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Worst case scenario

beattie

By beattie

5 comments


We’ve rabbit proofed a large part of the garden by putting in fence posts and a wire mesh fence with the bottom buried in the ground. I did the work on this 2 years ago and it’s been wonderful! I’ve had a refuge to transplant all the lovely little beauties that turn out to be fancied by bunnies.

But I’ve always been aware that the worst case scenario would be if a rabbit got in and couldn’t get out again…..

A few days ago I was weeding and found a veronica that had been trimmed almost to the ground. Funny…..
Looking around, I saw that lots of the pansies had been – not “dead-headed”, more “cut off in their prime”. I had a good tour of the perimeter – not easy, as lots of the bushes I’d planted to disguise the wire fence have grown most satisfactorily. There were no holes, scrapes or evidence of rabbit incursions.

Yesterday, I was weeding and found more snipped off plants. I’m sure my Campanula latifolia will recover, but it’s been cut off in its prime. And I also found some ‘very small’ rabbit pellets. But another search still found no way in and no lurker in the bushes.

Today, I was watering and turning a compost heap, then took a quiet turn around the garden – and spotted a small baby rabbit which hopped slyly into a bush.

I went and got reinforcements. We propped the gate open and started a three-pronged approach. A bit of “drawing the coverts” flushed the quarry into the open. Our dog impressions panicked it thoroughly and it shot through the gateway and out into the unfenced part of the garden.

I think the bunny must have got in when it was tiny (the gap between the slats is about 1.5 inches wide), but replete with tasty veronica, pansy, linaria, campanula and so on, couldn’t get out again.
This was “The Worst Case Scenario”.

Sorted. For now.

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Comments

 

Maddening, Beattie. I'm glad you found the culprit and have got rid of him . . . hope he stays away!

18 Jun, 2011

 

Exactly what I did to my fence, I have put wire mesh around the whole boundary, just over a year ago...did not see a rabbit since, then last week I spotted a baby bunny in the garden, like you it is impossible to see where it runs too when I try looking, so it is still in the garden so far and cannot get out, as soon as I go inside out it comes onto the lawn, so far nothing has been eaten, I check every five minutes and every morning first thing, this afternoon I even got quite close to it and took a lot of pictures, it did not even hear me. I want it to go, but cannot chase it because it hides from me, it needs to go the way it came in and I cannot see it where nor can it. :(((

18 Jun, 2011

 

You're lucky it hasn't done any damage so far Michaella. I guess it's nibbling the grass. I don't have any grass, except the odd weed, in my "rabbit (free) garden". Do you have a gate you go in and out by or do you get into the garden via the house? It took three of us to find the rabbit and herd it out of the propped open gate.

The other idea I had was to get a humane trap (I saw one last year at a big hardware /builder's merchant's & noted that I might need it one day), catch the rabbit and release it outside the garden again.

I've stapled plastic mesh to the lower half of the gate now so babies can't get in - til the staples rust and it falls off, anyway.

Keep me posted about your bunny Michaella. Perhaps if you frighten it, it will remember the way out. How about getting a friend with a dog to visit? Or at least let it know you're in the garden by getting close and shouting at it, howling, barking, growling..... Give it something to think about. Maybe at the moment it doesn't know it's not welcome.

18 Jun, 2011

 

lol..
It can only go out the way it got in, I have a side gate, it is not near the back garden, another thing which is not helping, I took out a fence panel between my neighbour and I, when it is near it, it goes into her garden then comes back when I am gone, it does not stay in her garden as her grass is too long, I have a feeling that they like neat grass. Even if I frighten it, it has a lot of dark places to hide, they can stay in one place for a very long time, then the minute one move they come out. It is virtually impossible to know where it could be hiding, I shall keep you posted. :))))

18 Jun, 2011

 

We are blissfully rabbit free. I think this is because we have a stream at the bottom. Which makes me wonder whether you could use a haha instead of a fence. Dont know how broad or deep it would need to be. The plan to put plastic at the bottom is a great one.

18 Jun, 2011

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