Gardening Season 2013 - I need lessons from Mr. McGregor

Wonderful weather and a weekend at home was just the ticket for clearing out the garden and starting the early spring vegetables. Someone had already started growing in our garden.  This would happen to be a very lucky baby bunny.

Last year I turned over the garden with a shovel and a friend showed up with a tiller and turned the earth over for me again.  Hubby and I decided to enrich our soil a little more this year and went to town and purchased our own tiller and compost. 

In town we hubby spotted this: 

 Notice the sign is painted and this vehicle is for selling stickers?  I've never seen a traveling sticker salesman.  We didn't stop, but did get a picture for kicks...

The tiller made it home with us and we went straight to work. Because I had read the owner's manual on the trip home, I saved a rabbit nest.  The manual suggested leaving a row untilled between passes and then going back between the tilled rows.  Hubby needed a rest after the first tilling of every other row when I spotted an old cabbage plant and worked to pull it up.  Out popped a little head...Scared the heck out of me.  We had just missed the plant with the baby rabbits by inches.

It would have broke our hearts if the tiller had ran over them.  We could see 2 babies, but there could be 3 in there.  So it was decided to till the other end of the garden and let the momma relocate the babies Saturday night.  We thought she would want to relocate the babies after we had disturbed the nest. 

Sunday we went back to work.  The rabbit nest was still there.  Now with a nice, fresh door of rabbit fur over it.  Uugghh.  Now what?  I don't want to provide food for them by planting my garden.  My garden is in a fence to keep animals out, not to trap them in.  We found the hole in the fence where Mommy Bunny is getting in, but she needs to get out first before we patch it.

Planting went on as scheduled and I'm counting on the rabbits vacating before my seeds start germinating.  I rearranged my plan for seeds and plants.  The plants went on the far end of the garden with a nice little chicken wire fence (thanks honey) across that end to protect them from the hungry rabbits.  This is my own "Tale of Peter Rabbit" only the bunny family is living in my garden.

Every year I say to myself I'm going to keep track of what I plant, but this year I am actually doing it.



Garden Chart 2013

It's a little primitive, but perfect for keeping track of what I've planted.  I can add to it as the weather warms and new plants are introduced.  Next year I will know what worked well and what flopped.  I'm trying to turn my thumb from black to green.



Anyone know anything about getting rid of rabbits?