Silly wabbit...

Silly wabbit...

Actually it is silly gardener.

All winter my two neighborhood rabbits were zipping back and forth across the snow in my back yard. So when I put my garden in, I carefully assembled wire fences to wrap around the boxes to keep the rabbits out.

I spent a lot of time at the hardware store figuring out how to make the fences fairly easy to take down and reassemble so that I could get them out of the way when I wanted to. And I had prided myself in how effective they were because I have stuff coming up all over the place and the rabbits haven't touched it.

So imagine my surprise late this morning when this rabbit came skipping across the lawn and, without missing a beat hopped over my fence into my garden. Right in front of my nose! I think I stood there with my mouth open thinking "How did he do that?" and "What's he going to eat?" when she - you'll see why I say she in a second - started digging a hole between a tomato and a pepper plant. That's when I realize she had a mouthful of leaves and softesh stuff and was building a nest.

I told her in no uncertain terms that she wasn't welcome in my garden, and that she could not build a nest there. I chased her away and thought that we had an understanding. I checked out the damage (She pushed a couple handfuls of dirt out of the box, but hadn't hurt either plant.) and refilled the hole. Then I turned around and there she was again, with another mouthful of nesting material.

This time I guess maybe I raised my voice a little. And, yes, maybe I did throw a few things at her. (Don't worry, my aim was pretty bad.) She didn't want to leave, but I was persuasive and maybe she decided that she didn't want to build a nest where there was a crazy man in the neighborhood. She hasn't been back, but I'll see what happens overnight.