Thursday, May 3, 2018

Hare-pocalypse and other calamities of spring

Snowshoe hare prints

Ah, springtime, when a gardener’s fancy turns to 10 ways to trap snowshoe hares, or Best Crockpot Ideas for Rabbit. For Alaskans it’s often the moose that cause carnage, busted trees, trampled shrubs, and a gaping hole where that $25 perennial  was planted. But 2018 seems to be the year of Peter Rabbit. I suppose that makes me Mr. MacGregor.

Nothing but crummy grasses to eat, moving on!

blatant fellasad face, most of the perennials under snow

But Christine, you’re wondering, how could you tell that this spring was the year to beat all for bunnies? Well, I’d say, it all started with the daily sightings of Mr. Bun. Then advanced to his two or three best chums hanging out on the snowy lawn. Now we’ve reached the point that the poor 6-foot tall blue spruce in the back yard has been grazed from the ground up to the height of, I’ve got it…a bunny’s reach! My rugosa roses (nothing is in leaf yet in my yard) have been nibbled back to their 5 stoutest stems. And I really lost my temper as I drove up my driveway recently and observed Mr. Bun calmly chewing the bark from the trunk of my ($27) crabapple ‘Prairiefire’ that I took great care to encase in moose-high fencing, but neglected to encase in rabbit-low fencing. Drat!

go ahead, get comfortable

at the site of the mauling

If the hares aren’t horrible enough, I’ve had the remnants of the long winter’s nap of a goodly portion of the vole kingdom to deal with. They must have sent out favorable word after the winter of 2016-2017 (wherein I saw evidence of a few nests) so that by the winter of 2017-2018, a veritable horde did a long term air bnb in all (I repeat, all) of my Deschampsia. Which was no small feat, I have around 30 specimens of a few different types. They left the Calamagrostis and Festuca alone. I guess those grasses must have had bad reviews.

custom cut by volesvole road to my garden

Now I have no problem with the vole squatting situation, but for the unfortunate tendency to chomp back the grasses a wee too short over the winter. After exhausting this supply, they raid the next door pantry (via vole trails under the snow, see pic above) and on and on through the garden. The grasses seem to be bouncing back after this rough treatment, but the neighboring Penstemon pinifolius was grazed a little too low and has died.

I’ve determined by the end of the summer, my yard is going to resemble a maximum security prison with multiple rows of fencing if I hope to save my favorites. That, or if my wild game hunting spouse has his way, we will be having a five star recipe I found for rabbit stew with mushrooms. Quick math question: three rabbits in the spring means how many rabbits by the summer? I dread the answer to this.

I can only hope this pair of bald eagles will visit my yard again soon and take Peter and Company with them.

just stay away from my chickens

What eats your garden?

4 comments:

  1. Our nibblers are nothing like as interesting as yours _ slugs and snails are our number one garden pest and no type of fence will keep them out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sue,

      You're right. It could be worse. We have no snails here (yet) and the slugs are small. I will count my blessings.

      CB

      Delete
  2. I laughed so hard about the maximum security prison garden. That is how mine looks. All my trees have these ugly plastic surrounds. The voles are the worst. They dug next to the roots of my 3 year old grapes. It isn't looking good for them. I hope you are able to get the rabbits under control. I hear they are delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Bonnie K,

    Yes, the eternal quandry: just how ugly to allow my garden to be from all the protective cages.... Still working on a solution that isn't too hideous for my lilies. Sigh.

    CB

    ReplyDelete

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