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May 14, 2006
The Rabbits Ate My Compost!
Suellen & I moved to Utah two winters ago, so last summer was the first chance we'd had to plant a real garden. We were excited. I mean, we've got 20 acres, and a fenced garden plot 40 x 100 feet. The previous owners had conditioned the soil (they told us, with a certain amount of hyperbole). We'd plant our seeds, throw out some fertilizer, and watch it grow. Right?
Of course it wasn't that easy. Our soil is heavy clay with poor drainage. Some of our seeds didn't come up (carrots, watermelon), and others died of root rot (cantaloupe, tomatoes). Some died when the chinch bugs migrated (peas). But the scourge of our garden turned out to be rabbits. Everything that grew, they ate. Cabbage, squash, corn, beans, cucumbers. Tulips. Fruit trees. If it grew, they ate it. We tried chicken wire, but they dug under it. We tried stinky rabbit-repelling plants-- the rabbits ate them.
At the end of the growing season, discouraged and demoralized, I strongly thought about moving back to the city. Country life clearly was not for me. Then came snow, and with it a respite and the longing for the next spring. Then one day I stepped outside my door and saw, across 18 inches of snowcover, three rabbits devouring my compost pile.
That was the last straw. This year, I decided, we would need to do something different...
Posted by DJSueellen at May 14, 2006 03:04 PM
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