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Rabbit friendly garden plants?

kt6382

Warren Scout
Hi, I know there's a few threads about rabbit safe plants anyway but I did a search& there was nothing recent. . Is getting to the time of year where we start to think about the garden. I really want to get mine rabbit safe this year so I can let them have some free ranging time. I'm looking for some advice from some of you clever plant people!
Firstly, I'm after some ideas for some more substantial plants, (maybe shrubs?) To develop a bare patch of bed. It's very shady on that side of my garden&I live near the sea although thatside is protected by a high fence. On that side at the moment I have some kind of large hebe bush, severalRoses , a couple of hydrangea, an escalonia (?) T
tree & a couple of euphorbia. I think the euphorbia are poisonous so would like to stop them self seeding everywhere. I have a large gap where I would like to put something rabbit safe but also somethingthat will last & I don't have o replant every year.
On the sunnier side of the garden I know I can plant lavender but what else would be rabbit safe?

I'm not sure if hydrangea are safe for rabbits? They tend to ignore them? I have lots of lovely daffodils so I just can't let thebuns out at this time of year.

Sorry rambled abit! Just advice I'm after really on what is safe and Hardy enough to survive. Then I can focus on growing some rabbit food crops too.
Thanks for any advice! :)
 
Hi! I'm not a gardening expert, but here's some ideas from my own garden (I also live near the sea):

I'm not 100% sure whether hebe is safe - some lists say it is, but on the other hand it's an evergreen which normally aren't rabbit friendly. You can get them in lots of different sizes and flower colours which would add structural diversity. You could also plant a native shrub like hazel or hawthorn which will establish quickly, don't mind shade, and provide yummy twigs and leaves for the bunnies in the future.

Lavender is brilliant, also try rosemary, thyme, sage, mint, strawberry - they all seem to look after themselves year after year, although the mint and strawberry will need to be kept under control!

I think hydrangea is poisonous, there are a couple of lists that say this e.g. http://happyhopper.co.uk/badfood.htm. Ditto euphorbia - I tend to pick all the euphorbia seedlings in our garden as soon as they start to sprout up.
 
Thank you for your reply, I was beginning to give up on this thread which is why I hadn't checked it.

I had a lovely big lavendar plant that had to be killed when we had our extension nuilt but I would definately like to plant another. My buns don't go for it so it would survive! I think you are supposed to plant them in full sun but I will check that one.

I have several hebes and do worry about them being safe for the poor bunnies. You're right, some lists say safe and some don't. I might just have to fence them off coz there are well established and survive in my garden, don't want to have to dig them up!

Good idea about hazel or hawthorn, I'll look into those as I know they are definately safe. Hopefully one of them likes shade, I need to fill the shady side of my garden!

I've been meaning to get some mint in pots and other herbs. Have never grown herbs so will have to research what can go where. I hope to put some bigger plants into my flowerbeds rather than just grow think herbs in pots. I know mint needs to be in a pot though! Can rabbits eat all types of mint?

My rabbits so far haven't gone for my hydrangea plants or my euphorbia. The euphorbia I have a huge and reseed everywhere every year. I know they are poisonous to humans too and I have to cover up when I prune them. I'd like to get rid of them but that would be a huge job and they are one of the plants that survives in my garden, I guess I'll just have to ence them off for now. Ditto with hydrangea.

What do other people do? Dig up and kill everything that is not rabbit safe? or just fence off parts of the garden? Its all quite a lot of hassle for just wanting to let my buns run free range every now and then! I'd quite like to get a temporary moveable fence to give them parts of the garden to use. I've looked at the puppy pens that people recommend but they are pretty small and it would costs me lots to get enough to go across my garden.

Ideally like to be rabbit safe all over but think it would take me years! unless I bulldoze the whole garden! :(
 
I'm also interested in the results of this thread because I have a shady coastal garden in the south west and would love some low maintenance plants that I can have worry-free. Unfortunately I'm struggling to even get a lawn going :lol:

we use short wire fencing to keep them off things. It's not too ugly like the big fence panels, and it's pretty cheap. For more money you can buy quite pretty wicker stuff that would do the same job.
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They could hop over it if they wanted to, and the two little ones can squeeze through, but it's very rare that they do. I don't think I'd use it to keep them from poisonous plants but it's a good way of protecting bunny safe plants that you don't want demolished.

You could always put poisonous plants in a high planter as well. My rabbits tend to leave the plants in tall pots alone, I think it's just too much effort for them.
 
Interesting that they don't just jump over the small fence, my husband wanted to try similar but with planks of driftwood.. I could try that... but my boys used to jump out of their extended when it was almost 3ft high! They're a bit more chilled out now so maybe they'd be ok. But like you say it may not be that safe against poisonous plants. I won't buy anything I know is poisonous, its just that my garden was already quite well estblished when we moved in and I don;t want to pull everything up.

Like you say, I just want some hassle free plants to fill up the edges that aren't poisonous! (or too rabbit tasty!)
 
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