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Orchard Updates & Garden Knowledge – Rabbits and Rodents
🌱 Summer Gardens & 🐇<!–
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Summer Bounties!
We have been working hard, building up and mulching the butterfly garden, and harvesting and donating pounds and pounds of produce! All of the produce that we harvest from our Jovial gardens out in the community, or our specific beds in the orchard, is donated directly to local hunger relief organizations. If you have extra produce and would like to drop it off for donation, please stop by the park on any Saturday at 10am!
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We still have a few spots for vendors for our Fall Festival at Weaver Creek Park on October 12 from 12pm-4pm. Vendors can sign up here to learn more: https://forms.gle/bCQMQ7XeSbuMYFG27
We would like to invite any community members who might be interested in volunteering at the festival to learn more by signing up here: https://forms.gle/GE6sDomuVCh27dVp6
This is part of last Saturday’s harvest. All of the produce we harvest goes to people who could use a little extra support.
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Cucumber Tomato Salad
One of the best ways to use up a summer bounty of tomatoes and cucumbers!
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Rabbits and Rodents
Gardens can attract rabbits and mice! These critters will often “clip” off an entire leafy branch and leave behind little stubs with slightly angled cuts. Rabbits are common across the entire Jovial Garden range, and we frequently see their presence in our gardens.
Where & What?
Your perennial, annual, and vegetable gardens. Rabbits do have a slight feeding preference but will feed on a wide variety of plants. See more info here: https://hortnews.extension.iastate.edu/susceptibility-plants-rabbit-damage
Mice can also be attracted to rotting fruit. Keeping your garden clean from rubbish and debris and fallen vegetables can go a long way towards preventing mice from coming around.
In lawns, rabbits will often eat circular patches of grass and leave behind circular rabbit droppings.
When?
All throughout the growing season.
Rabbit Management
Exclusion is the only sure-fire way to prevent rabbits from feeding on your plants. This requires fencing with at least 1inch wire mesh. The bottom of this mesh must be staked to the ground or ideally buried a couple inches to prevent rabbits from burrowing under it.
Second to this, repellents can offer some protection from rabbits. Repellent products generally fall into two categories: taste based and smell based. Capsaicin or pepper products can make plants distasteful to rabbits; they are often water soluble and can wash off in a light shower or rain.
I have heard that putrid egg based products, Milorganite, and predator urine (such as coyote) can work as strong repellents. For detailed information on repellents and rabbit management, I would like to direct you to the following links below.
Additional Information from trusted education based resources.
https://www.canr.msu.edu/uploads/234/49951/deer_repellent.pdf
https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/pests-and-problems/animals/rabbits.aspx
https://planttalk.colostate.edu/topics/wildlife-issues/2305-ravishing-rabbit-revenge/
https://extension.unl.edu/statewide/douglas-sarpy/pdfs/ce/resources/ce-g2019-managing-rabbit-damage.pdf
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