Keeping rabbits out of a garden can be hard, especially when you’re trying to protect your favorite fruits and vegetables…. because the rabbits love them too!
If you want to know how to keep rabbits out of a garden without a fence, you’ll have to dedicate plenty of time and attention to rerouting the attention of the rabbits.
You see, once a rabbit discovers where a delicious source of food is, it’s going to take a lot of work to redirect their interest.
You need to make the garden unappetizing or hard to access, introduce some type of a threat, remove hiding areas, and offer the rabbits an area where they can find some tasty alternatives.
Over time, with a bit of dedication on your part, you should be able to keep the rabbits out of your garden while also reducing the chances of young bucks and does finding it… again.
Start a Bunny Garden
Before you do anything else, start a rabbit garden at the end of your property away from your garden beds. Plant some of the same plants in it that the rabbits have been eating. You should also fill it with food that is nutritious for rabbits, such as nutrient rich weeds, pasture grass mixes, and clover. This will attract the rabbits away from your garden, and give them a thriving garden of their own to happily much away in. However, you need to keep an eye on this bunny garden and monitor activity; if the rabbits destroy it, you likely need to seed it far more heavily.
Prey Avoid Predators!
Prey animals, in this case rabbits, tend to avoid areas where potential predators call home. It just so happens that you likely have a great predator living in your home: your dog! Dogs are a big deterrent for rabbits, and most dogs have a high prey drive for them. This is why it’s hard to keep rabbits safe around untrained dogs.
Allow your dog to urinate and defecate close to the garden that the rabbits are attacking (but not in it!) to send a threatening message to the local rabbits. If you live in a neighborhood that has a high canine population, this might be ineffective; Unless the dog is allowed constant access to the yard to chase them off, that is. If you have a delicious garden, the rabbits MUST be convinced that predation is a very real threat in your yard.
Make the Appetizing, Unappetizing
If the rabbits are going for a particular plant in your garden, spray or mist the plants with a deterrent; some could also be sprinkled on the ground in the garden, too. The goal here is to make the plants (or the area around the plants) uncomfortable or unappetizing. This way, the rabbit stops eating your flower garden or veggie garden. If a meal just isn’t as good, or if it takes a significant amount of work to eat it, the rabbit will likely look for an easier meal elsewhere.
Hot sauce is not a favored condiment, so it is rather effective in rendering once tasty plants inedible. Garlic also adds to this effect. Be sure that you reapply deterrents as necessary, because a good rain could wash them away quickly. You could also put down black stones in the garden around the plants, making the walkway and garden quite hot.
Spooking the Trespassers before They Can Dine
If you can scare the rabbits away before they have the chance to nibble on your garden plants, you should be able to completely eradicate the rabbits’ interest in your garden. There are two ways you can do this: sound and touch. Motion sensor technology can activate a sound response, sounding an “alarm” when the rabbits get too close. This will startle the rabbit and cause it to run; while also alerting you to when the rabbits are most active in your garden, if it is loud enough. Another great way to scare them is with a stream of water. Other motion detecting systems can shoot a stream of water at the offending animal, causing the animal to flee in fear of a dangerous attack. Both methods are very humane, and very effective!
