Gardening with Bunny Berries

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wamplercathy

wamplercathy

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 23, 2014
Messages
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Location
NW Missouri
Hubby and I were have a discussion about rabbit poop and our garden. I said that there was no way I could over do it with the BBs, when he told me to stop using the garden as my poop pit. :p :lol:

So I'm coming to yall for advise. How much is too much for a garden.
Side info: Garden is roughly 10'x50' and we only have 3 rabbits. Cleaning day is every Friday. (I even go the extra mile and get as much of the fallen hay out of it before putting it in the garden.)

Also I am starting an herb garden. After much reading, it is said that one should be careful when fertilizing certain plants because they can become overwhelmed.
Is this true for BBs also? Because I dumped about 1/2 a pound in a planter. (48"Tx12"W) It's round and has several holes to put plants. I did a layer of dirt, then a thick layer of BBs, then topped with more dirt. :oops:

Ready, Set, Go :arrow:
 
Let's see. We have three 4'x16' beds, two 2'x16' bed, one 3'x8' bed, one 3'x6' bed, and two 4'x4' beds. All are raised beds. We also have various potted herbs, and a large flower garden, along with a large area for row type crops.

We have seven permanent rabbits, and ongoing litters of kits. We use nothing but rabbit manure (fresh and composted, along with whatever hay waste), chicken manure (composted), and grass clippings/leaves for fertilizer. We add more in to the beds constantly until they are planted, and then the rest goes into the compost bin. After the growing season, we start adding more to the beds until spring, when everything is tilled in and starts over.

We have been doing this for three years now. Our amended soil is getting better and better, and the results are definitely seen in our garden (we had eight foot tall tomato plants last year). As far as herbs in particular, the only one I have a problem with is sage, and it just doesn't handle our winters. Everything else (lavender, two types of basil, cilantro, rosemary, oregano, thyme, mint) that we grow does well.
 
My gardens are entirely done up from rabbit waste. ENTIRELY.

I've been doing this for about 10 years.
Had a guy come in a couple of years ago and ask to buy my garden dirt as a starter for his garden (gave me a decent amount for it). I just promptly filled the gardens with waste from my rabbits. As long as I save enough to cover any waste over with 2 inches of last years garden dirt I'm good to go.

My beds are 10 inches deep. 4 x 10. made from barn board.

Works for 20 rabbits AND I have enough extra that I can sell bunny berries and Composted waste in the spring.

I clean either every day or every other. Depends on what i've fed and how many growers I have going.
 
No such thing as too much bunny goodness .... my containers are 100% rabbit waste , some composted some not. It's early May & my tomato plants are 5-7ft and each of the celebrity plants has 25ish fruit , the husky cherry's have more than I can count. Bell peppers are loaded too , 3ft plants with a dozen or so on each.

I put in 4 raised beds this year and made the mistake of buying dirt to fill them while adding about 10% rabbit waste. It 'Looks" nice but isn't nearly as productive. I should have just saved the $$ and filled each bed as waste was produced ....
 
wamplercathy":25tjfn7a said:
I said that there was no way I could over do it with the BBs, when he told me to stop using the garden as my poop pit. :p :lol:

So I'm coming to yall for advise. How much is too much for a garden.
Side info: Garden is roughly 10'x50' and we only have 3 rabbits.
Click to expand...

Time to get more rabbits- your poor underfed garden needs them!

There is no way that 3 rabbits are going to overwhelm the needs of that size plot. In fact, once your seedlings have a bit of size, I would mulch heavily around them with the bunny berries to concentrate the nutrients where they are most needed.

ladysown":25tjfn7a said:
My gardens are entirely done up from rabbit waste. ENTIRELY.
Click to expand...

Jealous!!!

We live in a hilly area with the only flat areas having been created with the use of backhoe or shovel, so we had to tier the area for our raised beds. Consequently some of them have a lot of the native (mostly decomposed granite) soil in them. I amend them constantly, but the beds that are filled with just my compost and bunny berries are much more prolific... plus the soil is a joy to work with.
 
Have to wait till the end of the month before I can breed my does. Just hope the mild weather stays around. Thought about just buying another trio :p but hubby would kill me. :lol: :lol:

Now MSD, Homer, yall wouldn't want that. Right? :? :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
:slap: :no: wouldn't want that. Just want more bunnies...

bunny_hero.jpg
 
This is my first year using rabbit fertilizer... I hope I have even half as good success!

Question though - do you worry about the chemicals used on the hay? I have heard that people have completely ruined well established garden plots with horse manure that was byproduct from hay that was sprayed with a certain chemical. It takes years for it to dissipate. I know DH's grandfather sprays something on the field that would kill tomato plants (what his cousin told me)... and he's my source for grass hay. Just curious of it's a concern or not... I was getting ready to throw some on my newly planted tomatoes and thought twice. Maybe the digestion of a horse varies enough from a rabbit that it allows for more byproduct to make it through?
 
heritage":kbjj06zv said:
Question though - do you worry about the chemicals used on the hay?
Click to expand...

I never even thought about it. I have so many volunteer tomato plants in my lettuce bed that most of them will be pulled as weeds. There must be about 500 of them. :x

So clearly, no problem with sprayed hay here... :roll:
 
Properly done, heat composting will break down any residual chemical sprays. I asked the very same question of Rodale Farms several years ago.

All my containers are filled with bunny waste topped by a compost of bunny waste and leaves, twigs, grass. The compost was vermicomposted over the summer and through the winter. lOADS of worm castings!
 
Heat composting is easy to do too you just need a big enough pile to get it going. I am not sure if we are allowed to recommend books here, so please delete if I am breaking any rules, but the book "Let it Rot!: The Gardener's Guide to Composting" is an outstanding book on learning the process and learning how to fix some of the problems that can happen during the composting process. I can't speak highly enough about using composted material over chemical fertilizers, but that is me.
 
This is the second season for our garden. Last year we used cow poo and the plot was smaller. This year we had a friend of the family use his tractor to plow it properly. :lol: Over all it seems to be mostly clay. Maybe next year will be better. On the plus side , after having my hubby read this topic he is all for allowing me to use the garden as my poo pit. :mrgreen: Since we only have 1/2 the plot planted I'm going to concentrate the BBs were they're needed.

Got all the stuff needed to make my waste collection system. Now just need to put it all together. :p :lol:
 
lidtfedtkanin":1hi6uelz said:
I am not sure if we are allowed to recommend books here, so please delete if I am breaking any rules, but the book "Let it Rot!: The Gardener's Guide to Composting" is an outstanding book on learning the process and learning how to fix some of the problems that can happen during the composting process.
Click to expand...
You are allowed. :)

In fact, now that you are an established member, you are even allowed to link to it on Amazon or something if you want. :cool:
 
About a year after sending my 30 or so chickens to stew pot heaven, I turned a load of fresh bunny berries and pine shaving litter into the sand (South Florida "soil") where the chicken run used to be. I planted okra and peanuts about 2 weeks ago. Everything sprouted within a few days. This is the happiest looking garden I've ever planted! :lol:
 
I only have 6 rabbits, so far, so I didn't have enough to be able to till the berries into the garden before I planted it. My space is about 30x14, so far, and I have just been sprinkling the poo around my plants and seedlings this year. everything seems to be doing great, except for some bean sprouting the my dog steps on from time to time.

Has anybody else fertilized like this, or would there be a better way of doing it?
 
lereg15":2y8yaqbe said:
I only have 6 rabbits, so far, so I didn't have enough to be able to till the berries into the garden before I planted it. My space is about 30x14, so far, and I have just been sprinkling the poo around my plants and seedlings this year. everything seems to be doing great, except for some bean sprouting the my dog steps on from time to time.

Has anybody else fertilized like this, or would there be a better way of doing it?
Click to expand...
Yes, you can fertilize like that, just putting the berries around the base of the plants. You can work them into the soil around the base of the plant if you want, or just do what you're doing. :)
 
I'm using pine shavings under my hutches to keep the urine smell down. A few loads turned into the soil worked great for starting a garden, but changing the shaving every other day means a whole lot of shavings. This weekend, I stretched 1/4" hardware cloth over a frame and suspended it over the shavings under 4 of my hutches. Looks like 1/4" is just right for sifting out the berries... It's working like a charm. :)
 

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