UnknownUnknown

    Yes - have to say Buttercupdays - one of the boys is excellent at rabbiting ....... and I don't have the problem image

  • KatfishKatfish Posts: 56
    Similarly did all the suggestions here and always lost plants to rabbits. Got a dog and no problem.
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