Semi-organic gardening; or the trials and tribulations of gardening with rabbits
In an effort to salvage my gardening season, I have given up on my efforts to simply use repellent to keep the rabbits out of the raised bed. The bottle recommends spraying about 6 hours before any rainfall for a dosage that should be effective for 2 months. Nope. Didn’t work. I’ve sprayed on three different occasions and have found the rabbits to be eating way most of the raised bed including the garden beans, the bell peppers, and the carrots. I have even spied them through the dining room window and ran outside in frustration to chase them away like a madman. Grrrr…..
A neighbor gave me some chicken wire last year to put around the bed , but it was limited access to weeding and harvesting inside the bed and eventually rusted in the rain. This year, I have purchased a galvanized rabbit guard fence and added a fence post on each corner to help keep it supported. After 2 days and a severe thunderstorm, it appears that I have a winner.
I had to replace nearly half of the produce in the bed with new seedlings. I dug out what was left of the bell peppers and garden beans. While June 26th is a bit late to be planting in central Illinois, I’ve added transplant seedlings of 2 bell peppers, 2 garden beans, 2 pea plants, and even 2 corn plants. For several weeks now, it seemed that my vegetable garden was going to result in a tomato garden. This was all a lost ditch attempt to salvage my growing season and reap the fruits of my labors.
This crop is more of a semi-organic vegetable garden as I have had to add transplants purchased from local nurseries including my local Lowe’s store. I can’t vouch for any fertillizer that may have been used on them before the purchase. However, I now have control over the rest of the growing season, so we are going organic the rest of the way.
Rabbits and I have been at odds with each other this year. Chasing them out of my garden hasn’t been my only problem. I found a nest of baby rabbits at my mother’s house. Finding a nest might seem like a fun discovery, but I didn’t know I had found a nest in the middle of her front yard until I moved over it and found fur flying up in the air! Fortunately, it was only bedding from the next and the babies were fine. However, I knew that the parent would not return to a destroyed nest and the fate of the 6 baby rabbits now rested in my weary hands. Briefly, I considered keeping one as a pet for my girls, but the idea of bottle feeding these infants every few hours around the clock was more that our family could handle. So, I managed to find a way to donate them to Wildlife Prairie State Park. They told me it would be hard to care for them and that it wouldn’t be likely they would survive, but that they would try. Since that episode, I have often wondered if any of them survived, but I’m not sure that I want to tell my girls that they rabbits they fell in love with were all… well… you know… dead.
Natasha and Sydney discovering a nest of 6 baby rabbits
