It’s officially Spring and I can hardly wait for the gardening season to begin. Due to some snake incidences (rattlers in my yard – eek), I missed half the dirt digging fun last year. Now today I’m springing into blog action a little behind already – it was entirely too cold to be outside taking pictures. On the other hand, my tulips have been getting ready to bloom for about 3 weeks. Usually, by now, all the leaf tips would have been nibbled off by the resident rabbit clan.
These rabbits eat plants that “experts” say rabbits won’t touch – my holly bushes are little numbs. I won’t even bother with marigolds anymore… but this year, barely a nibble. I’ve only seen one big bunny, so maybe my garden buffet isn’t the popular hangout anymore. However, I’d like to think this change in eating habits is due to my recent garden seasoning experiments.
I been hearing for years that garlic or cayenne pepper will help keep critters off the vegetation. A few years ago I added cloves of garlic all over the garden – still found nibbles on anything growing AND the air smelled like Italian food rather than pretty flowers.
I’ve also tried a few different orangic animal repellants. With ingredients like eggs and urine all they do is leave me with a strong scent of ick stuck in my nose and the feeling I need to stand in a shower for 5 days straight. Oh they work, but grossing out the gardener is probably not the point.
This year I tried a new tactic. I pulled out the garlic herb seasoning and the cayenne pepper and sprinkled the tulip plants. No air of Italian food (unless you get your nose up on a leaf), and the buds are about ready to bloom! So i just went outside to take these photos and added a little extra spice to the rest of the sprouting spring plants. We’ll see how the seasoning goes…
Please don’t shout out the secret ingredients too loudly, the bunnies might hear and head back here for a floral feast.
