Why I Oughta...

Documenting a bit of pest damage to our Toad Lilies in late Summer/early Fall here with what I think is a rabbit gnawing on these perennials.  See below, for a photo of one of the three Toad Lilies that I planted this year.  This is the one that is closest to the fence and has suffered the most damage.  It is down to a single stalk with one good-sized leaf.  I mentioned in August that we didn't see any flowers on these this year as they were chewed right off by rabbits (I'm guessing) while we were on vacation .  In that post, I talked about having to put up some pest fencing - and I thought that would be a "next year" task.  But, with one of these suffering and me seeing a lot of rabbits around our garden, the time is now to put that fencing up.   I grabbed a little bit of chicken wire and wrapped them in a ring - with the goal of keeping these alive during their last few weeks.  I put the two on the right in one ring.  And the most-dama...

The last time, I posted on our toad lilies that I planted this Spring was earlier this month when I shared some photos of the buds that were about to burst and show flowers for the first time in our yard.  Fast forward to today and when I was out in back, I noticed that ALL of the flowers were gone.  Cut right off below where the buds were located.  I say 'cut', but what I really think I mean is 'chewed' right off.  By whom?  I'm guessing rabbits.   I planted these in late Spring . See below for a photo showing how these toad lilies were clipped/chewed right off.   This means that we didn't get ANY flowers from these.  Or at least, I didn't SEE them.   Note to my future self:  protect the toad lilies with some pest-fencing next year.  Maybe with some poultry wire to ring these up?  Seems like the critters like the buds and not the leaves.

Last Spring, while the world was pretty well shut down, The Growing Place nursery got creative and held a 'drive thru' shopping experience.  You couldn't get out of your cars, but you could drive thru the areas with the plants, shout out to the staff who would grab something for you and toss it in your trunk.  We ended up buying a few things that were part of our plan (Summer Beauty Allium) and some that weren't ( Harry Lauder's Walking Stick contorted tree ), but were things we wanted.  One of the other items we bought was our first Lenten Rose (or Hellebores).  We picked a Sally's Shell and planted it in Spring .  It was flowering when we bought it and I was careful to watch it all Summer. Notice, I said "a" Sally's Shell.  Which, upon reflection, is a very common gardening mistake:  buying just one of something .   Our plan has a couple of spots that call for drifts of Hellebores - and one of them is this season's "Priority Area #2...

Last month, I began to prep some parts of our yard for winter with the addition of chicken wire protection to keep the rabbits away from nibbling on the evergreens all Winter.  I started with the Canadian Hemlocks and also wrapped our Weeping White Spruce columnar tree , too.  In those posts, I mentioned that I was planning on trying to protect a couple of our Disneyland Roses using a similar technique - wrapping a ring of poultry netting around them - but this time, filling them with mass to protect from winter frosts. Below are a couple of photos that show the currents state of our two sideyard Disneyland roses.  First, the eastern-most one.  The chicken wire is wrapped around the rose and filled with mulched/chopped-up fall leaves to provide mulching protection.  I also threw down wood chips around the bottom to keep critters from getting inside:  The more western one - below - is the larger of the Disneyland roses.  This one, too, was wrapped in c...

 A week or so ago, I posted some photos showing how I'm trying to protect some of our smaller Canadian Hemlock trees from rabbits this Winter .  I originally planted six of those small trees.  One of them died that first year.  But, last Winter, two of them were devoured by something.  I'm assuming it was a rabbit.   So, this year, I'm being more proactive in trying to protect some of our evergreens from being eaten by those rabbits who are looking for a winter meal. That means that in addition to the Hemlocks, I've taken the same approach with poultry fencing with our Weeping White Spruce tree.  You can see that fencing set up in a ring below: The goal here is to keep the rabbits from being able to really go at this thing - but I know it won't be fool-proof.  I'm going to ring the exterior of the fencing with some wood chips to try to make it 'burrow-proof', too.  

In March of this year, I posted some photos of a few different things in our yard that had suffered what I believe was rabbit damage .  These trees and shrubs emerged from Winter with parts of the limbs clipped right off by what I think was a hungry rabbit (or rabbits) that were looking for some food when snow had covered everything.  Why do I think it was rabbits?  Well, first of all, because we have plenty of rabbits.  And second, this post from Mom.com : During the winter months, rabbits survive by foraging for food under the snow. Because vegetation is less plentiful during the winter, rabbits may increase their intake of tree bark and conifer needles. This year, I decided to take a proactive stance against these rabbits (no offense, guys.  I'll try to supplement what you eat this Winter) by erecting a barrier that would make it difficult for them to get to the trees.   Back in May of 2019, I first planted three Canadian Hemlocks in the far back of...