Ready to give up

I went up to see my little piece of land over the weekend. Over christmas we had planted 100 young trees in the hedgerow, as the hedgerow had lots of gaps in it. Due to the arrival of my new son just after christmas I haven't had the time to get up there much lately, so the demons (rabbits) have not been put off by human activity. Almost every one of the young trees I planted has been completely dessimated. Foolishly I hadn't used tree protectors, but I figured safety in numbers, anticipating about 50% loss. I've learnt my lesson, tree protectors next time, but I can't put that knowledge into practice now until next winter as it is the wrong time of year for planting bare root trees.

Also, the little satans had found a way into the one part that I'd protected with mesh. The bottom of the mesh was buried and turned outwards as you do, but when I looked there is a rabbit hole just outside the enclosure, and the other end of the rabbit tunnel is inside the enclosure. The enclosure in question is only about a foot wide, and only protects a few plants, but the positioning of each end of the rabbit hole was perfect. They must have GPS to get their positioning so spot on.

 

The hedge plants may sprout from what is left, so all may not be lost. But you'll have to protect anything that sprouts ...

... if they do sprout they will come up thicker (assuming you planted small plants), as the general consensus is, I believe, to cut the plants back by 2/3rd after planting to make them "bush up more".

Fingers crossed ...

 

Just a story to fill in the excess web space. Sorry. My grandfather cultivated a set of extremely precious siberian apple tree specimens in the early 60s. After the hard work he wanted to protect the young treelings from the rabbits and decided to fence the garden with some metal chicken mesh. All well, except that there was no gate, just two ancient posts to mark the entrance. What if the rabbits entered the garden from there? And were trapped inside to destroy everything? No problem, my grandad came up with the idea of cutting rabbit size exit holes into the mesh fence in order to let them escape after a snack.
And yes, the apple trees are still there, after 50 years. My granddad is not but I do like his ways to tackle problems.
Good luck with the hedge, chances are it will survive.

 

I hope it does survive Clueless, can't bear to hear you so despondent-you're normally such a fighter.


Chin up-it'll be alright .


A very pleasant tale Selleri, thats Grandads for you.

 

I am sorry this happened and hope that the trees will survive. I don't think you will be reading our baby son the Peter Rabbit stories - but perhaps they would make you feel better about the 'demons'.

 

Thanks for all the encouragement guys and gals. As has been said, we live and learn. Land management is a long term thing, especially when you don't really know what you're doing. I guess I'm more angry at myself than anything. While we were planting the new trees the farmer from next door came over and asked what I was going to do to protect them. I told him nothing, because I've planted twice as many trees as I want and can handle a 50% loss. His face said it all, but he was either too polite to criticise or figured that the best way to learn is by experience.

Selleri, that's a good story. Grandads are often unrecognised geniuses. Maybe when he was younger he might have had his hard work decimated by rabbits and learned not to underestimate them, and then used that experience to protect his apple trees. Maybe in a few years time I might have learnt how to protect my plants from the rabbits and deer (the deer aren't such a problem, they only wander onto my land occassionally, they spend most their time on the next door estate that is mostly woodland).

qxq, you're right about the stories I might read to my son when he's a tad older. Although I don't want him to hear horror stories, I'm not going to tell him pork pies about the nature of nature. He will learn from early on that rabbits are both destroyers of gardens, and food. None of this new age, potitically correct rubbish. Did you know that in the modern version of three little pigs the wolf escapes unharmed these days and doesn't end up in the soup at all?

 

Please tell me you made that up! I remember being scared of the wolf as a child, but always was glad he comes to a nasty end:hehe:

 

LOL
actually..not funny! PC is just sick. I hate it with passion. My daughter when she was smaller, used to ask for wellington boots and play in garden around my plants on her own-I was really happy I had time for myself, till I found out what she was doing...she was 'crunching' snails! - jumping on them and enjoying the noise..kids are fine with 'cruel' life, and maybe that is good, as life has to be seen for what it is.

 

All three of the 'billy goats gruff' escape the troll, who still gets butted by the biggest goat but doesn't die.

The drunken sailor doesn't get locked in the brig until he's sober, apparently he gets tickled on the ribs until he giggles.

 

Politically Correct Nursery Rhymes

Politically Incorrect Nursery Rhymes