Of Rabbits

I love bunny rabbits. I decorate with rabbits all over my house and the gardens year round. I have tons of bunnies decorating my house during Easter. However, it's a different story when my garden becomes their salad bar! This week I went out and found all the leaves stripped from my bean plants. Every leaf was gone. Nothing else was touched, so I suspected a bug had gotten to them. My husband suspected a rabbit. I pointed to the fact that the lettuce was untouched. As if to prove his existence, the next day, the tops of my lettuce were neatly eaten off.

We live in a subdivision near open fields. We have seen rabbits in the fields many times when we walk on the edge of our neighborhood. Our backyard is fenced in with a wood fence which has recently been showing its age. Some boards are broken at the bottom. Easy access for Mr. Rabbit. The boards face toward our neighbors house so we have to wait until they repair them. In the meantime, I've covered all the holes. My bean plants are trying to come back and put out a few leaves. Time will only tell if they will survive. I suspect they will recover.

Other than the visit by Mr. Rabbit, my garden is doing well. The monster sized zuchinni plant has taken over the west side of the Pioneer garden. It's WAY too big and invasive for my teensy garden. I'll not plant them again. Squash are more suitable for this space.

The tomatoes are flourishing. We are waiting for the green ones to start turning. I'm looking out for birds now. I've heard that hanging red Christmas balls in your tomato bush will deter them. They peck at the glass balls and get discouraged and leave your plant alone. I don't have any red Christmas balls and when they are in the store, I'm not thinking about my Spring garden. I'll have to use the old tin pie plate hanging from a string trick.

I've picked 4 bellpeppers from my plants already and a little zuchinni. I'm looking forward to fresh tomatoes sprinkled with black pepper and Kosher salt at supper time. Our Louisiana satsuma tree is loaded down with baby satsumas. We won't enjoy these until October but it is fun to watch them grow during the summer and look forward to sweet satsumas. My secret garden is growing beautifully. The hydrangeas are especially lush this year.