This bunny hopped into my backyard early Saturday morning.
Cute bunny, right? But my reaction to the furry friend was not charitable, because last year this bunny, or one just like her, ate the tops off all my tulips. My Canada 150 tulips, no less. I was not impressed.
And my front garden has become her favourite place to poop. Yuck.
As my tulips come into bloom this year I will be keeping a close eye on bunnies. My red and white blooms will be guarded, and I posted a comment to that effect on my Facebook feed. One of my friends commented: “Okay, Mr(s). McGregor.”
I laughed out loud, because I did sound like Mr. McGregor chasing Peter Rabbit about the garden.
I laugh.
But, I love my tulips.
Bunny, I’ve got eyes on you. And I’m not afraid of being called Mrs. McGregor.
Good morning, Mrs. McGregor. So cute. I saw a bunny rabbit just as I was ready to walk the trail in the woods on Sunday. A taller animal than a rabbit has been nibbling on my hibiscus. Sprinkling with blood meal has solved the problem, at least temporarily.
Your Canada tulip is gorgeous!
I plan to be diligent with the blood meal!
My new residence also has a bunny. While he was here before we were, I’m not happy about his chewing up our evergreen bushes, and I know he’s well fertilized the garden over the winter. I’m torn between providing food in winter (I did toss him some carrots on occasion, and learned he doesn’t like kale or cucumber) in hopes he’d leave our landscape alone. But Google tells me rabbit populations can expand depending upon the availability of food. Hmmm!
Thanks, Marian, for the blood meal suggestion.
Breed like rabbits is a cliché for a reason. They are the prey on the predator/prey spectrum, so they need to repopulate to keep the numbers up. In the absence of predator they do explode in population. I haven’t seen any foxes around lately …
In the past, I’ve had problems with deer eating my blooms, but I no longer have to worry about anything eating any of my tulips, because – well, because we have an abundance of underground creatures that think flower bulbs are a delicacy. Except daffodils, which are toxic to them. Thankfully.
I think tulips must be a delicacy in all forms. The squirrels have made snacks of some of my bulbs in the past.
Last year I found a bunny eating off the tops of my pepper plants and stood in the backyard shaking my fist, throwing sand toys at it, and yelling something to the effect that the MacGregors were right and we should just go back to putting them in pies. My kids were horrified.
Ha! That is funny. When I was a kid on the farm we raised rabbits for market for the Hasenpfeffer lovers of the world. My yard bunny would not make good pie though, so I’ll stick to the bloodmeal option. 🙂