THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Mar23

Rabbits: Rabbit Proof Planting

One Way to Deal with Rabbits in the Garden

When planting new borders at Waltham Place, the wonderful gardener Henk Gerritsen did this to stop rabbits from eating the new plants…

“It is a well known fact that once a perennial plant border has established itself, it becomes far less appealing for grazing animals, as young plants are much tastier.

In order to protect the new plantings, it was decided to scatter large quantities of seed of fast growing biennials, such as hemlock and woolly burdock. The first plant is so poisonous no animal would dare eat it…”
Poisoning with hemlock? The way they disposed of Socrates? That is one novel way of dealing with rabbits!
What do Rabbits Eat?
As Henk says above, mature plants are off the menu – although we have regularly seen bark nibbled at the base of trees! Most of the green vegetables in your raised beds will go, as might your tulips. We read somewhere a rabbit is partial to plants from the rose family – whether that be trees or shrubs, so you may want to steer clear of those unless fencing them off. We know deer love nibbling in your garden during winter and early spring, so can imagine that is the same for rabbits – rabbits basically may end up eating anything that looks green, fresh and palatable.
What can we do about that? Keep reading below for the best suggestions for rabbit proof planting we can find…
Rabbit Proof Planting
If you don’t want to poison the rabbit population who are eating your plants (and we really don’t recommend planting hemlock in the garden) you can try some of this vegetation to make your borders a little less like a free buffet to the bucks and does with their floppy, cute ears…
Rabbit Resistant Shrubs:
  • Buddleja
  • Cornus
  • Cotoneaster
  • Dogwood
  • Escallonia
  • Euonymus
  • Ilex
  • Laurel
  • Laurus
  • Philadelphus
  • Pieris
  • Rosemary
  • Taxus

Perennials Rabbits May Not Eat:

  • Aconitum
  • Alchemilla
  • Bergenia
  • Crocosmia
  • Epimedium
  • Euphorbia
  • Ferns
  • Forget-me-not
  • Foxgloves
  • Hellebore
  • Hemerocallis
  • Iris
  • Libertia
  • Peony
  • Persicaria
  • Sedum
  • Trillium
  • Verbena

For a really great and far more comprehensive list, please try Spring Reach Nursery – rabbit proof plants.

Where does this leave us then?

Rabbit Proof Gardening

Members of the Iridaceae and Buttercup family are seemingly less tasty or poisonous, so you may want to fill your garden with them. If a plant is aromatic or exudes a milky sap, this may also help deter a rabbit. The list above proves there is still lots of great garden plants available to use, but we speak with this caveat – a rabbit may eat your plants even if they supposedly dislike it, because when hunger strikes…

The only 100% way to stop a rabbit eating the plants in your garden is to add a fence or get a border terrier. Or maybe try this Saluki?

Good luck defending your garden from rabbits!

And check out my main work on Topiary here.

Aug04

Box Hill – Novella by Adam Mars-Jones

I picked this book up back in 2020 because of the title – Box Hill – fabulous, I thought, a book about boxwood. I’ll peruse this for its respective thoughts on the plant I clip most when I make topiary. I didn’t read the blurb on the back. Didn’t know the author (although I knew the publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, as I love many of the essays they have published… so trusted the author would be worth spending time with.) By page 2 I realised this novel wasn’t quite what I had expected. I started the book at 10pm, after getting …

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Apr14

Topiary, The Art Garden at The Henderson

The Art Garden at The Henderson in Hong-Kong has now opened to the public. I joined the project last March, to work with Gillespies Landscape Architects on the topiary that had been designed for the Art Garden, which gives a calm, green space below the extraordinary Henderson skyscraper designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The garden has been designed with butterflies in mind, so lots of nectar plants, and has other art projects and installations within its footprint. The history of the site is interesting too – it was originally the first cricket ground in Hong-Kong! So still a green space….! …

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