Re: Fencing. You have to bury the chicken wire or hardware cloth at least 6 inches. Obviously, you can't bury the wire on the gate, but burying the rest of the perimeter will be a big deterrent. Put chicken wire/hardware cloth on the inside of the picket fencing, too - a picket fence is not going to keep critters out.

Re: Bloodmeal. NO. Trust me on this one. Used it one time, and that was one time too many. Neighbor's cat dug up the plants around which I sprinkled the bloodmeal.

Have you considered a cat? They are pretty good at rabbit control.

It's not just the rabbits, though -- all sorts of varmit out there. Some that fencing will keep out and others that it won't. Although I must say there is something to having a cat around; I don't like cats and don't have one, but at my other house the neighbor had multiple cats that she let roam, and I hardly ever saw any critter damage on the plants outside of an oddball thing here and there. I figure the varmits aren't so stupid that they'd actually hang around where they smell cat. I did have a dog pen out there, too -- so I had the scent of dogs and cats on the air.

Not sure about rabbits, but certainly for squirrels in a domestic environment, with lots of people around, they aren't scared of nuttin'. All these silly recipes of sprinkling spices and predator urine around to repel rodents. My squirrels just laugh at that stuff.

I would think that if you examine your fence carefully, you should be able to see where it's getting in. Usually pretty obvious if someone is digging under a fence.

mxk3 -

Thanks for the input. I am sure you are right that fencing is a very big solution to a lot of critter problems and since we already have the entire perimeter of the yard fenced, I am starting to accept that the best solution is to modify the fencing we have to keep as many critters out as possible.

Thanks for the warning about the bloodmeal - yes, I thought that might possibly backfire. [g]

Cats are out of the question. My husband has allergies to cats and really, aren't most cats indoor only cats now, due to coyotes? That's a good point about the odors of animals. I had a thought that maybe I should have the dog do her business along the perimeter and near any points where it looked like anything was entering the yard.

Thankfully, we don't have to worry about deer. That must be hard. We've had a problem with groundhogs, because they can climb right over the four foot fence section. But luckily it has only been random years. I don't know anything that helps when you have a groundhog.

Dan, we had more trouble with squirrels then we stopped filling the bird feeder and they stopped visiting our yard as often. I think they found other yards where people filled bird feeders. I agree, there is very little you can do against squirrels. They are pretty bold and sneaky too. They can outwait you, they can often outwit you. lol Thankfully they don't mow down a whole row of lettuce and broccoli like a groundhog will.

You're right, we need to inspect the fence line and see where the rabbit is getting into the yard. Five yards all border each other, and three of them have dogs out in the yard sporadically during the day. I'll bet the rabbit is coming in from the yard that doesn't have a dog any more.

If you don't find any evidence of the rabbit digging under your fence to get inside then maybe you fenced it in and it can't get out? I unwittingly did that years ago with a groundhog, it was hiding in the sweet potato foliage (it's fav food) and I fenced him in and didn't know it until later on.

vgkg - At the moment, my fencing is not that secure that I can't see places a rabbit can get in and out. I've not had any issues with rabbits before in previous years, so I've not paid that much attention to trying to make the fencing as secure as it could be. And I don't see the rabbit in the yard that often, so I assume he is getting out.

But you make a great point. I think I saw that same thing happen in the movie Phenomenon, when they fenced the rabbit in. lol

Mary, that does sound much easier. I assume the bottom part of the L is facing out on the outside of the garden and that part of the 'L' needs to be 12" and I can pin it down with landscape pins. That sounds like a really good idea. Thanks a lot.