Rabbits

Fluffy little cottontails, hippity-hopping along my yard. Adorable? Of course. But also irritating little varmints that have decimated the few plants I've gotten into the ground. I supposed I should have known better. My little Pixie (our chihuahua terrier mix, fiercer than a pack of rabid Rottweilers) scares them out from under our bushes on a regular basis, and when she can't find the actual rabbit, she finds his little presents all over the yard. She thinks they're doggie M&Ms. 

But I digress. 

The point is, I know they're there. We've lived in our little corner of suburbia for almost a year now, and I'm familiar with the natives. But when I planted lettuce, onions, cauliflower, garlic and sweet peas, I didn't even consider fencing them in. I don't need no stinking fence! I want to gaze out my kitchen window at my growing cornucopia unobstructed. I was more concerned with the slugs, nasty little buggers. I put out little containers of beer and caught many more than I cared to count. The rabbits though, they knew what was up. They snuck out at night and devoured my lettuce first. Then they started on the cauliflower. By the time I realized the seriousness of the situation, all that was left was the onions and one cauliflower (the garlic & sweet peas are ok too, but they're not out of the ground yet). One sad cauliflower. I don't know why they left that one. Maybe all those cruciferous leaves gave them indigestion.

A few nights ago my mom came over and we worked the soil to get it ready for seeds, and put up the beginnings of a fence. Just chicken wire and stakes, but it should be enough. We need some more chicken wire and we'll be in business. For now the cauliflower is hiding under an urn (one of two in the world custom painted by Butcho for my wedding). I'll turn it over in the morning, and as soon as that fence is complete it'll be safe from rabbity harm.

So, to sum up my recommendations for rabbit issues:
*get a fence
*plant things that rabbits don't eat

There are products out there that you can spray to deter them, but I don't relish the idea of spraying chemicals on things I want to eat later, so I'd suggest avoiding that for a veggie garden. If the rabbits are eating your flowers, it probably wouldn't cause any harm, just keep your kids and pets out of that area, and always use gloves when working there. (which you should be doing anyway. get yourself some mud gloves and be done with it.)