A Bunny Bonanza

Either rabbit populations are very high this year (and they don't seem to be) or they particularly like eating Dreamland zinnia.  In either case, none of mine in the back are growing all that well because they keep being eaten back to the stem.

OK, enough of that.  When this happens, there are a few things you can try:

1)  Fence the garden, if possible.  Fencing should go down at least six inches below ground as rabbits are excellent diggers.  This isn't a good solution for me as these are display flower gardens.

2)  Trim your roses, use a machete or any other device to chop the thorny branches into small pieces, and scatter them in the areas where you have rabbit problems.  Rabbits won't pick their way across thorns any more than you would.  This is most useful in smaller areas, and isn't particularly attractive.  However, if this continues, I'll try it.

3)  Chop up anything pungent or hot and scatter it around the plants.  I used three small handfuls of black pepper, chopped fairly rough, and scattered it around the zinnia.

4)  Spray the plants with a repellant.  There are plenty of homemade repellants, most involving a little dish soap, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and fresh garlic.  Refresh this after rainfall.

5)  Spray the plants with an over the counter repellant, like Liquid Fence.  The effectiveness is variable, and it tends to be a bit on the spendy side.

6)  Plant sacrificial plants at the edge of your garden for the rabbits to eat in the hope that they won't go after the others.  It's not terribly effective and can attract rabbits to the edible plant(s).

7)  Ignore it.