#9. Bunny Gardens
In which the E@L decides that maybe the best way to help wildlife is to leave them be
As much as I love wildlife, and as much as I enjoy/tolerate/oblige gardening, the two are not necessarily compatible. Or are they?
The Secret (in the) Garden
Pulling up last year’s weeds and stalks, up came a root, and out popped something fast and furry-ous. Yow! I jumped back thinking “What was that? A mouse? A rat?” No, after catching my breath and looking more carefully, I found a small, furry, brown body nestled into the corner of my raised bed box. It was just a little bunny, or two, as I discovered another one in the opposite corner. Looking more closely at the hole I saw movement indicating the presence of bunny siblings. With my gloved hand, I carefully reached down and picked up bunny no. 3, and then bunny no. 4, from their earthen digs.
Well, that explains a few things, I thought. I knew we had at least one pair of wild rabbits (technically Eastern Cottontails Sylvilagus floridanus) living under our garden shed. A week prior I had noticed the doe scampering away from my garden, and then found a wad of rabbit fur near a hole in my raised garden bed. I had assumed, however, that the nest had already been abandoned. I could not have been more wrong. I called my wife.
“Wife! (Names removed to protect the innocent) Look what I found!” Oohs and ahhs ensued for a few moments, followed by the inevitable question: “What are you going to do with them?”
Honestly, I didn’t know. I thought seriously about relocating them to a nearby fallow farm field, but realized they might not survive such a move. This would require some research. But first, I carefully deposited them into a bucket and covered them with pulled weeds and fur from the nest. Then I covered the bucket and placed it in the shade.
What Do We Do With a Garden Bunny, Earl-eye in the Marnin’
Once the bunnies were safe, I did what all great researchers do – consulted the internet. I used as many search keywords as I could, including “Bunnies in the garden”, “Wild rabbits”, “Rabbit nest”, “Garden rabbits”. And then started clicking on suggested links. As I should have expected, everybody had a different suggestion. These ranged from completely hands-off (“Don’t touch them”, “Let them be”), to the mildly hands-on (“Relocate them”, “Put them in your neighbor’s yard”), to the terminal (“Let the birds of prey have them”, “They probably won’t survive anyway”, “They’re pests, so kill them”). I also consulted Substack but the only reference to rabbits I found was Lagomorpha. Interesting, but not relevant to my situation (Thanks anyway Leah P). What’s a gardener to do?
After absorbing all this sage advice, I concluded that my bunnies were close to being weaned, since their eyes were open, their ears erect, and they were fully capable of scampering around my raised box. If I put them back, they would probably be gone in a week or so. But do I really want to have a whole family of rabbits in my garden?
Personally, I would love to turn my yard into a haven for wildlife. I have hated lawns since I spent my teenage afternoons mowing them. I hate seeing all that land converted to useless monoculture, and I hate thinking about all the toxic chemicals my neighbors pour into their lawns to keep them that way. And I’m not particularly happy that I happen to have a rather large lawn myself, even if I am (proudly) the single largest source of dandelions on my street. I would prefer to turn it all into a large pollinator garden full of native plants that are home to birds, bees, snakes, and bunnies. But that takes effort, time, and money that I haven’t committed to yet.
Would a few extra rabbits really be a disaster for my garden? I only started serious gardening since I retired three years ago, and we’ve had rabbits the whole time. Two years ago, I planted marigolds in one 8-inch-high raised bed, and the rabbits nibbled them down to nubs, but ignored my tomatoes entirely. I raised the bed height to 16 inches thinking that would keep them out, but apparently not. Yet they haven’t eaten anything else. So, what do I have to lose?
I decided to leave the rabbits alone and let nature take its course. If they don’t fall prey to a hawk or owl, I might just have to plant a few extra carrots to feed them. Or they might find that my yard/garden can’t sustain them all and move to my neighbor’s yard. That would be best for all concerned. Except maybe my neighbor.
Lagomorph Engineering, LLC
Having already removed the bunnies (technically “kits”) and destroyed the nest by tilling the raised bed, I did the next best thing a guilty bunny-cradle-robber could do. I built them a new one. Using the best tenets of design, and all natural materials, of course. First, I dug out a hole just deep and wide enough to hold all four bunsters. Then I covered it with a lattice of dead twigs and vines. Over that, I carefully layered dead grass and weeds from the garden and covered it all with a thin layer of soil. I had read that the doe nurses the kits by sitting on top of the rabbit hole, so I left a small opening at one side.
Then, I picked up each little furball (with a gloved hand) and inserted it back into the nest, finally stuffing the hole with the fur that I had originally removed. Then we let nature take its course. Would bunny-Mom return? Would she continue to care for her kits? Time would tell.
The next day I saw that the fur had been disturbed along with some of the weeds and concluded that Mom had indeed returned to check on her kits. A few days later, not being able to leave well enough alone, I peeked inside and saw bunny eyes looking back at me, so knew the kits were still in the nest. The following weekend, another peek revealed only one slightly larger bunny, and a day later, it was gone too. I dug up the remains of the nest, smoothed out the soil, and finished planting my garden.
I haven’t seen the little bunsters around, but I have seen Mom scampering through my hedge. I assume the kits have moved into the bunny condo under the garden shed, but who knows. I will keep a close watch on my seedlings and see if they survive or show signs of nibbling. If the latter, maybe I’ll just plant a sacrificial garden spot near the shed to keep the rabbits sated.
At any rate, I’ve decided that I would rather live with wildlife in the garden than with no wildlife at all. And maybe now I will finally get around to digging up some of the lawn and putting in the pollinator garden. I’m sure the local lagomorphs would love it.
Thanks for sharing your bunny tale.
This was such a delightful story. And I look forward to hearing about your lawn rewilding project as it progresses!