Little Bunny Foo Foo

One issue that we have had for years at the Dysart Garden is.... rabbits.  There are large metal storage containers located across the street at the high school, and many rabbits live under them.  Of course, they love the garden!! 

When we had the first garden behind the 800 Building, it was fenced in with alfalfa bales, and those bales kept the bunnies happy and well-fed for the year.  Therefore, the bunnies never got into the garden.  I would see them at sunrise and sunset, happily satisfying their appetites with the alfalfa, and they would scamper back to their storage housing as soon as the students came to school.

But this new fancy garden of ours has a concrete curb and a high fence to keep out animals and unwelcome guests.  Ironically the concrete curb is too low and the fencing is too high, so there is a nice gap for little rabbits to slip right through and feast on the plants.  I have been startled on more than one occasion by almost stepping on the rabbits as they freeze in fear when I come into the garden, hidden in the ever-growing bermuda grass.  I am also noticing that my cantaloupe vines are being nibbled on, and coincidentally the beans just aren't growing!  ha ha....

So that leaves me with a new problem to solve!  I have been researching rabbit repellant ideas provided by online gardening forums (which are really quite entertaining).  Here are my possible solutions:

• Plant marigolds, which provide a heavy scent that repels rabbits. 
• ** But will marigolds survive the intense Arizona heat?
• Install chicken wire along the bottom of the fencing. 
• ** Ummm... have you SEEN the size of this garden?
• Use Shake Away, which is dried bobcat urine. 
• **Checking into that at Baker Nursery today.
• Sprinkle bloodmeal around the perimeter. 
• ** Also checking...
• Spread hair clippings around the perimeter. 
• ** hmm... not getting a haircut soon enough...
• Use a humane trap and set them free somewhere else. 
• ** NO.  Bad experiences with traps.  Don't ask.
• Adopt a cat and feed it well with bunnies and gophers. 
• ** Ironically I found a cat in the garden the other night.  I need to get some tuna fish for it and make it my pet, I guess.  :)