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.

This past weekend, I wandered in the back part of our yard and was stunned to see the bare trunks of our tiny Canadian Hemlock trees.  They have been totally ravaged by what I presume to be rabbits.  Freaking rabbits.  Last year, I planted six small (like 18" tall) Canadian Hemlocks in two spots of the yard.  We lost one of them before Winter , but the other five appeared fine before Winter. Today, the three in the very back are the ones I'm posting about and two of them have been totally attacked.  One of them you can see above with just the trunk remaining along with few lower branches.   This is the first real set of animal or critter damage that I've see on the trees in our yard. It is interesting...I've noticed that almost every morning when I take Lizzie out, we have a pair of rabbits that are hanging in our yard.  Up until now, I thought that was nice to see the wildlife.  I mean...we're feeding the birds and squirrels, so I as...