Rabbit Control

Customer Question – Something ate all the plants I had just planted into my garden a couple days ago. What could it be?
My speculative answer - It could be rabbits.

Meet Dilly.

Our cat Dilly seems to keep the rabbits living around our property in check (knock on wood) from getting into the garden and we have plenty of rabbits in the front and back area.

I wish I had a motion sensor camera to answer questions like this – at least one you could check out at the library as needed right indefinitely? From a quick review of my many gardening books and online I found the following regarding rabbits.

RABBITS
Rabbits – are attracted to your garden plants due to their moisture (like birds are to tomatoes – for the moisture content). George Brookbank, author of The Desert Gardener’s Calendar, scoffs at all of the home remedies you read about and writes: the only effective thing to do about rabbits is to surround your garden completely with fencing, at least 3’ wide with small mesh. Bury it 6” deep so the rabbits can’t squeeze under it and never leave the gate open.”

The Iowa Gardener website showcased the
example above of a fenced garden to keep out rabbits.

My friend Kate McSwain gardens uses horse troughs for her raised beds.
I expect the height of these deter rabbits from getting into them.

This is the only rabbit we are OK to have in the garden and we call this our
cwazy watch rabbit. He moves around to wherever new gardens are planted
and he has been on the move lately - whoo hoo!

The Gardener’s Supply Co. had a couple other good tips for Rabbit Control worth reading which I found helpful (including looking for rabbit droppings). Let me know what works for you.