BUNNNNNIIIEEESSS!!!! UGH! I don't know how they're hopping into my 24" high raised beds, but they are. I expected to lose some leaves to munching, but this year is out of control. I've got deer fencing around four of my five beds. The last one is growing peas which have been untouched to date, but the cosmos I transplanted yesterday are chewed to the ground. But everything in an unprotected pot is gone - things that haven't been touched by animals ever before. So frustrating.
Close to a decade ago I had about $1,000 worth of young fruit trees girdled by rabbits one winter. The trunks of the trees were protected with covers, but those cute devils were able to reach over them due to the ample snow pack we received that year. Following that disastrous year, when it comes to rabbits I've taken up the philosophy that the best defense is a good offense. I started using cage traps from December through March and haven't had a problem with rabbits since then.
Rabbit goes well in a slow cooker with carrots, potatoes, and a bit of salt. Tastes like vengeance.
Rabbits accumulate very fast. So catching them might be smart. If you can't beat it, eat it, like with weeds.
At our cabin, the snow is gone from my raised bed in the dog pen, but there is still a pile of snow on my mini hùgel bed. We saw a hare a couple of times, and once even two hares, mating. But luckily, most of my garden is fenced in. Apart from the hügel bed.
In the raised bed, both my rubarb plants from last year have a small stem above the ground. I also saw some chives (Russian type) and mint reappearing. And a couple of other things are growing as well, but I thing they are weeds. I don't really dare to pull everything out yet.
At home, my house, cellar and garden are full of plants of which a part will go to the cabin in a couple of weeks. Today I repotted many small apine strawberries to bigger pots. But when I was finished I found even more pots upstairs. So I might have to do more. I am running out of good pots. I put the strawberries outside definitively. The forecast is low temperatures above 0˚C. As strawberries grow native in Norway, I guess this alpine cultivar will tolerate low temperatures.
This evening the wind is absurtly hard. We can safely call it a storm. I might find all my outside plants back on the neighbours lane tomorrow. Tomorrow is a national holiday and they are getting guests, so I hope this won't happen.
Today I topped my one and a half year old chili Brazilian starfish. It is of the type capsicum baccatum and it was growing very high. It has flower buds in all the "armpits" of each tiny branch. I tried to cut out the parts that might grow another branch. Now I hope it will stop growing and just make fruits.
The chili Cayenne has been extremely productive. Today I harvested my first batch of red chillies. But there are many green ones left on the plant. They are bigger than the ones produced last year.
I started repotting a couple of the of microbush tomatoes. Some of them are developing flower buds or even flowers. It's just that I don't really have space in my living room to put the remaining tomatoes in bigger pots. And unfortunately, the outside temperatures are still too cold to leave them outdoors fulltime. All the microbushes are growing pretty big.
My squashes and pumpkin are also growing well. They will soon be way too big for their yoghurt containers. I am still in doubt what to do then. I have large containers for them outside, filled with composted horse manure. I guess that is great stuff. I just think it is too cold to put them there yet. And I drilled holes in the bottoms of those containers, so they can't stand indoors. And DH would protest against the horse manure smell and wurms that will possibly crawl out. It hardly does smell, because it got warm composted last autumn.
All the chives and kales survived the week outdoors when I was away. I put them on the west side of the house. Now they are joined by the strawberries, the sugar peas (bush type) and many Tagetes flowers. And the caraway plants the I repotted yesterday evening. That plants also grows naturally here, even along our road, so It should also be able to cope with these spring temps. I also moved my aspargus outdoors permanently.
One of the types of lettuce upstairs is already bolting and developing flowers. I put it closest to the window now that the aspargus are outside. But now I put it farthest away from the window. Maybe it should stand outside in the shadow. I have been harvesting them for weeks already.
