My Mum and Dad are staying with us at the moment. As many of you know my Dad and I are partners-in-crime over the garden. He’d barely been here ten minutes before he’d got the bit between his teeth again and this time the rabbits were in his sights…literally. He was out with the air rifle, taking aim. Periodically he vanishes only to be found lurking at a window ready to fire. He only half listens to you in conversation. One eye is on the garden ever watchful for the tell-tale flick of a pair of brown ears. He’s even been doing target practice against one of the barn walls. It’s the rose bush that has caused this determined reaction. They chewed it to the ground…thorns and all.
Big Dreamer and I have discovered an alternative strategy which may prove more fruitful than Dad with his rifle. When we were in Yorkshire a little while ago we visited the RHS garden Harlow Carr. They have a wonderful allotment section and they also have rabbits. What they’d been doing was putting sticks around the plant in the way I’ve drawn in my diagram (okay, maybe they hadn’t sharpened theirs!) to create a natural thicket around the base of the plant. I don’t know if they were actually doing that to stop the rabbits but we’re trying it out and so far so good. It also looks a lot better then heaps of chicken wire and netting everywhere.
