Rabbit Damage From This Winter

I have seen some extensive and unexpected rabbit damage over the past few weeks as I have been getting out into client’s gardens. As someone who recommends plants and helps people in the fight to protect their plants, this is becoming an even more varied and moving target. Every season brings new challenges.

With the long term snow cover this Winter, unlike the last few years, rabbits were going after different plants.  I have seen chew marks on stems of plants they don’t usually choose because of the limited options.  With a couple feet of snow, at one point, rabbits were getting above some low protection that people installed.  It allowed rabbits to get to the higher, smaller, and more tender branches of plants.  I have seen them top small leaf Rhododendrons and Azaleas, mow down Spirea, Deutzia, Oakleaf Hydrangeas, Clethra, and Chokeberry to name a few. They chewed on the trunks of ornamental trees, Serviceberry, Rose of Sharon, Viburnums, and many more. Also, they did their pruning up of Arborvitae, Holly and others. When the populations explode and there is limited food in the Winter, rabbits get desperate. They don’t hibernate. Here is a link to a comprehensive newsletter about rabbits that I wrote two years ago. It covers a lot of background information and strategies for managing rabbits.

Here we are in March and we need to start deploying the strategies outlined in the link before rabbits cause even more damage as plants start to emerge. This season I am asking clients to:

• Spray all newly planted material for at least the first month, even if rabbits never look at them. This will hopefully teach them and the young, inexperienced rabbits not to browse.  As you know, damage to young and smaller plants can set them back for the season.
• Consider spraying all established perennials for a month or two, as they come up, to give them a good start.
• All new shrubs with any stems at ground level smaller than a pencil in diameter need to be caged going into the fall, if not at planting. I am recommending the installation of larger plants that won’t get mowed down. This costs more but can get you past the period when rabbits go for small and tender stems.

The more we plant material that rabbits don’t like, the more desperate they get and expand the plants that they will tolerate. There is a theory that many people who grow food believe, which says to plant another untended garden for the rabbits and groundhogs.  However, this can backfire by bringing more unwanted critters to your garden. This is more ammunition to get the rodenticide bans approved and make sure that any pest control services you use do not use poison in the management of rats, mice, etc in your homes. When they get outside and die, the poison in their systems go right up the food chain killing the necessary predators of rabbits, that are supposed to keep the population in check.

Let’s not forget that this isn’t nature.  We have caused this problem by creating an imbalance by killing their predators and creating habitats for them to thrive.

Keep up the good fight!

If you want to subscribe for free to my more detailed newsletter, please go to the following link: The Barker, a newsletter for gardeners in New England.