Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: clare on January 07, 2004, 13:46:43
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We have a major problem with rabbits down at our allotment site, which is right next to some some common land that is locally known as Bunny Lane!!
I'm thinking ahead and want to protect my lottie with rabbit proof fencing before I plant anything in the spring ;) The little blighters have already munched the tops off of my overwintering onions >:( So the time has come to fight back!!!
Does anyone know of any netting suppliers that don't cost the earth?!
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Hi Clare, aren't the liitle darlings great :-/ I had to put chicken wire around the allottment, i dug it in 2 foot deep to stop them digging through, althiugh it was only 4 foot high. It did stop them though.
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oh, they are absolutely lovely.... just not on my lottie, eating my precious plants!!!
they munched a couple of my garlic plants too ::) but don't appear to be that fond of the smelly stuff!
I'm going to bury the wire, and have it going out horizontally underground too in an effort to out-fox them!! speaking of foxes... why do the foxes at our lottie just run around leaving pawprints all over the freshly dug beds... instead of catching the bunnies for me?! >:(
hope your arm is getting better and that the bruises are healing.
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Tried Rabbit Casserole Clare?????????????????
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Hi, I'm new to this board - Peter from South Yorkshire UK.
While I acknowledge Jethro's success by taking it down deep, I did as Clare and just took mine down a foot or so and turned it out by the same amount.
I suspect it could be turned out immediately below the surface because the rabbits invariably come right up to the mesh before burrowing. The other thing is being sure that the entire perimeter is protected, burrowing a stretch horizontally across any gateway access.
My problems have been - moles, rabbits, rats, mice,and pigeons but I find that once over the young and succulent stage many marauders loose interest. Spent many hours forming wire mesh rings and tunnels. Fleece over hoops and tied down at both ends is great for protection of early crops both from the elements and from little 'friends'!
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Welcome Peter!
Sounds like you have your hands full with or furry friends! Thank goodness I do not have rabbits, but I do have moles and pidgeons, and SLUGS the size of hippos!! Moles seem to delight in creating their mounds under my chard! (which then look as if they are growing on individual mountains!!) The pidgeons I just try and net against. We do have our battles with nature don't we! (half of the fun of gardening I suspect , except the slugs ;D) Dottie P.
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BB - rabbit casserole... now there's an idea!! mind you there's so many bunnies that we'd be eating it for every meal! bunny sandwiches anyone?! :)
DP - slugs the size of hippos... now that would be very scary indeed!! the human race would probably be wiped out by the slimy ones! ;D
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Hi There,
I am new too. My local bunnies have taken off the very tops off my onions, does anybody know if they will still grow? or is that the end of them?
Jackie
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Hi Clare. Before you dig a 2 foot thrench and break your back, plantsman already mentioned it, just scrape the top layer of soil off on the outside of the fence and place a 20-30 cm folded out section of the fencing flat on the ground and put the soil back on top.
Our lottie complex is overtaken by rabbits and this system works. We got chicken wire 1 meter wide, 80cm is above ground and 20cm is laying flat just under the soil. The first couple of days after building the fencing we found 11 places where rabbits had been trying to tunnel under the fencing but hit more fencing instead. In one place, the fence was all dented in, I think one rabbit got crazy from frustration and threw him/herself agains the fencing hahaha.
We've only had this problem since last year, the same year our nice, across the path neighbor died. A very nice man but a bit too free with chemicals to my taste. The same one who once came over and started spraying my leeks with something and wouldn't stop when I protested because it was 'good' stuff hahaha. We did come to an understanding tho' and I'm sure he felt I was a bit dumb. Anyway, everybody knew that he had a rifle and a license but................ shooting rabbits is forbidden on cementeries and................ allotment complexes (I guess on dikes and dunes it's allowed at certain times and you can guess why, in a country mostly below sea level). Now, what a coincidence, -Ina
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d**es was supposed to be d-i-k-e-s. Now what's so bad about the word dikes?
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Unfortunately it is a word that can be used offensively in English!
Ten x