Rabbit-Proof the Garden
I like bunnies; but those sweet, innocent-looking creatures are cotton-tailed eating machines in my vegetable garden.
If I want to have any veggies to eat, I need to keep those "wascally wabbits" away from my garden. So I'm trying a two-fold strategy. In one section of the garden, my vegetables grow in containers and raised beds. The beds and containers are tall enough (at least 18 inches) so that the rabbits can't reach the plants.
A plastic poultry-netting fence surrounds the main garden area. Poultry netting is easy to use. However rabbits can chew through plastic. Mine haven't discovered this yet. One extension service agent recommends using a double layer of plastic netting to discourage chewing. Chicken wire and hardware cloth make good rabbit barriers that can't be chewed.
Tie the netting to a stakes every few feet for support. The fence should be about 2 feet tall to prevent high jumps into the vegetable patch. Make it 3 feet tall if you have jackrabbits. Bury another 6 to 12 inches of netting or chicken wire, half of it outward at a horizontal angle to discourage burrowing. I buried mine under a deep mulch of newspapers and grass clippings.
The openings in the netting or chicken wire should be no bigger than one inch. Bunnies have a talent for squeezing through small spaces.
Small trees need to be protected in the winter so that rabbits won't eat the bark. Wrap a loose circle of hardware cloth or chicken wire around the trunk. Make sure that the barrier will be higher than your usual snowline.
So far the rabbits have ignored all the herbs growing in unfenced areas. Of course, your rabbits may have different tastes than mine.
Now that my garden is safe, I can enjoy the antics of my backyard bunnies.