Hello ... I was at the garden this afternoon and ran into Jackie Gant. She said she's having a lot of trouble with the rabbits this year. She was using red pepper to try to keep them at bay, but she also wondered if we could clear out the one remaining patch of weeds that is along the west wall of the building, to the south of where a few people have their plots/just north of where Tim had some of his stuff. (Can you visualize where I mean?) She has seen a rabbit darting in and out of there and suspects it has a burrow under the weeds. The weeds are quite large, and she said she would need someone else to do this task because she's not up to it.
At first, I thought this was a simple volunteer request, but then I thought that given the time of year, it's entirely possible that we're dealing with a mother rabbit and a nest of babies. Would the babies die if we did this? Like, would the mom freak out, and then the babies would die of exposure/starvation/predators? What if they're really tiny and she can't move them to a better spot? Does anyone know rabbit behavior? :) What is the best way to manage this problem?
Thanks!
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I was at the garden twice today, and both times saw a very cute little brown rabbit enjoying our garden and taking refuge in the raspberries! I also noticed that several of our pea vines had been nibbled off the tops! This isn't the first time I've seen our rabbit, and I know others have also noticed him. Do we have any ideas for getting said rabbit out of our garden? One idea would be to put chicken wire or something similar around the perimeter fence. One person had constructed a makeshift fence around her own lettuces. Is there a feeling that we should do something?
ReplyDeleteThe rabbit/s have been in the garden for years and it's my impression that they haven't posed *much* of a problem (at the end of the season last year we lost some lettuce, but that's been all for us). Perhaps other people have had more of a problem though. The rabbit might be a bit more of in issue this year (or perhaps it just appears this way because we are all actually communicating now!).
ReplyDeleteI think I'd vote for not trying to actually get rid of the rabbit, but for us to use methods to discourage him from eating our stuff (the chicken wire is mine).
Is it crazy to suggest a planted, accessible area for the rabbit/s toward which they might gravitate (if we are otherwise discouraging them)? (can you tell, we kind of like the rabbits).