Rabbits harming lawn. Cats the solution?
ZoysiaSod
12 years ago
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Comments (13)
tiemco
12 years agoZoysiaSod
12 years agoRelated Discussions
Help my lawn! attempting organic lawn care in Menlo Park CA
Comments (14)Also for watering: the soil looks too dry too soon currently. Mine, too--and I have no real problems. The very top surface of the soil dries out really fast in sun and wind, but that doesn't mean there isn't water underneath. You can test that by pushing a screwdriver into the soil. If it goes in fairly easily (barring rocks), your soil is damp. Or drive a small trowel into it and separate it into a V shape by rocking it a little bit. That'll give you a direct visual on how deep the water is. Here would be my plan: for now do very frequent waterings to help really wet the soil, I'm not familiar with California (except for the part about moderate temperatures and no rain), but this doesn't sound like a good idea--it encourages shallow roots and lawn diseases. The standard is 1" of water a week, all at once (well, within a day to allow for on/off cycles to allow the water to penetrate). For sandy soil your mileage will differ because the water wicks out fast and goes very deep very quickly. I will also probably try milorganite as a jump start, as I fear my soil is probably pretty depleted. I swear by it, others don't (it is processed sewage, but heated enough to kill everything in it). The 18 lbs/thousand square feet I put down last weekend kicked in and it's a rainy week. The grass, since Sunday, has grown one and a half inches and gone a deeper green. Once it stops raining, I'll mow. I went high, but I'm going to renovate this fall--with a deep, heavy core aeration I want lots of organics mixing into the holes. I alternate it with alfalfa and soy. When I started (early last year), my soil profile was slightly silty clay, poor drainage, very poor water penetration, hard as a rock, and a light tan. It had been corn field for as long as I could remember prior to building, and even my parents don't remember when it wasn't. Call it 40 years of abuse. Now it's still slightly silty clay (nothing's going to change that short of a renovation down to a foot or more). Drainage is fair to good, penetration is good to excellent, the soil is still hard when dry (it's supposed to be), but spongy when wet. The top half-inch is black, another inch is deep brown, and a good three inches below that have turned a midrange brown. Everything grows better and more strongly. I'm very pleased. Some older photos are here. I have to update them--the grass has improved since these were taken and the season advanced a bit....See MoreDo aphids harm milkweed plants?
Comments (13)Thank you to all of you who have replied to this thread that I started. I have no idea how I missed the answers but I saw them now that seven11 joined the forum and dredged the thread up. :) By the way, welcome to this family of butterfly nuts. Ha. Every year I have tons of aphids show up here. I despise their method of reproduction because it's much too efficient for them to greatly increase their numbers and make me a lot of work to squish them. I spent so much time doing that last year it grew old in a hurry. After spending several hours a day for weeks smashing them, I thought what a waste of my time! It was really hard to keep up with them and I wasn't getting other things done that I wanted to do. I've never tried the hose blasting method that I've read about on here that some other people do. I could be wrong but my thoughts on that are wouldn't they just survive the blast, fall to the ground and crawl right back up the plants later that day and they're there the next day to blast at again? That's why I've been squishing them (my daughter gets disgusted by the way they make my fingers a different color and just the idea of doing it with my bare hands). It is very time consuming though and I really am leaning towards blasting them this year. I have milkweed bugs, but they never really get too bad, so I basically ignore them. Sometimes I'm torn between letting the tussock moth cats live or killing them. I think that they're cute and fuzzy, but yet the more that they eat it leaves less for the Monarchs. If I get as many cats as I did last year though (zero), I guess it wouldn't really matter, but then again, I can't predict if the Monarchs will show up here or not. I have a few swamp milkweed plants and lots of tropical milkweed that I started. The SMW does little to help Monarchs here because it gets ugly black blotches all over the plants, making them basically inedible for the cats. The TMW do great here, and I'm aware of the controversy surrounding planting them vs. not. I start them with seeds by wintersowing and by taking cuttings late in the season and bringing them in the house over the winter. I won't let them spread by seed again because I had thousands of them come up last year. Previous years I also let them go to seed but only had a few plants come up from seeds. It does make me wonder if they could have the possibility of becoming invasive, but there are other kinds of plants here that I'm more worried about in that way. I have all kinds of weeds that creep from the lawn into the flower gardens and beds; once they're in there they run rampant because I just can't keep up with it all. Creeping Charlie is the most annoying for me. I didn't have time to weed in my upper garden at all last year, and you should see how it has spread in there! Between the weeds and the Oleander aphids here every year, it sure keeps me busy! I love the butterflies though. On that note, I'll post that I released my first Black Swallowtail butterfly of the year on Tuesday, May 13 that had overwintered out in the tool shed, and we released (my husband did, actually) two today. I still have more BST to come out and also Pipevine Swallowtails and Giant Swallowtails. I'm so ready to get butterfly cats to raise! I've been seeing Cabbage Whites, Wild Indigo Duskywings, Black Swallowtails, and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails so far this year flying around outside. I'm crossing my fingers for me and others to see more butterflies this year than last year because I know it wasn't a very good year for a lot of us. I'm especially hoping for some Monarch(s) to show up here and lay eggs. Cathy...See MoreBaby Rabbits
Comments (33)Kind of have to jump in again and open my big mouth and most likely put my foot in it, getting ready to duck under the computer desk, lol. It is no big secret on this forum that I am a nature lover and do my best to live WITH nature, I would much rather have their company than a perfect garden. But I am also practical when it comes to nature, I am a naturlist, a conservationlist, and sure no where near what meets PETA's standards. The reason I'm writing this is just last week my God daughter brings me a baby cottontail that her boyfriends cat got and with weepy eyes, asked me to raise it as a pet. I had to be cold hearted, I told her it was fully furred, eyes open and hopping quite well so go turn it loose in the back pasture. Here are the plain cold facts about rabbits. That tiny little rabbit hopping on your lawn is on its own, Mamma abondoned him in order to raise a new litter, she breeds right after giving birth, so when one litter is 4 weeks old, she has a new one. She breeds like a rabbit because most of the young she produces will be killed, that is natures way. If they were not killed, we would be up to our eyeballs in rabbits like they are in Australia where they are an introduced species with no natural preditors. Another fact, the nest you find is not abondoned by Mamma, she only feeds her young once or twice a day, her presents brings on preditors, so she stays away from the nest. Not seeing Mamma feeding does not mean the nest is abandoned, leave it alone. So while I do not do anything to discourage rabbits on my property, I also do nothing to protect them. Let my hawks, snakes, cats, raccoons, whatever, keep the numbers down. If I see a little baby, I leave it. And if I find a nest, I just leave it be. I still have rabbits, always have, always will, but never enough to cause me much damage, just enough for me to enjoy. I take this attitude with all of nature. I educate myself about the animals that share my home and take proper measures from there. I know it's so easy to fall in love with the cute and cuddly and hate the ones that offend your senses. But it's education that leads to a more proper balance. Hey, if I hadn't researched those totally gross, ugly things eating my rue, I wouldn't have my beautiful giant swallowtails today. And how many of you actually think a preying mantis is cute other than me? Sigh, going to get off my soap box hoping I made you understand that nature has a place in all gardens, but it's up to you to educate yourself on the facts of the particular animals that share your world. In doing so, you might be surprised....See MoreHow do I deter cats, dogs, rabbits and deer?
Comments (13)i have squirrels as much as rabbits and i know they eat a lot of my garden. the perimeter fence doesn't seem like it would do a lot in my situation. fortunately i live in the city limits and do not have deer in my yard. i would also want a fence i can easily get over (or go through a gate) to water, weed, pick etc. the square foot gardening book has a suggestion. the short version is that, for example, if your garden is 4x4 feet, you make a 4x4 wooden frame that fits right on or around your box. you take something like chicken wire (from a 4 foot tall roll) and have it come vertical off the frame for 2 feet, bend it 90 degrees, run the 4 feet across the frame and then back down 2 feet. you use pieces of 2x4 foot fence to patch the sides and you have a animal resistant lid. it will let through light and water. of course that won't work for the vertical growing. this year i jumped from 2 square foot garden style boxes to 6. i intentionally planted things that got eaten up in 2 of the boxes, and will put the lid on them when the time comes. everything may get nibbled, but, for example, i did not get to eat one strawberry last year. most of my garden was fairly ok until i got a groundhog. that's a whole different story. the chicken wire is not pretty, but that's the cheapest solution for full enclosure. obviously you can balance your preference of appearance with cost. just remember to keep it light weight so you can easily remove it for weeding and picking. that may be a more intense cover than you need, but there are options. i personally tried some of the animal predator urine smell stuff and the other mixes and it didn't seem to do anything. maybe i got the wrong kind, or the garden was just too appealing. i will give some of them another go as a preventative measure though. they are cheap enough to try another brand....See Moretiemco
12 years agofruitjarfla
12 years agoZoysiaSod
12 years agoJanette Sweeney
6 years agoPKponder TX Z7B
6 years agokrnuttle
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