Gardening Is Dangerous!

16 years ago

Well, the wind has finally stopped blowing. So I went out to put the house back on it's foundation, drag the skid-loader from down the road (where it had blown up against a big ol' elm tree) and do a little more planting.

I figured while I was out there, I would pick me some fresh spinach so I could wilt it down in some bacon fat and eat it with some freshly laid scrambled eggs. YUMMY!

To my horror, there was no spinach to be found!

Where only hours before, had existed plant after plant of the most lovely, dark green, succulent and tasty spinach - was only a dreary wide row of freshly turned earth.

While I stood there with hands on hips, muttering obscenities, contemplating murder and mayhem - I spotted the culprits.

They had brazenly returned, and in broad daylight no less!

Now I know everyone remembers this little tune from their childhood. However I have taken the liberty of changing a few of the words.

Let's all sing it together!

"Here comes Peter cottontail

Hopping down the bunny trail

Hippity-hoppity with all my spinach in his teeth!"

Well, knowing that bullets would only bounce off of these little Popeye enhanced vermin, I decided that discretion was indeed the better part of valor - so I backed slowly away before they decided I was Bluto and put a serious butt whupping on me.

Gardening is dangerous work.

And contrary to popular belief - rabbits don't eat carrots (sorry Bugs).

THEY EAT SPINACH!

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Comments (9)

merryheart
16 years ago
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.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
16 years ago
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
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Wellspring - my path system works very well for me on a variety of levels, some of which may be appropriate for you as well. I'll try to give a description that might help you visualize it. The backyard garden and paths evolved over our 9 years here and are now in a pretty ideal state for my needs. The backyard is roughly rectangular (one side is a few feet longer than the other but imagine a rectangle...) The house is on the east side; the back of the house forms an L, with a poured concrete patio filling the L to make it a rectangle and making a straight line across the back. So the backyard rectangle has the house and patio as its east boundary, and chainlink fences on the other three sides. There is an 8' wide alley along the north and south sides of the house. There is a 4" drop from the concrete patio to the lawn and that is ramped with paving stones - a wide (~7') ramp on the west side and a narrow 24" one on the north side. There is a 3' wide pinebark/sand mix path that runs from the driveway at the front of the house, through the south gate, down the south alley, across the rear of the lot, up the north alley to the north gate. There is also a path that runs across the back of the house connecting the north and south alley paths. The larger ramp from the patio enpties onto that path. The narrow ramp empties onto the north alley path. The paths run along the fences. This spring we put in the final pinebark/sand path. We made the back lawn a rectangle. It is offset from the north fence by about 15' and offset from the south fence by about 20'. There is about 20' to the back fence. On the house side, it abuts the path along the back of the house. There is a 3' pinebark/sand path running between the lawn and the woodland garden beds that fill the space between the lawn path and the fence path. There are several cross paths that connect the inner and outer paths. So try to visualize a smaller rectangle nested in a bigger one with links between them and the larger rectangle linked to the front yard through the alley paths. The advantages of this arrangement for me are many and some seem pertinent to your situation. - We have dogs (one of our own - we used to have two - and we dogsit frequently for friends). Dogs inevitably want to patrol/run the fencelines so it is easy to do it here without damaging the garden. The dogs also love to just run for fun and exercise, chasing each other around the paths and leaping across the beds to cross from inner to outer paths via the secondary linking paths. They really do take the path of least restance so prefer to run on the paths and have never caused any damage to the garden beds! I'm sure your dogs would have fun with the paths. Since the dogs follow the paths, the pattern of paths effectively increases the exercise space by giving them more tracks to run on. - The outer paths are close to the fences so the fences are within reach for support if I need it (or orientaion references in your case.) - The ramp material and the path material is different so, while I can see the difference, my vision is a bit fuzzy so the different textures helps confirm that I've moved from the path to the patio ramp or vice versa. - Similarly, there is a difference in texture between the bark path and the lawn so you notice when you've strayed off the lawn path and onto the lawn or can tell when you've moved onto the lawn deliberately. - The lawn is nice and easy to mow now as there are no curves (other than to smooth the corners of the rectangle). And the beds don't require edging any more because the lawn path separates the grass from the beds by 3'! Our lawn grass doesn't seem to like the path material so hasn't tried to grow across the path. The path material will probably need topping up every few years as the bark breaks down so adding new bark/sand will help smother any grass that tries to encroach. If need be, a bit of Round-up could be used to zap any encroaching grass. So the lawn path simplifies garden maintenance enormously! - The combination of pinebork mulch and concrete sand packs down firmly. The dogs sometimes leave lauch grooves and skid marks when they get racing about. It's easy to rake it flat again with a garden rake. And as I noted above, falling on the bark-based path gives a softer landing than falling on hardscaping of any sort. Sorry to be long-winded but I thought maybe there might be useful ideas for you in what I've done here.
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auntieemma
16 years ago
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.
kirts
16 years ago
time to go to war, with a bunny fence!
pistol
16 years ago
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.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
16 years ago
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
trubbadubbadoo
Original Author
16 years ago
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.
okprairie
16 years ago
Dawn, Have you tried those motion activated sprinkler systems? I have heard those work on racoons, though I have never tried them.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
16 years ago
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

Gardening Is Dangerous!

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