Rabbits

[LeftTheWashingOut]

Due to various construction sites around us turfing all the wildlife out of the their natural habitats we have acquired a family of rabbits that seem to have settled themselves into our garden and we think have burrowed under the conifers. They're very sweet and not causing any harm, my son and DH are enjoying watching them.

However they are eating my plants... I like a nice flowery border but unfortunately they've snacked on all my seedlings I've been nurturing since March as soon as I planted them. Are there any plants that rabbits don't like eating? Or if I buy some more established plants will they not like they as they won't be so tender? Or should I just resign myself to the garden looking crap this year? Any tips welcome

Google 'rabbit proof plants uk'. That should bring up some ideas for you.

rabbits will eat anything.
The only way to stop them is a rabbit proof fence round precious things.
If you want to plant stuff they won't eat, you need hard woody shrub type plants.

We had a pet rabbit who we let free roam round our garden. I never got tired of looking out of the window and seeing him sitting on the lawn munching daisies! We had a veg garden at the bottom with a rabbit proof fence.
I had a couple of plants that I put tall coke bottle round (eg my clematis) and the rest had to take their chances. But a family of rabbits will grow quite fast...

I am worried about the rate at which the family might expand... we do also have a family of foxes living just the other side of the fence who come in for a wander every now and again and I had thought they would deal with the rabbits, but they seem more keen on sunbathing...

I'll head to the garden center tomorrow and chance my luck with a couple of woody looking perennials to try to fill some gaps. In the meantime I'll grow on my annuals in the raised bed so maybe I'll get some flowers. Although it's only a matter of time before they realize how much there is to snack on in the raised beds too I guess!

Oh dear, sounds as though you need some help from Mr McGregor!

We're having a similar problem. They're lovely to watch but are munching their way through a lot.
We bought a lot of plants last week but didn't have chance to plant up - all munched except the lavenders and geraniums.

I'll be trying geraniums in that case, thanks @PissedOffNeighbour22

Of the plants we do have they don't seem interested in my achillea as that hasn't been touched (maybe it had got too tall before they arrived). But they ate all my seedlings I put out (zinnia, ammi, gypsophila, scabiosa). Fortunately I thought they might so only planted out half.

Have you got a grass area that you can allow to grow wild/long grass ?
They are meant to eat 90% of their diet grass/hay , or maybe that's domestic rabbits and your wild rabbits have their own ideas ?

Can we have a photo of your very own Watership Down warren ................?

We do have a lot of overgrown grass in the building site that backs onto our garden which is where they came from. They must just enjoy eating my plants as dessert 😅 I'll get some pictures for you as I spot them throughout the day, they have burrowed under our decking so they're never too far

Have picked up another achillea, some geraniums, a couple of other of furry feeling perennials and some begonias at the recommendation of the garden centre. Let's see how long they last....