Unfunny bunnies

Fluffy Bunny Brigade, read no further. Although I am pleased to say that no animals were hurt during the making of this article. However, quite a few plants died in the process. I am beginning to feel like Elmer Fudd from the cartoon Bugs Bunny. I am on the verge of jumping up and down shouting “I’ll get you, pesky rabbit !!!”
We are inundated with the furry destructors and even though I am an animal lover, I am definitely not amused.
When we were building the house, the site traffic probably disrupted them and they kept away. Last year I noticed a few, but nothing to cause alarm. This year they seem to have bred like – well, rabbits. I was going out one morning and counted eight !!!
Recently one night we were coming home in the dark and as we drove in, the garden was covered with the fluffy blighters. It was like a scene from Wallace and Grommit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Only not as funny.
When I was planting our trees, I put rabbit guards around their trunks. A good job too as they would have probably all been eaten by now. Rabbits enjoy nibbling tree bark, and if they strip the bark in a continuous ring around the trunk, it interrupts the flow of nutrients from roots to stems and the tree will die.
I planted out my lovingly nurtured Cosmos seedlings (approximately 200 of them) and returned the next day to ge greeted by bare soil. After executing a comical double take, I ground my teeth and went to buy more seeds. I will be lucky if I have any Cosmos this year as I think it’s a bit late, but we’ll see.
As an animal lover myself, and a believer in good Karma, I won’t be purchasing a large shot gun just yet. But I have discovered a cunning solution to outsmart the cute brutes. I planted my next lot of annuals (cornflowers and ox-eye daisies) interspersed with Nasturtiums. As the leaves of Nasturtiums smell and taste very pungent, I imagined that most rabbits would run a mile. Happily it seems to have worked. Either that or they just don’t like any of these latest plants and they are just biding their time until my new Cosmos crop appears…
During a conversation with our local butcher the other day, I asked him if he might be interested in dispatching a few and turning them into yummy casserole. However he politely declined, probably thinking to himself that I had finally lost the plot.
I would like to point out yet again that I am a soppy animal lover and I was only half joking about the casserole. Even when I see my new furry friends on the rampage like a crowd of lager louts on Saturday night, I still go “Awww !!! Look at the wee cuties !!!” and I think to myself, “well, it’s only a packet of seeds and everyone has to eat something.” Shame they don’t prefer dandelions and docken leaves as we have an endless supply of those…