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The Deep Middle


Gardening & writing in the prairie echo

On Rabbits And Salad Bars in Suburbia

7/18/2023

 
Do you have rabbit damage in your garden?

Ready for a radical thought? It's not damage. It's nature. It's an animal using a plant to survive, and the plant was designed to be eaten.

Yes, it stinks when herbivores eat what cost money and then curtail our garden dreams, to the point where we have to pivot / alter our dreams to fit the reality -- which can be hard and frustrating, like marriage (we ARE married to our gardens, folks).

But maybe the problem with rabbits eating plants is that we see it as a problem. Also, we tend to plant this way: one specimen marooned in wood mulch (or icky rock!) not allowed to touch other plants. First off, this is like putting spotlights on the plant with flashy neon lights that say "eats -- open all night."

Just HAVING a garden is sort of the same, especially if you live in a place with few other resources -- food, shelter, general habitat -- like most urban and suburban areas.

You've put out a bunny buffet. They are thankful. Wouldn't you be? Especially when there's only lawn and concrete to choose from?
Now, if you want to see less plant eating, here are some tricks that use principles found in nature vs trying to force a square peg in a round hole (hello foliage spray of cayenne and garlic, or chicken wire, or sleeping with your plants). Still, nothing in life is guaranteed:

1) Herbivores tend to avoid plants with aromatic, waxy, or spiky foliage. Not a hard and fast rule as sometimes you gotta eat what you gotta eat, especially if not much else is available. So plants on this list we use include: Eryngium yuccifolium, Monarda spp, Blephilia spp, Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, etc.

2) Bodyguard plants. In nature plants tend to be close together and layered up, so it's a bit harder to find a tasty Dalea purpurea for example. Surrounding the really choice Pringles of the plant world with grasses and sedges can help -- because those plants tend to not be browsed. So if you're planting a shade or sun meadow using a matrix of bunchgrasses or sedge, you're already ahead of the game.

3) More plants. The more plants you have, the less you'll notice if one is topped or missing. It's pretty cool. Plus you have justification to buy more plants (also, select plants that self propagate).

4) Time and patience. As plants root out and are able to store more resources by getting larger, a little pecking here and there won't affect them too much -- in fact, it may be more traumatic to you if you tend to helicopter parent your garden.

Maybe rabbit damage is good since they are lower on the food chain and support so many other species, like predators we definitely need more of (hawks, owls, coyotes, wolves, foxes, etc) but whose habitat we've taken away. Those top predators also help keep mice, vole, and bubonic plague rats under control. And we do want to see our plants being eaten, especially if it's moth and caterpillar larvae, or leafcutter bees, or various beetles, etc -- because more pollinators AND baby bird food. We are trying to create an ecosystem, after all, to try and restore some balance up and down trophic levels, and provide a bit of habitat. We're going to have rabbits, and snakes, and mice, and spiders, and wasps -- and this is a good thing. It really is.

Jim Fuehrmeyer
7/19/2023 09:07:41 am

You’re right. It takes time for us to get over our conditioning to want to have perfect plants with no holes in the leaves and no bite marks. Rabbits are nothing however in comparison to groundhogs. I have two and they have taken all the milkweed, asters, tall bellflowers and woodland phlox. I’ve left the stalks and many are putting out new leaves. They do eat white clover; I wish they’d eat Amur Honeysuckle and Oriental Bittersweet seedlings! I enjoy your posts. I picked you up when Fran & Tom had you on their podcast. Keep up the good work!

Benjamin Vogt
7/19/2023 09:13:19 am

In rare winters where we have prolonged snow cover, it's meadow voles for me. Lack of predators doesn't help. Core issue is we've so messed up trophic cascade that balance doesn't exist.

James McGee
7/23/2023 02:21:47 pm

I put chicken wire around my native gardens (both prairie or woodland), until plants have gotten a chance to established. There are a LOT more rabbits in my suburban yard than in prairie areas (whether remnant or reconstructed). Even with the chicken wire, and over abundance of dutch clover for the rabbits to eat, a rabbit will either dig under the chicken wire or jump over it and still occasionally get the heath asters, smooth blue asters, purple prairie clovers, white prairie clovers or woodland phloxes. I planted 25 prairie lilies, which I grew from seed, in a bed and did not surround it with chickenwire. The rabbits ate every small (three year old) prairie lilly plant. They did this despite having never touched Asiatic, Oriental, or trumpet lilies in my garden.

The grasses, sedges, or aromatic plants (nodding wild onion) I have planted don’t deter the rabbits. Rabbits are frequently in the taller grass of the prairie plantings. Although, I mostly see them just loafing around imunching on dutch clover flowers in lawn areas.

We actually have more predators in suburbia than in rural areas. About once a year a predator kills a rabbit in my yard and I have to clean up what remains. It is easy for predators to catch rabbits in my yard.

The rabbits lie around in the shade not even bothering to hop away unless they happen to be in the direct path where I am walking. The rabbits run around playing with each other worrying about the other rabbit that is chasing them oblivious to my prescence since they know I won’t hurt them.

JD link
8/5/2023 10:09:26 am

Are we seeing more rabbits in our urban and suburban area due to the bird flu taking out a lot of our big feathered friends? I used to see and hear an owl here, I havent heard 1 this year. I wonder if theres a way we could get them back? The rabbits are turning into what the deer are like in MT...they don't care if you're there, they'll eat whatever is in front of you - not spooked by us one bit!

Joe
8/5/2023 07:52:58 pm

B, you make a great point on having lots of plants so you won’t miss a few that when they are eaten.

I’ve learned another thing I call ABG. Always Be Growing. When you grow plants from seed you’ll have inexpensive reserves when plants disappear.

Jennifer
1/8/2024 10:25:55 am

I am seeing "herds" of rabbits in Watertown, Ma where I garden. I am not seeing the hawks, owls , foxes, coyotes or possums I used to encounter over the past 25 yrs. I believe it may be due to 2nd generation rodenticides in the black and gray bait boxes I see everywhere through out town...and now, even in rural areas. Wildlife rehabbers are treating dying predators every day.

Save our predators.

Saferodentcontrol.org

Paula
1/9/2024 09:13:45 am

i've had the same thoughts Benjamin. when planting in a suburban yard to create an ecosystem that functions, the eaters will eat the food they've evolved to consume. if all around them is only turf grass and japanese maples, they're going to come right on over to the mom's home grown food buffet. many people want "butterfly plants" but don't understand that other fauna will also be attracted. you can't control which consumer consumes your food supply.

mary
1/18/2024 12:06:10 pm

Im in the city and the property lot is not that big. There are plenty of rabbits around in spring and summer and that's fine. We also have hawks and cats in the neighborhood (maybe a coyote or fox, too). I believe more plants is the answer! The rabbits seem go for the easy/open and close the edge stuff first. I guess they don't want to wade deep into a dense planting. Their favorite thing is to stay on the path and browse along the edge of a planted area. When I'm in the yarden they just sit and stare at me, munching away. Little visitors. In the fall they bask in the sun, laying hidden and camoflauged by the brown leaves and plants. I have heard, on occasion, a rabbit gettin' caught by cat or fox at night, and woke to find fluffy furs in the yard the next morning.

Tantra Exeter link
5/21/2024 02:53:00 pm

Awesome blog you have heree


Comments are closed.

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    Benjamin Vogt's thoughts on prairie gardening in Nebraska. With a healthy dose of landscape ethics, ecophilosophy, climate change,  and social justice.

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