Friday, July 15, 2011

Somebunny has been Eating my Veggies!


Or to be more particular, somebunny's mama has been eating my veggies!


My beans are have been beheaded! My peas have been chewed into little green nubs! All I can say is, I'm glad mama doesn't like tomatoes, peppers and zucchini, otherwise my little veggie plot would be a complete write-off.

Scrap, who has the fine-tuned nose of a blood hound, discovered the nest yesterday in one of my flower beds. His sniffing around sent two baby bunnies scrambling. One disappeared into the safety of the underbrush. The other little fellow ran up the yard and tried to blend unsuccessfully into the green grass. I picked him up not wanting Scrap to get hold of him. 

But this is bloom day and I don't want to stray to deeply into my woeful success at growing vegetables. Let's take a look around my garden and see what is in flower.


Starting at the left side of the house, I have a large border of Ditch Dayliles. Ditch Daylilies tend to be the first ones at my summer party. Their hybrid cousins prefer to show up fashionably late. 

I don't want to get too off topic yet again, but while we are at the side of the house, here is a simple idea for you: Paint a wooden trellis an interesting color and hang a birdhouse on it. If that is too cutesy for your tastes, a sun or lion's head medallion might look just as terrific.

This color scheme in the front garden might be aptly described as everything and the kitchen sink.

This is Helenium. It makes a nice companion to summer daisies.

The first of the Echinacea in flower.


Throughout the garden, my hosta are in flower.


The back border is looking colorful.

This clemaits has been hitching a ride up my birch tree.

Here is a plant that you don't see all that often. This is Alpine Betony, Stachys monnieri 'Hummelo'. It has basal rosettes of somewhat glossy foliage and rose-lavender lavender spikes mid-summer. It makes a great companion for smaller varieties of yellow daylily.

My Bee Balm is still going strong. The flowers are usually hummingbird magnets, but I haven't seen one this summer!

This hydrangea is my favourite at the moment.

So what happened to the little baby bunny? There was no way I could do the little fur-ball in. You are going to think that I am nuts, but I put him carefully back in the nest. I never did find the second baby, but hopefully Mama Bunny did. This morning the nest was empty. Mama must have recollected her babies elsewhere. They can't have gone far though. There was fresh veggie carnage this morning. 

Oh well, at least I still have my tomatoes!

Have a great weekend!

Today, I am going to link to Fertilizer Friday at Tootsie Time and GBBD at May Dreams GardensTo see other beautiful gardens in bloom, please click the links.

34 comments:

  1. Your summer garden is fabulous!!! And I love the whimsy of your trellis/birdhouse suggestion; I'm adding it to my Evernote for future reference.

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  2. Your garden is truly magnificent and I'm green with envy, Jennifer. I love the tale of the little bunnies (the one you photographed is just too sweet!) and their Mummy. They have to eat, too ;) Your beans will probably surprise you with a second flush, just because you're such a kind-hearted soul!

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  3. Don't know where to start with the comments on your post today....your bunny is adorable, I'd have done exactly the same thing. So glad you could get a photo of the little darlin'.

    I just love the 'ditch daylilies'. I have some from three different sources (our old family cottage, and two good friends) and I love them all. I have the one from the cottage in a very prominant place, in front of all my fancy-dancy hybrid perennials. LOL.

    I love your trellis with the birdhouse. Recently I saw a photo (on a blog) of a hydro or telephone-type pole, with little birdhouses nailed all over it. It looked terrific.

    Now, if I could only get my husband to build me a clothesline, I could put birdhouses on the pole....

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  4. Gorgeous hydrangea, stunning day lilies, hosta and all the others flowers.You have a great garden , with so many plants I love .
    Sorry, for your veggies ...

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  5. That's a very cute bunny. I would have plucked the veggies to feed it. :) Didn't the mama come to its rescue? My dogs have been eating my vegetables too. We don't have bunnies running wild in our country. If they are everywhere, than perhaps they may not look as cute to me.

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  6. I don't think I realized until today's photos, how huge your garden was! It is just beautiful, so lush and rich, full of texture and color. The front garden bed is a riot of bloom...how exquisite.

    Bunnies...if you do find the new nest...just keep urging mom to move. She won't like to be constantly disturbed but she likely won't go far from the feast ;-) Next year..chicken wire, it's the only way to keep them out.

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  7. Perhaps the pruning those bunnies have done will give more new branches and you get more peas and beans once those plants grow back their leaves. Your garden has so many variety of blooms!

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  8. Those other gardens you visited are too metrosexual for me - I like your wilder, looser, long-haired and slightly hippy garden. It's sort of barely contained chaos (in a good way). You let nature in - instead of being so creepily meticulous about every little tuft. Those overly manicured plots make me feel nervous. Give me some overabundance and shaggy glory! Your garden (I realize that effortless look does in fact take effort) looks amazing! No wonder the bunnies moved in.

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  9. Ale bujnie wszystko kwitnie, piękne kwiaty i hosty.
    Pozdrawiam.

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  10. Oh my gosh. How cute!!!! I can't believe he let you hold him. The flowers are all stunning. Absolutely stunning.

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  11. Theres always something to eat your produce, for us it's slugs, for you rabbits. C'est la vie! Your garden is really beautiful, lovely borders and the circle garden is lovely.

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  12. The colors are wonderful together!

    I don't have bunnys, but I did see a baby woodchuck eyed my green beans from the tall grass.

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  13. Bunnies a real problem here. In winter time they eat everything I really mean everything and everywhere is under ground wholes.
    Your garden is so amazing, you have hundreds of Ditch Daylilies.

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  14. That is one sweet little bunny. Hope you told him you were putting him back on the condition he changed his diet to slugs and snails. Ours have been dispatched by either the fox or coyote. Your garden is an absolute jewel box of colour - so beautiful.

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  15. Ah Oh, caught in the act. So cute but hungry. LOL! I really like your Helenium's. They look so pretty. Have a wonderful weekend.

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  16. wow amazing colors and plants, lovely border garden...that rabbit is not a friend to me :)

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  17. You garden is looking spectacular. I too am a bit jealous, but not of the bunny problem. Little guy does not even look that scared! I would be torn on what I should do, but I would hope his mom came back to collect him. Hopefully, she took them to the neighbors.

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  18. Everytime you show the part of your garden with the white picket fence I want to run our and get one! I love what you've done there! Your garden is so lovely - I am envious! Daylilies, ecinacheas ... everything gorgeous!
    Happy GBBD :)

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  19. Why wouldn't the bunnies want to live in paradise - surrounded by beauty and food. Your garden is fantastic.

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  20. Keep planting the beans, you wouldn't want the bunny family to change diets and start eating your beautiful flowers.

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  21. Sooo sorry that your veggies were eaten!! I would be thinking that little cottontail isn't very cute at all! All your flowers are just lovely. I especially like the orange flower pictures. Great photography!

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  22. Wow!!! Gardens full of so much life and fun colors. I live with bunnies most years also, but never see much damage from them. When I plant veggies, they're usually in pots so that might be why. Wonderful post.

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  23. Wow! Double wow! Triple wow! Your garden looks stunning! LOVE the picture with the front garden!!! As for the bunnies, I hear you, sister! My bunny has been eating strawberry leaves. It was OK. Yesterday, he ate my only cardinal flower - everything... like it didn't even exist. It made me so mad! And sad. I put a wire crate above the cardinal flower to protect it from a deer. Instead of a deer, a little cute bunny came and ate it!

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  24. So many beautiful blooms in this post Jennifer! Your mid summer garden is really doing well. I love that Stachys ~ I'm going to have to hunt for it. Sorry the bunnies have been eating your veggies. I have little ones in my front garden but I haven't noticed much damage yet. The picture of you holding him/her is sure adorable.

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  25. The bunny is so adorable - I'm glad you rescued him. Your garden is a a fantastic burst of colorful blooms! All that color backed by a white house and lovely white picket fence is a wonderful sight!

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  26. Your garden is gorgeous so much is flowering and very happy....... bunnies are cute but such a pain.....

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  27. Oh wow, your garden is looking amazing and your back border is sensational.I love the picture of your Echinacea.

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  28. Wow! Just discovered your blog...your gardens are lovely! I can't believe how much is in bloom at this time of year in your area. My favorite is the back border and the "everything but the kitchen sink." Also love the shot of Bee Balm, do you know what variety that one is? Love the deep reddish color...

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  29. What wonderful colour in your garden. It seems to be packed in quite tightly too. The daylilies are great and always make me smile. Trying to keep cool, hope you are faring well.

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  30. That bunny is beyond cute. I couldn't have done it any harm either. I'm really surprised that momma decided to build a nest in your garden though with three dogs lurking around.

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  31. I have a bunny that lives in my abelia in the front yard. It stays out of my back garden, though. The dog scent must be too strong. I've never seen babies so maybe it's male. Your garden looks incredible, as usual! :o)

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  32. So gorgeous!! I love the colourful front bed, and the blue clematis is stunning. Your idea of the birdhouse on trellis is charming, I would absolutely have one in my garden. Do you know what kind of hydrangea is pictured? The whites are my favorite. As for your little chomper I don't know what to advise. I keep all of my veggies at home in raised pots, but we also keep a small allotment plot. After replanting numerous times (finding only chewed stems left) we built an enclosure around it, it is working for now. :) We still have our resident yard bunny, but he is very well behaved and only eats grass.

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  33. thanks for linking in this week. I am always in awe of all the different flowers everyone flaunts. It is a pleasure to tour and see all the gorgeous blooms...and I always enjoy stopping by here! I hope you will link in again soon!
    (¯`v´¯)
    `*.¸.*´Glenda/Tootsie
    ¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
    (¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.

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  34. I am also wondering if you would allow me to use a few of these photos in an upcoming post about cottage gardens? I would absoluetly watermark them with links to you!

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