Rabbits Are Cute for Easter but They Can Wreck Havoc on Your Garden

It's almost time for Easter and no icon represents Easter like the cute and cuddly rabbit. Easter was a pagan fertility ritual long before it became a Christian holiday. Rabbits represent fertility just like the egg does. You've heard the old saying: "Breed like rabbits." The whole idea of being "born again" came from the Christian idea of Christ rising from the grave. But what it really represents is the cycle of life. And spring is the time of birth.

Rabbits can be cute and cuddly in the pet store or when they come in the shape of chocolate Easter bunnies in your Easter basket, but if you have a garden they can be a real pest. They are very adapt at eating your tender and very expensive vegetation and flowers.

Rabbits have been known to eat rose bushes thorns and all. They can eat an expensive flowering plant all the way down to a barely recognizable stub. There is a couple of ways that you can address the problem: You can be like Elmer Fudd and get out the shotgun or resort to harmful traps or chemicals. But, the rabbits are still kind of cute after all, aren't they? It would be a shame to kill them.

According to the Healthy Planet Magazine:

"There are many deterrents available that should be your first line of defense:" First you can try putting up chicken wire or fencing. (Maybe they should make electric fencing for garden pests.) But sometimes they can get around even the best fencing. You can get some blood meal and sprinkle it around the plants. It can make a pretty smelly deterrent. And that's the problem.

You can also buy a motion detecting automatic sprinkling system if you can afford it. Individual automatic sprinklers are also available for about $50, but, depending on the size of your garden, you might need multiple hoses.

Another thing you can try if you don't like the smell of blood meal and that is a liquid called Plantskydd, it is also blood-based but the smell dissipates in about a day.

If all else fails then try planting some plants that rabbits don't like to eat like Sun: Achillea '" yarrow, butterfly weed, Russian sage, and Stylophorum-celandine poppy. Your garden center has a list of plants that rabbits don't like to eat.

Source: http://www.thehealthyplanet.com/april2011_rabbit.htm