Canadian Hemlock Tree - Rabbit Damage In Winter - January 2026

All the way back in Summer of 2019, I bought and planted a number of VERY SMALL Canadian Hemlock trees from an online nursery.   Three of them were planted along the north side fence line.  Today, two of those three are still standing.  Seven years ago, these trees weren't even a foot-tall in height.  

Today?  This one is probably five-feet tall.  But, sparsely branched.  And, the caliper of the trunk is probably up to almost an inch.  Below is a look at this Canadian Hemlock tucked into the 'understory garden'.  

Would I plant this tree back here, close to these other trunks - if I was to do it all over?  No. 
Would I plant this small of a tree - if I was to do it all over?  No.

But, here we are.  Seven years later and the tree is in this spot.

The growth of the tree isn't really the point of this post in my garden diary.  I was out taking some kitchen scraps to the compost bin and took a number of photos.  When I was snapping pics of this tree, I noticed something else.  

See the next few photos showing the base of the trunk.  What do we see?  Rabbit turds.  And, all the branches gnawed away from around the bottom foot-or-so of this small tree.  Dang, rabbits.

This tree - when it continues to grow - was likely to be 'limb'd-up' (by me), so losing these bottom handful of small branches isn't a deal-killer.  But, I still don't like to see it.  

Rabbit pressure continues to be a challenge in my garden.  Last year, I thought about installing a perimeter of chicken wire around the base of my fence, but never got around to it.  That needs to be on my 2026 to-do list.  Or, on my 2026 'priority projects list'.  Also, when I think about plants that work in the garden, I need to include Canadian Hemlocks.  

Here, below, is another view of this tree showing the height.  The fence is four-feet tall for scale.

There's another one of these Hemlocks planted just a few feet away from this one that I'll document in a separate post tomorrow.