Rabbit Proof Your Garden
By Sonya Welter
Urban gardeners have some advantages over their rural counterparts, and one of them is that there are fewer mammalian pests in the city.
Urban gardeners will have to deal with fewer deer, who will trample their seedlings and mow their lilies and hostas down to the ground.
Urban gardeners are also less likely to encounter bears, who will tear down bird feeders and strip berry bushes and fruit trees.
But rabbits are an almost universal pest in all but the most urban of gardens. Sure, they’re cute when they’re merrily gamboling in the front yard, nibbling on dandelions and clover, but they’re less cute when it’s your lettuce or green beans that they’re nibbling. Rabbits are smart and resourceful, but you can make your garden rabbit proof (or at least rabbit resistant) with the right fence and some creative landscaping.
The first step to rabbit proofing your garden is a good fence. Now, picket fences are cute and chain link fences will keep your dog in the yard, but bunnies can easily squeeze through the gaps and maraud your vegetable garden. Chicken wire fencing (also called poultry netting) is tightly woven enough to exclude rabbits. You can also use galvanized hardware cloth, which is sturdier and has even smaller holes but is more expensive.
Either way, you’ll have to bury the fencing to a depth of at least six inches so that the rabbits cannot dig under it, and it’s best to flare the bottom of the fence away from the garden to further thwart hungry bunnies. It you already have another fence installed, you can line the bottom with chicken wire or hardware cloth to make it rabbit proof.
The next step in your battle against rabbits is to plant things that they don’t like. Louise Riotte, author of “Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening” recommends planting allium family plants like onions, garlic, chives or leeks, among your leafy greens to deter rabbits. Rabbits also dislike the smell of marigolds. You can further deter rabbits by applying fish emulsion to the soil or sprinkling cayenne pepper on the plants themselves, although these treatments will have to be repeated after every rain.
