Today, our dog stuck his face in the shrubs, and came out with his fifth rabbit. He was so chuffed, prancing around with his prize. There was only one hind leg sticking out of his mouth when we caught him. Down the hatch!
The way those rabbits have been going after our veggies this season, I can’t get too torn up about it. I just can’t. Peter Rabbit is lucky he only met Mr. McGregor. Peter wouldn’t have gotten off so easy around here.
Maybe I’m evil, but I’m also practical. Dead bunnies don’t bother me.
there’s been a cottontail hanging around the front yard of my apartment building nibbling on the clover. He’s lucky my neighbor’s cat hasn’t gotten out a window lately.
Oh! Poor Thumper! [boo-hoo crocodile tears]
Sorry but my father used to keep a garden.
Rabbits are awfully lean meat (high protein but too low fat)–good every once in a while but not as a steady diet.
Varmints aren’t getting into my garden. Bugs are. I’ve lost all but one potato plant, and the tomato leaves look like lace. I fear that I may have sentenced a new squash plant to death by bringing it home. Good luck to you with your bunnies!
We’re getting some insect damage, too. The asparagus beetles have been actually going after the plants for which they’re named (shock!). For some reason, the potato beetles leave our potatos alone, while munching on the eggplant leaves. I haven’t seen a big infestation of them, but the damage is evident on the extra ones we tucked in among the foundation plantings instead of in the kitchen garden.
I prefer to spray with dilute Murphy’s Oil Soap concentrate, but if we have to break out the heavy artillery, we’ve got some Sevin. I believe the last time I bought a gallon of Murphy’s Oil Soap concentrate, I paid about $7 for it at either Home Depot or Lowe’s, so it’s far more economical than all those products stocked in the lawn care/gardening section. Plus, it works great for cleaning wood floors and stairwell bannisters.
Our pea crop sucked this spring, because it was colder than normal for a couple of months, then suddenly got hot just as they started flowering. They thought it was summer already, and started to shut down for the season before producing much of anything. We’ll try again for a fall crop.
Everything else in the kitchen garden looks good, so far, but I anticipate blight hitting the tomatoes sooner ot later. Blight’s a big issue in this part of the country. There’s just not that much that can be done about it, other than to trim off the affected leaves to minimize how fast it spreads.
Oh, well. Every growing season, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. *sigh*
I don’t know what these bugs are. They’re as small as my pinky finger and look like leaves with feet. They’re killing everything, though. I tried the store-bought spray, but now that I read your comment, I might try the Murphy’s.
Could be some sort of leaf hopper; there are many species of them, some of which really do look like leaves.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=leaf+hopper&iax=1&ia=images
They look like this.
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fpics.davesgarden.com%2Fpics%2F2007%2F07%2F26%2Flinda_nc%2F1a907b.jpg&f=1
Alright. That is a leaf hopper. Murphy’s should work on them, but you’ll have to spray both the top and underside of the leaves, and keep after it if the infestestion is major.
Pinky finger NAIL.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xx199h_qi-see03-eating_fun
Watch from about 9 minutes in regarding eating rabbits
Gruesome!
My cat’s been trying to climb up to a birdhouse that some bluebirds have apparently built a nest in. So far she keeps getting dive-bombed by the bluebird parents. Hopefully they can keep her chased off… I don’t think she’s really hungry, just curious.
The other day I found a squirrel’s tail and a couple of its legs by the back porch, so apparently she’s badassed enough to take down a squirrel… unless she already found it dead somewhere.