How do you keep rabbits out of your garden?

I have the same trouble - and they like to chew off my roses and tulips heads. I use a product called "Liquid Fence" that works MOST of the time, especially if it's on a baby bunny just learning. If you get a stubborn buck rabbit (we had one nick named "Numb Nose" for awhile) you can also use these little green clip on things that are full of concentrated garlic oil - I'm spacing the name at the moment. He'd ignore the spray, but couldn't handle that smell stuck in or clipped on to what he was trying to eat.

a 20 gauge shotgun would work

I agree that the shotgun would work...although it probably wouldn't be that great for that nice fence...or neighborly relations if you are living in an urban area.

My mother used to put moth balls in the garden and the animals would stay away.

My ex use to kill them with a high powered air rifle and pointy tipped BB's.

Thanks, Marie B., I'll check it out. Not sure how I feel about having a garlic-scented backyard, but what the heck! Maybe people will think I'm grilling all the time or something.

Oh Leah Christensen, you know I did try that once! It is kind of a funny story, because I put them around the perimeter of my herb garden. The one right under my favorite window. I love having the windows open while I'm at home. [pause while that sinks in] Yeah. That room smelled like old lady closet for WEEKS.

Adam T. the have-a-heart trap sounds a little too intense for me. Really, I'd rather just scare 'em away. But if the situation gets desperate I'll be asking how to use it.

Moving on to the several suggestions that involve firearms...I am in the city, and the rabbit isn't threatening my garden-that-is-my-livelihood, so use of weapons is probably overkill.

Uh, it's illegal to shoot firearms in the city. I'd rather Julia NOT go to prison, and would prefer that bunnies NOT get killed just for a friggin' tomato or lettuce leaf. Good lord people, get some perspective!

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
Mahatma Gandhi

Prison? Who wants to go to prison?! I would strongly prefer to avoid prison.

I think they were just joshin, Zeldapie.

I hope they were, Julia. Sorry to get all worked up, but you know me.

Zelda "Bleeding Heart Animal Lover Tree Hugger" Pie

Well, it is who you are and that's nothing to be ashamed of. You believe in it to the point of volunteering. That's cool.

So.

Any organic hippie suggestions? *sweet, teasing grin* I'd be interested!

Rabbits are pests and for every one you kill, ten more pop up to take it's place. Besides that, they're yummy when they're fried like chicken.

Organic hippies? I've been told that they don't taste very good and they stink.

Well, Lera, word is that rabbit is healthier than chicken. Still not sure I'm up for that whole livin' off the backyard land thing tho.

Lera, I DO hope you're joking.

I've heard non-organic a$$holes taste pretty bad, too, and stink even more than the hippies.

Just sayin'.

Plant garlic bulbs and chives among your vegetables. Plant daffodils and hyacinth among your tulips (poisonous to rodents.) You'll soon notice the rabits going to other people's yards.

All assholes taste and smell bad. Not that I would know from personal experience, mind you. I heard it somewhere before.

Why did you put the dollar signs in your asshole? I meant the word, of course.

Btw, I haven't eatten a rabbit since I got old enough to know better ....... but I still don't care for hippies.

Just sayin'. ;0)

LOL Julia, funny about the mothballs. LOL LOL LOL Thanks for sharing that. But tell me even though they made the room stink, did they keep the rabbits away?

how about a rattlesnake?

Whatever you choose, you may need to employ more than one scare tactic. Urban rabbits get used to most of them rather quickly (no predators to keep them busy or thinned out).

Some animal repellents smell like mothballs (active ingredients are similar), but none of those are safe to use on plants you plan to eat. The repellents that are safe to eat either smell like rotten eggs or are laced with capsacin (Hot Pepper Wax).

(not so practical or reliable) (grin) Tell all your neighbors to keep their pets inside and invite a few coyotes over for lunch (the four legged kind).

I heard that marigolds are supposed to keep rabbits at bay. Is that true?

Thanks for the planting suggestions, Preston. If chives and garlic offend their noses, well... good!

Leah it is hilarious now but at the time I was completely vexed by the smell. It didn't keep the squirrels away but the rabbits didn't nest there that year. I will NEVER do it again. There's something just horrible about that smell.

You know, I hadn't considered a rattlesnake Travis until... no, I still haven't considered one. :-)

Peter you make a good point. This isn't one battle, it is a war! Maybe I'll try a couple of these suggestions and see what works. Really tho, this bunny manages to avoid my dogs. Within a half hour of the dogs coming inside, Mr. Rabbit is right back in the yard, all casual.

Not sure, Mark - anyone? Do marigolds drive rabbits away?

I've heard that about marigolds, too -- their scent (which is mighty sharp, even to a human's nose!) keeps them away.

I knew someone who bought a couple of rubber toy snakes and placed them in the gardens. He'd move them around every couple of days. It worked for him, so you might give it a try.

I have had success with marigolds, but it wasn't exactly a double blind scientific test. I planted them and had no troubles, but that same year a fox moved into the neighborhood and cleared out the rabbits.
My dear old dad always said that the marigold theory was propagated by those who sold marigolds.
And I was joking about the gun thing.
Good luck!

I have learned from experience that the worst thing you can do is plant all of your like vegetables and bulbs in rows with identical plants. I know it goes against farmer sensibilities, but you will do a lot better with insects, rabbits and all "pests" if you diversify the species next to each other.

For example, this year I planted 1 hyacinth, I daffodil, one onion (leaves look similar in the garden) 1 tulip bulb etc. then repeated the pattern. I planted about 700 bulbs this way. A squirrel or rabbit dug up 1 hyacinth, decided it tasted bad and never came back. Had I planted all tulips, the rodent would have been rewarded so it would try another, and then another.

The same works in vegetable gardens. You will slow down insects if like plants are not all next to each other, making it easy for colonies to go from one plant to the next. No need to pepper spray if you grow peppers spaced through out the garden. Same goes with marigolds, tansy, wormwood, sage, and tons of other bitter herbs. Tobacco (Nicotiana) works too and has pretty flowers and nice large leaves.

Hmmm, toy snakes. That's a good idea. Think the dogs will leave them alone, Zelda?

"My dear old dad always said that the marigold theory was propagated by those who sold marigolds." Pretty funny Jeffrey J Thanks for clarifying about the firearms...

Check you out, Preston. That's an elegant and simple idea. But isn't it true that once Tobacco is planted, nothing can be planted in that spot again?

Julia.

Lucky for us the rabbit infested garden was on the other side of the lawn opposite the window, so we didn't get the smell in the house.

Julia, do you mean the amount of nutrients that tobacco takes out of the soil? I haven't found this to be a problem, but again I am not mono-cropping. I mulch and compost eveything like crazy, so I don't think there is a problem with removing the nutrients. Remember, on farms nutrients go into the plants and then the plants are removed from the land. After a few years of removing nutrients you have barren land. But as a gardener, if the nutirents go into the plant and then the plant is thrown back on the garden to decay, the nutrients break down and go back into the soil -- no nutirent loss. (funny, this probably is what ha[ppens in nature. When in doubt, copy nature -- you will be doing more right than wrong.)

There are only a few plants l -- trees like walnut -- that actually poison the soil with natural herbicides and prevent new plants from growing. These you don't want to compost.

Tobacco is great to have in the garden just to break up with water in a blender and spray on other plants having bug problems -- natural insecticide.

Preston - thanks for all the great ideas you've shared here!

Julia - you'll have to let us know what methods you try and how they work! :) I'll be honest, I have lots of rabbits but they don't seem to bother my plants. Then again maybe I just don't notice since virtually everything that's in my yard was already here when I got here 3 years ago and I haven't added much. :) That or maybe they're just satisfied with all of the bird seed that the grackles and blue jays throw out of my feeder. I know it makes for happy squirrels. ;)