QUESTION: Can you please give some advice on how to prevent rabbits from entering and eating my garden? -- Miles (Stonewall)
ANSWER: Here are some things to try:
-- If possible, construct a chicken-wire fence, roughly 60 centimetres in height. Bury the fence a few centimetres into the ground, because rabbits are more likely to climb under the fence than hop over it.
-- Surround the garden with milk jugs lined with sand. The idea is the rabbits will chew on the jugs instead of your plants.
-- Suspend aluminum pie plates around plants to keep rabbits away.
-- Sprinkle one of the following around plants or shrubs: bags of human hair (from your local hair salon), blood meal, fox urine, bone meal or Irish Spring soap shavings.
-- Add turkey manure to the soil.
-- Into a spray bottle, mix one tablespoon of baby shampoo, one tablespoon of household ammonia and one litre of water. Spray the plants every three days.
-- Soak corn cobs in vinegar for five minutes and then place them throughout the garden or under shrubs. Re-soak the corn cobs after two weeks.
-- When planting flower beds, mix thyme, spearmint, daffodils and/or eucalyptus in with flowers. Rabbits don't like the smell and often won't pass by to get to your yummy flowers.
-- Some people have had success with burying fabric softener sheets around plants.
-- Bury a collar cut out of a milk carton or jug around newly planted vegetables to protect each plant.
-- Fill mason jars three-quarters full with water, and add a drop of dish soap to each jar. Line jars along the garden and place them on top of foil pie plates. The water reflects the sun off the jar and the foil, and scares rabbits.
-- Ultrasonic repellers send a high-pitched noise humans are unable to hear but is uncomfortable for animals such as dogs, cats, deer, rabbits, raccoons, opossums, armadillos, skunks, bats and squirrels. Adjust the unit frequency so the sound doesn't hurt animals in the area. Study the best unit for your yard -- some are not effective.
Nerbas enjoys your questions and tips; keep them coming. Check out reena.ca. Every user assumes all risks of injury or damage resulting from the implementation of any suggestions in this column. Test all products on an inconspicuous area first.
