Monday, March 29, 2010

Rabbit Time


It’s spring and that means rabbits. I know that rabbits can be troublesome, especially in regard to the bulbs I get snuckered into planting each year. I say snuckered because bulbs have such beautiful flowers that I can’t resist them even though I know that I will rarely see the blossoms. I have planted hundreds of tulips and harvested nearly none. As the flowers start to bud the rabbits snip them off the stems. So my strategy is to buy fully blossomed plants at the nursery, enjoy them inside for a while, then plant them in the garden. If the rabbits come out for lunch at least I have the pleasure, for a brief time, of seeing their full radiance. And somewhere in my heart of hearts I nurture the hope that maybe this time some of the bulbs will survive to show up again the following spring.

3 comments:

  1. I, too, love to watch the bunnies play in my backyard but I'm not as generous as Feri with my flowers. I've taken to spraying some of my favorite flowers (also the rabbits' favorites) with a spray that is not harmful but is unpleasant to the rabbits. Last year I sprayed after seeing a rabbit munching on my coreopsis. Within minutes my husband called me to look at our patio. The rabbit who had just been eating was now staring at our back door. My husband said that the rabbit knew that the mean Mrs. McGregor had just come from that door to ruin his lunch! I felt guilty for about one minute.

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  2. Don't feel guilty. I remember the wonderful vegetable gardens you planted year after year while I shrugged my shoulders and gave up.

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  3. Ferida, maybe you should try a repellent. My neighbor uses a spray called DeFence to keep rabbits out of his garden. He says he only sprays it once about every three months and that it works great.

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