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skiingjeff
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Location: Western Massachusetts Zone 6a

Where are my broccoli plants!

Yesterday I was going down to the garden to do my least favorite but important task, weeding. So as usually I survey my garden and smile at the radishes and cukes as the are popping out off the soil, look at the squash plants looking great and then get to where my broccoli should be and it's gone. :shock:

It appears even with all our efforts spraying the plants to make them not tasty, those wrascally wrabbits chopped off the tops of my broccoli plants. :evil:

It looks like I need to invest in a trap and relocate Mom and her babies! Any other thoughts before I try relocating them several towns over?

How can something so cute be so evil? :?

Ohio Tiller
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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 11:39 am
Location: Ohio

They are just doing what they get paid to do! And that's why I have chicken wire around my garden.
Mother nature does not except a void if there is a place a rabbit can survive a rabbit will find it.
The young of the year are always looking for a spot to fill. The best we can do is just prevent them from getting in.
I have had better luck leaving the ones I have that know they can't get into the garden. All they do now is torment my dogs that spend countless hours searching for them around my shed.

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RogueRose
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Location: Buffalo, NY

I have rabbits but they never go near my garden. (yet). The groundhog does though. But I think if this person was having a groundhog issue it would have taken a whole lot more than just the broccoli plants.

cynthia_h
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Relocating your pest animals (rabbits, groundhogs) "several towns over" is unfair to gardeners in that town. Deal with them yourself, either by calling animal control and following their advice to keep them out of your garden *or* following the advice of those on this board experienced in rabbit/groundhog exclusion success.

I don't have any great words of wisdom in this department; fortunately for me, I haven't dealt with either of these two critters. The critters I deal with are slimy denizens of the dark--snails and slugs, along with squirrels (when the neighbor's cat doesn't discourage them by his mere presence) and occasional birds. I'll take the birds, though; the other services they provide are more than welcome--the current rate of bird cost/benefit is to my benefit.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

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applestar
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Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Fence. Rabbit fence. I like that the larger opening in the upper half lets me reach in and narrow opening in the bottom half keep out baby rabbits. GoundHOGS will climb over it though.

I really like rabbit fences and I will continue to recommend them for rabbit exclusion, but I have to admit one rabbit managed to hop up to n upper larger opening and wriggle though once (well twice, most likely -- once to get in and once to get out hen I chased it) earlier this spring.

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skiingjeff
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Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2012 4:22 pm
Location: Western Massachusetts Zone 6a

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions. I'm pretty sure we don't have ground hogs....moles and voles but not ground hogs. If it was a vole I would also see the tunnels like when they ate all my hosta from one of our flower beds!

We'll have to check out the fencing and continue to work at getting the wrascally wrabbits to eat elsewhere.

I bought some new broccoli plants and put them in the ground today - I'm going to sit a watch though to be sure they don't eat these before I can do something more.

Thanks again and happy gardening! :D

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Until you have some fence up -- if you have extra of those useless-for-tomato cages, you could put that over each broccoli plant and cover with some kind of netting -- tulle, old sheer curtains, etc. This has the advantage of keeping out the cabbage white butterflies and night flying cabbage moth in addition to the rabbits.

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skiingjeff
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Location: Western Massachusetts Zone 6a

Great idea! Thanks for the suggestion. :D

gardenmon
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Joined: Sun May 27, 2012 12:24 pm
Location: PA

Hi,

Well basically the exact same thing happened to me yesterday. Went to the garden and all the plants were there except for the broccoli, several of which were naught but stems left. So I put up the rabbit fence, today I was looking out back and there is a groundhog in the yard! I ran after it with a shovel, fully intent on getting broccoli's revenge, but it got away. Is it true they will climb over the rabbit fence? Do I need to put another layer of fencing around the garden? Hopefully it knows I am after it and won't come back.

treehopper
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Posts: 103
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:43 pm
Location: Southeast MI

wabbit collars!! 1" square cage material cut about 8" tall and 16" long, roll them up into cylinders 8" tall and set them around the cabbages and broccoli plants you want to protect-by the time they outgrow the cages, those wascally wabbits will have found greener pastures!

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rainbowgardener
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8" tall cylinders will probably not slow down a ground hog very much, but if you can make taller cylinders and then put a top across them it will. Or use deer netting.



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