Rabbit problem

They don,t eat chives or mint.

I planted three ragged robin a couple of weeks ago, protecting the base of them so that the rabbits couldn't get to them, fairly early on the tops of two of them had been chomped off and left lying on the ground and this morning the last one has been topped too. .
I don't want/like a neat and tidy garden and the plants, once they get beyond brand new tasty stage, seem to thrive. It is the new ones that rabbits and deer go for. But thanks everyone, you've given me some ideas to try.
Coupled with a new, boisterous rescue dog around a year old I think that the garden will suffer greatly this year! I'm glad to say that the dog is good at chasing the squirrels away - just need to work on teaching him to chase rabbits too. Just spent ages teaching him not chase deer when we're out and about so it must be very confusing for him!

Can't really add to the suggestions, apart from to say, we have three cats, and they seem to deter the rabbits from getting too close to the house, but we have muntjac,who I think are responsible for "pruning" some of my ground cover shrubs.

We are really excited as over the weekend we saw some tiny deer footprints in the mud, presumably a baby muntjac. If the weather improves, I'm going to sit out there early, and hope I see it.

You're excited?! About seeing the prints of the next generation of muntjac? In your garden!!!

yes I know, from gardening point of view its BAD ... but I love wildlife too, and have never seen a baby muntjac ... I'm sure my moggies will keep them away a bit.

I want one too!

You really don't jeni.

they're not the cutest of deer are they, not like bambi, more like a little pig ... my husband has banned me from buying food for them!

I should think so!

And their poo looks like chocolate drops to little'uns! DGS picked one up when he was tiny, and popped it in his mouth! [horror]

(I hoicked it out very quickly and did my best to wash his mouth out. He never suffered)

'hoicked' is a word, isn't it?

I understand that excitement about seeing deer hoof prints. I found some new ones in my garden today, showing a new place where they jump over the fence. I found some hedgehog poo too, which was also exciting .

Hoiked is very definitely a word, especialy if you live up north

yogagran, are you sure that rabbits are cutting and leaving? they usually eat - or at least nibble a bit before they move on.

they will cut anything that looks like a root that might cause problems when hopping past - so houserabbits will helpfully cut through all available cables. one of mine bit through the curly telephone wire when i was mid-conversation.

rabbits don't like any sudden movement - so something like a flag waving would scare them for a while - put up a bit of bunting?

You can get electric fencing to keep in chicks and ducklings. Maybe you could use some to keep out rabbits.