I have a 5 foot row of sorrel along my house that the neighborhood rabbits demolish. I need to put up some sort of barrier to prevent them from getting at the sorrel. I do not want toy use chicken fencing, hardware cloth or fencing sold as “rabbit fencing” because all of these are not very pretty. A 2 ft high barrier with spaces small enough to let a baby rabbit in should work. What else can I get?
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You could use any nice decorative fence in black and attach black net to it, it will be pretty. I have black trellis around my shrubs, just have to buy strong black net and attach it there. Any metal trellis you can use that have size and pattern you like, if they are not black -it is easy to spray enamal paint on them and attach a strong black net to them. I used these https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/garden/planting/trellises/110887-flexible-multi-shape-trellis?item=PL138
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Interesting, sorrel is only plant rabbits didn’t touch this year in my yard, and they eat pretty much everything else. Whatever you decide to use, keep in mind that baby rabbits can easily get through 3X2. I covered my melon this year with such net and created safe kindergarten for baby rabbits inside - melon was covering them from top and net from the sides. They had a nice buffet also until I noticed them.
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Do you have access to a lot of willow or hazel branches? You could make some woven wattle hurdles:
Also, I’ve seen people make some reasonably attractive barriers out of chicken wire or hardware cloth. The trick is to attach it tightly to a nice wooden frame.
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I do not have access to willow.
I have had sorrel for at least 30 years and rabbits did not eat it. Now, they ate all of it down to the ground.
Also,I have had potted fig trees for about 5 years and rabbits did not chew on them until recently. I even saw chewed areas on trees that are in 15 gal pots. They must have climbed or jumped onto the pots to reach the twigs.
I would love to bring in my trees but their sap is still flowing. I have about 55 trees mostly in 5 gal buckets. Any suggestions as to how I can protect them until I bring them in?
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You can also use forsythia or any other similarly flexible wood; willow and hazel are just the most “traditional.”
As for the figs, are you sure it’s rabbits and not voles, squirrels, or chipmunks? I haven’t seen rabbits gnaw on bark unless there isn’t really anything left to eat. I ask because you’ll probably need different strategies for one of those than for rabbits. I suppose you could try applying capsaicin ointment to the bark. That will discourage just about anything from gnawing.
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If its not rabbits then it must be squirrels because the damage was too high for rabbits to reach, unless they can climb. In fact, I now strongly suspect squirrels did the tree damage and rabbits ate my sorrel.
How do I prevent squirrels from gnawing at my trees? I will apply repellent but is there anything else I can do? Has anyone tried any electronic repellent?
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Ground hogs also climb.
I’m joking but not joking with my suggestion but it’s the best rabbit barrier of all Adopt | Straydog
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Here is a nice looking fence, extentions also available to buy separately. Too bad they don’t ship to Canada, I would buy it if they did: Tall Chicken Wire Critter Fence | Gardener's Supply
Or use it as backing on a picket fence. A trick we use here is to put hardware cloth flat on the ground as well 8-12" and use zip ties to connect it to the vertical fencing… keeps them from tunneling under
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PVC coated chicken wire looks a lot better but it’s more expensive
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Have you thought about making your own fencing by recycling pallets? Most are 4’ tall, you could chop them in half, line them up and screw them together, and either seal them or paint them or leave as is and place on bricks or concrete block in ground so the bottom doesn’t rot as quickly. Plenty of places offer free pallets and it wouldn’t take a lot of effort to put them together. I’d honestly check pinterest for ideas, it’s amazing what people do with old pallets. For the trees, get some of those upside down cones maybe, or find some scrap plastic sheets or metal if you have access and make some yourself?
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Cool find. Thanks for sharing!
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This thread says it all on rabbits Living with the cottontail and growing fruit
See this
The last thing an orchard pest wishes it would have saw sooner!
My friends dog looking sweet
His angry face
That’s my door he was protecting and part of the time he thought he was my dog. His former master was over at my house a lot before and after he died. When the man died he would come and stay and wait for him to come here. Sometimes he stayed overnight or stayed around days. Eventually the man’s wife died and his son came here and took the dog the dog to live with him.
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I have two dogs but cannot leave them out in the yard because it is not fenced in.
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Have you considered a wood privacy fence? Another thing is I find it very odd how your rabbits are behaving could they be starving? Is there snow on the ground? Could it be voles doing the damage your speaking of? They are much more likely than rabbits to act that way.
There is no snow on the ground.
They have also gnawed on my potted fig trees and bit off branches 1/4" to 3/8" diameter.
I do not think it is voles because the gnaw marks are too big and small branches have been bitten off.
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Rabbits ate my 11 blueberry shrubs to the ground. So, not to let them eat my Carmine Jewel sour cherries and Cornus Mass I installed these trellis around them and attached netting tho the trellis
and . Now building fence from 1/2" pvc pipes for my blueberry bed when I finish building will paint it in black and attach black netting there as well. Not sure if it is nice enough
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You can use cattle panels but use a smaller wire on the inside. They can be used for fencing or greenhouses or whatever your imagination is the only limitation. You can see what I did I this thread Cattle Panel Hoophouse Greenhouse
Using pipes around individual trees is pretty effective against rabbits
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