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Bad bean-eating bunnies

Posted on July 29th, 2008 – 8:05 AM
By Jaime Chismar
beanBunnies.jpg

The rabbits in my yard must be tasty. How do I know? They’ve mangled my heirloom peppers and nibbled my bean plants to nubs. Add some fried potatoes and a homegrown salad to the menu, the BF and I would have a very tasty supper.

Hasenpfeffer anyone?

To be honest, I only have myself to blame. I should have taken the proper precautions and covered my beds with chicken wire and plastic netting. But, after three years of scratching up my arms and tripping over twine, I was fed up.

This year, I chose garden convenience over garden defense. And now, I have no beans.

Lesson learned (again). Grrr.

What gardening lessons have you had to re-learn? Was it stubornness or laziness that got the best of you?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 8:05 am and is filed under Critters + vermin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

8 Responses to "Bad bean-eating bunnies"

jeff says:

July 29th, 2008 at 11:16 am

Those are the saddest beans ever. At least beans are cheap at the farmers market.

chris says:

July 29th, 2008 at 11:57 am

chicke wire is ugly…but it does the job

Jaime Chismar says:

July 29th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

Yeah… These were my French Fin de Bangol beans. They grow long and skinny. Cooked, they a wonderfully tender and flavorful. No wonder the bunnies love them.

debw says:

July 29th, 2008 at 12:23 pm

Don’t yank them out quite yet. I have had beans that were hailed to death sprout new leaves a week or so later. And, better later than never.

Jaime Chismar says:

July 29th, 2008 at 12:36 pm

Good advice debw — Some plants are total goners, but a few have actually sprouted new leaves.

Connie Nelson says:

July 29th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

For years, I’ve tried to grow vining beans in the very little sun I have. That’s a wall covered with Engleman ivy. Inevitably, the vines grow into the ivy and get lost . . . until I suddenly notice huge, over-ripe green beans the size of cucumbers. Hard as rocks and just about as tasty.

When will I learn?

deb w says:

July 29th, 2008 at 6:47 pm

I tried for several years to grow sweet corn in the garden. The ears were tassled, the kernels were full, then AAAAH!! the racoons struck and wipe out the whole patch, rip, unripe, mangled beyond redemption.
I am presently eyeing the roadkill cafe cookbook for racoon after they ate 4 of the 6 koi, and the six GIANT four year old goldfish from my pond. The plastic mesh over the top lacks esthetic quality but nobody else has been eaten since I installed it.
Over here by the river the squirrels are a minor annoyance but the midnight bandits are enough to keep me up at night for vengeance.

Fiona says:

August 20th, 2008 at 8:11 pm

I’ve committed chipmunkacide three times this summer. Rat traps did the trick. There are more on my most wanted list too. I feel a bit like I’m killing Goldy Gopher but they are nesting under the deck, in the wood pile and destroying the pots and garden. Sorry Alvin.

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