Seedlings are Bunny Buffet

I just noticed this morning - missing morning glories and Red Poppy. *sniff*

it does seem the Cosmos and "bird & butterfly mix" are untouched.
bummer -- i was really looking forward to the Poppies.

Oh yeah -- 1 totally missing sunflower, and a few leaves that have been snacked on... but the plant is still standing.

Why can't they eat the ditch lilies?

Wow-
Hopefully your bunnies will get with the program- I hear ditch lilies can be pretty tasty :-)
Sorry to hear about your morning glories and especially those poppies!!
The local birds- starlings and house sparrows- have really enjoyed driving me mad stealing my seedlings LOL. But for some reason, the Cosmos here got hit hard. I think I lost about half of mine, and most of my tomato seedlings.
There is nothing more sad than going out to the garden and finding nothing but stalks sticking out of the ground, or plants that sure seemed to be there the night before.
I built a 3 foot high, 4 x 8 foot bird-netting cage to put my seedlings in until they get a hair bigger and can survive getting munched on. Don't know if that would be practical for you or not, but it has worked like a dream.
I have a whole lot of extra morning glory seeds (15 types I think), as well as several types of poppy. If you'd like to start again by seeding outside, dmail me and I can send you some. Best of luck!
Samantha

I have planted out a few more seedlings... this time on the side of my house, not out in the field... but i noticed the leaves are all munched on those too.... I wish they'd snack on the 4-O'clocks since i have hundreds that i need to pull.... but nooooooo -- guess they arent tasty enough.

so today i went and bough Critter Ridder. it's a granual animal 'repellant' -- i just hope it works.

I sprinkled it all around all the new seedlings i planted today, including all the other areas i want them to stay out of.

I'll post back how it works.

Bummer! You always have to plant a little "extra" for the bunnies, birds, and God's other creatures. Hopefully, they will re-sprout or you'll have to find less tasty varieties next year! :~0 Bad, bad bunnies!

yeah -- they're bad... but they are soooooo cute. The one thing i will miss are the poppies.
they missed a coupla morning glories -- 10 out of about 70!!

oh and the sunflowers.... they just got my tallest one. I've "caged" off the other big one... so hopefully i'll have "ONE" sunflower.

though i do have a lot more seeds... any idea how quickly they'd grow if i just popped seeds in the ground?

I've read that coffee grounds around your plants will keep the bunnies away --- haven't tried it, but figure it couldn't hurt!

PV

Dogs will definitely keep bunnies, deer, and other critters out of your garden...if you don't mind a few trappled plants.

Coffee grounds work great as they add acidity to the soil. That is great only for some plants. Plus, coffee grounds do have to be replenished as they break down into the soil after it rains.

You might want to try clean crushed egg shells (you'll need a LOT of them) to scatter around your newly planted seedlings. But the good news is that seedlings do grow bigger into stronger plants. Yes, again ONLY the strongest survive! My motto is to plant enough seedlings for me, the birds, bunnies and all other critters to enjoy in the garden together.

PVick -- if you're going to do a little (late) direct sowing -- try Cosmos, and I know you have some, but maybe another color? And sunflowers & zinnias and also Nasturtiums. Also Mimulus is supposed to be fast if you have the shade. I just threw out some dill, zinnias, sunflowers and Cosmos today.

BUNNY BUFFET -- they ate my cosmos to the nubs and also dahilas. I assuume the dahlias will come back up, but I'll need a pepper spray to put on them I think until the leaves get bigger andless tasty. I did as Shirley said and bought them some special plants -- broccoli and Swiss Chard, but apparently they don't like their vegetables LOL. I also have 2 dogs, and while it might deter them somewhat, I have a LOT of eaten plants.

I would never tell you to kill a little baby bunny, but I think that's the only way to actually get rid of them.

Suzy

Maybe the baby bunnies didn't eat all your plants. Could you possibly have woodchucks, voles, moles or other rodents lurking in your garden ready to eat your tasty new shoots?

This message was edited Jun 8, 2007 12:53 PM

Not sure if you're talking to me or not, but yes, I have all the above plus some you forgot to mention -- it's a little zoo right here in the city.

The cosmos is definitely the bunny buffet -- he got them last year, too, but I had 1000s of them, so I could afford to be generous. This year, they didn't come back, so I got some plants from DG Makshi, and she won't be happy to learn that her seedlings have been eaten! :( (They didn't reseed because I over-collected the seeds for seed trades :))

The rest of the plants -- I'm not 100% sure I can blame the bunny. Why one dahlia and not the one next to it? In any case, I need to entice some neighborhood cats to keep a closer watch over here.

We'll see what Terese says about her culprits.

Suzy

for right now... i believe it's only bunnies... though i could be wrong. I'll see an oposum on occasion, but not often.

I recall last year watching with binoculars... i was watching "her" mow down flowers... right in broad daylight mind you.... [the nerve LOL] bu -- i love rabbits and bunnies.... so i just have to live with it.

when i get home on Sunday -- i'll check my latest seedlings to see how they are doing... hopefully this Critter stuff will help.

Sorry, I was talking to both you & Terese. I probably was typing gibberish since it was well after midnight when I wrote that post.

Yuph, yuph, yuph, bunny buffet it is! Just gotta plant a lot & keep your fingers crossed that they move onto your neighbors yards waaaaaay down the street! ;~0