Hi all, Have been back to work today after being snowed in for nearly a week! 10 days ago , in an effort to reduce the rabbit numbers coming into the walled garden, I blocked up some of the burrows with large stones. It was interesting to see the bunny tracks in the snow today! But I was also horrified to see they had been nibbling and gnawing away at the bark on the botton of the apple trees? Is this common? I had noticed the previous gardener had left black polythene wrapped around the base of the trees, now obviously to discourage this. But they really had had a meal on some of the trees! Prob cos there is so much snow lying that they can't get to the grass. I thought they were getting their own back on me for blocking their burrows! Is there anything else I can do to protect the trees? or just re-do the black polythene?. Thanks in advance. Lyn
The sap will be slowly starting to rise in trees just now so coupled with the frozen ground and inability to reach their regular food the bunnys will be having a sugar fest courtesy of your trees. I would think black poly would be a waste of time and you would need 1/2", (12mm) steel mesh surrounding the trees with at least a 3", (75mm) gap all round.
Have you tried reducing the number of rabbits Lyn? Is there anyone near you with ferrets or a gun you could ask to help? If you ask around I'm certain you'll find a rabbit hunter who would jump at the chance. Rabbits will gnaw through anything soft. Like frogesque says - wire is just about the only effective barrier.
I'm having mega-rabbit problems too - and I wholeheartedly agree whith Frogesque! It's got to be metal! And make sure you do it before the rabbits eat right round the bark of a tree - it'll kill it!!
Lyn, try getting some TREE GUARDS from your local nursery, you can get what is know as SPIRALS, or TUBES. spirals are cheaper.. rabbit damage is a common problem which is fairly easy to overcome, you want to think yourself lucky you don't get Deer, they will eat CORNUS to the ground, ROSEs all the new shoots, and fruit trees as high as they can reach..thank heavens for game keepers!
can you get them in all sorts of sizes, Rossco? I've only seen fairly small ones - and I use them on all the new trees I've planted - I just wonder if you can get bigger ones in a local garden centre - certainly not in ours.
try www.ashridgetrees.co.uk dont know how much they charge for delivery. you can get the tube type in different sizes, these are mostly used for new plantings, on small established trees the spirals are the cheapest option...have seen them in some nurseries
Fine steel netting might work you could cut the size you required keeping it away from the trunk with strong DIY wire rings or timbers. Farming supplies would have the materials. Rabbit pie?
