Oh dear, Dawn's big brother!(chuckle) I am so sorry about your yummy lunch plans being ruined! Those pesky rabbits! They are truly a nuisance to any gardener. It is just SAD!

What are you going to do about them? Is rabbbit stew any good? So do you have any traps? I don't think I could eat it but I know some people do.

So sorry and yes gardening is DANGEROUS in more ways than one.

G.M.

Trubby,

Well, of course they returned in broad daylight....they had to check and make sure they hadn't accidentally left any spinach for you! The eat lots of other stuff, too, but have never touched my carrots either. They do seem to love bean plants as well.

And where were the eight magnificant mongrels with whom you share your home? Asleep on the job? Away chasing the deer?

I have a 12-year-old Australian Shepherd who instinctively knows when something is in the garden. She'll wake you up having a fit because she knows something is out there and she wants to go get it (and right now!), and she is right every time. She's half-lame now, totally deaf and about half-blind, so she gives "the bark" and two of the younger dogs chase off the deer, rabbits, possums, armadillos, coons or whatever.

For a while, the mama dog, who is a terrier mix, would kill the rabbits and bring me their heads. She would politely leave that mangled head on the Welcome Mat by the front door where I was sure to find it. After numerous scoldings, I broke her of that. Well, she still might be killing the rabbits (although I don't think she is) but she no longer leaves body parts on the Welcome Mat.

So, I wonder if your spinach-eating rabbits have super strength? Well, at least spinach grows fast so you have time to plant a new crop. Did they nibble it off and leave the roots? If so, it might resprout. Or, did they essentially pull it up, roots and all?

If those rabbits keep coming back, it might be time for rabbit stew.

Dawn

Oh my goodness! It sounds like Elmer had it right, those are 'wazcally wabbits'. Reminds me of my uncle and his first corn. He planted and tended and all was beautiful he took the advice of friends and put a light out in the patch, along with playing a radio at night to keep the raccoons away. The corn produced an abundance, he was checking daily and told his wife that only a couple more days and the corn would be ready. The raccoons were watching too, it seems, and just at the right time they raided his patch. He said it was no wonder since he gave them light to see by and music to dance to. I'm sorry you missed what sounded like a wonderful meal.

time to go to war, with a bunny fence!

They haven't eaten mine yet. They ate brocolli first, then beets. Asparagus, spinach, radishes, and onions are still OK. I took my rifle to the garden and had a little target practice but didn't see any rabbits. If I get a shot, they're dead meat.

I have a terrible time with the raccoons getting the corn no matter what I do, so this year I'm going to try an electric fence.

Last year, an acquaintance of ours thought he'd start trapping the raccoons about 2 weeks before the corn ripened. This guy is in his 80s and is a very experienced and accompished gardener and farmer, but even he is no match for the coons. He trapped 18 of them, and they still got every single ear of corn. Every single one. (I didn't ask if he relocated them or shot them. I didn't want to know.) So, I don't know the solution. If an electric fence doesn't do it, I'll probably give up on raising corn.

I have had some success some years with growing pumpkins in a border on all 4 sides of the corn patch. The coons don't like those big prickly leaves. Some years it works. Some years it doesn't.

Between the rabbits and the deer, it is a wonder any of us harvest anything.

Dawn

I have a chicken wire fence around the garden. They just burrowed right under it.

So what I have now done is extended the hot wire from the dog fence to a wire set about 4 to 6 inches from the ground.

Should catch them right about 'ear' height.

If that don't work, I am going to start killing them and feeding them to the dogs. I don't really care for rabbit meat.

As for deer fences - a friend of mine down in AR built one that worked pretty good. He built his about eight feet tall and angled the posts outwards at a pretty good angle. By the time the deer got close enough to jump - they were already under the top and couldn't really get enough 'loft' to clear the top. Then he added two hot wires to keep the coons out.

It was kind of ugly - but was pretty effective.

Dawn, Have you tried those motion activated sprinkler systems? I have heard those work on racoons, though I have never tried them.

Pat,

I havent't tried those. I was afraid that it would be going all the time because we have such an abundance of wildlife "passing through". (Those things are also pretty pricey.)I don't mind all the wild critters roaming the property since they were here long before us, but when they jump over the garden fence, or go under, that's when it becomes a problem.

Sometimes one of the wild critters "polices" the others. Last year, we had a bobcat who liked to sit in the garden at night and see what he could "catch". It did become a problem, though, when he started wanting to stay there all day long....'cause that's when my kitty cats like to hang out in the garden as well. We had to chase off the bobcat repeatedly before he decided we meant business.

Dawn