Gardening with Native Plants and Rabbits!
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
Strategies for coexisting.
It’s one of the perplexing paradoxes of gardening with native plants. We plant natives to create, support and enhance habitat. And before you know it, the local denizens arrive and they are eating the plants! Mission accomplished. Rabbit populations come and go. If you are in a peak bunny rabbit situation, you may feel like the perennials in your garden are no more than a disappearing buffet. Last year I planted a half flat of aster plugs one afternoon.
The next day I was out in the garden, looked at where I planted the plugs and thought "that's weird, I guess I thought about planting there but didn't ... and then realized, wait a minute, I DID plant there!" Rabbits. While providing food to small mammals is an important function of native plants, there are strategies you can use to better coexist – gardener and bunny, side by side. Here are a few ideas and if you have had success with others, please do share in the comments.
Scented Plants
Certain scented perennials tend to be resistant to rabbits. At the top of many lists is mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum). A fairly adaptable perennial for sun and part shade providing long lasting minty green color and structure to a garden bed, mountain mint is also a pollinator magnet. Other scented plants rabbits don't prefer include bee balm (Monarda fistulosa) and blue hyssop (Agastache foeniculum).
Rough and Tough Flowering Perennials
Another category of plants that tend to be rabbit resistant are plants with thicker or rougher stems. Plants falling into this category include:
False Indigo (Baptisia australis) (late spring blooming, full sun)
Goldenrod (Solidago) (fall blooming, sun and part shade)
New England Aster (Symphiotrichum novae-angliae) (fall blooming, sun)
Solomons Seal(Polygonatum biflorum) (late spring blooming, shade)
White wood aster (Eurybia divaricata) (fall blooming, shade)
Other Flowering Perennials
There are other flowering herbaceous plants that don't seem to attract rabbits yet don't fit into one of those categories. Thankfully, it's a robust list of native perennial favorites!
Black eyed susans (Rudbeckia fulgida) (summer blooming, sun, part shade)
Coreopsis (Coreopsis) (summer blooming, sun)
Eastern columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) (spring blooming, shade)
Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) (spring blooming, shade)
Penstemon (Penstemon digitalis) (early summer blooming, sun, part shade)
Groundcovers
Dwarf crested iris (Iris cristata) (part sun, part shade, shade)
Pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia) (full sun)
Seersucker sedge (Carex plantaginea) (shade, part shade)
Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) (shade)
Caging Newly Emerging Plants and Tender Growth
It's no secret that tender new growth on any young plant is very enticing to all sorts of wildlife. I know I'll always take tender new salad greens over a tough head of lettuce that has bolted to seed. Rabbits share our preferences for succulent plants. Plant newly emerged black eyed susans and though the mature plants may not be appetizing to rabbits, those small new leaves will be. Creating a temporary protective cover to allow water and sun in and keep animals out may help your new plantings reach their more mature and rabbit resistant stature. You can create something simple with a roll of chicken wire and stakes or use any number of pre-made cloches or other protective structures. These are all examples from the Gardener's Supply Company, the employee owned gardening supply company in Vermont. You could also use a wire mesh trash or storage bin too. If you can, include a cover for that enclosure as rabbits can easily jump three feet and more. If you go down the proverbial internet rabbit hole, you will learn about jumps of 10 feet and at 35 mph! True? I don't know!
Don’t Give up on Eaten Plants
Newly emerging plants may get eaten but if the root systems have remained in ground, continue to care for the plants. There is a decent chance the root systems will support regrowth of the foliage. I have seen plants munched to the ground several times and still re-emerge. Not always the case but it happens often enough to give it a try.
Alas, Nothing is 100% Effective
These are strategies for coexisting. The Penn State Extension Service has a robust list of native and non-native plants it finds to be rabbit resistant you may want to peruse. As we all know, if an animal is starving, it will eat just about anything it can find. Which leads to the last strategy. Abundance. The more plants you can grow, the better the chances, there will be enough for you and your local visitors. Easy to say, I know!
Happy Gardening.
Comments