Rabbit gardening

[skysthelimit]

MSD's "Sistah" is also getting seeds.

<Sniff!> What about MSD? I need weeds too!

Queenpup found another dandelion head gone to seed today, so now we have THREE! We are supposed to get snow again this coming weekend, so no planting for me yet. The Farmers Almanac says no gardening for me until May. <Whimper!> I am going to plant lettuce and spinach anyway.

Sky, it sounds like your dogs are pretty obedient (from your recent story of one of the dogs having a kit and dropping it on command), so why not do a little boundary training with them? In the spring when plants are just emerging, I use those little scalloped wire fences that are only about 14" high to "remind" the dogs that certain areas are off limits. Once the plants are taller I take the fences down, and the dogs are allowed to go into certain gardens to lay in the shade, but they can't play in there. In some gardens I have stepping stone paths, and they can run through there on the paths only. Once they are trained, the off limits areas actually give them better exercise because they have to twist and turn going around the beds as they chase each other.

I like that. I will get some of those. The yard has been "theirs" for so long, I never thought about telling them no.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

Yay! So excited to get seeds! I will share with you Sistah!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

The yard has been "theirs" for so long, I never thought about telling them no.

Well, I'm glad I reminded you that the yard is "yours"!

Yay! So excited to get seeds! I will share with you Sistah!

Oooh, thank you OAF! You are such a "giver"! I don't have seeds for Bunny-weeds specifically, but I have seeds of plants that appeal to rabbits and people to swap!

 

[skysthelimit]

So I've spotted some dandelions, but I'm still going to order some seeds, and clover seeds. The first raised bed is built, I gotta find soil to fill it. Going to put netting around it this evening to keep the dogs from peeing in it. The spinach package says plant March-June, but I'm not sure I trust this weather yet. Guess I'll just have to watch and see. The collards are up, growing like weeds, i suspect they never really died. Buns are getting small pieces of them.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Sky, since I never seem to have enough finished compost to go around, I have gotten pretty creative. I have made mounds by raking up dry wild grasses and leaves, and then digging "pockets" and filling those with a bit of soil/compost, and planting directly into those. We had the sweetest watermelons one year from one of those piles! (I know the dogs have killed your lawn, so this doesn't apply to you- but this might not work if you have a lot of green grass clippings or really high nitrogen ingredients in your freshly built piles, as they may get too hot.)

Why not make layers of bunny poo/waste hay, dry leaves, etc. and top with some soil, or mix it in? I have been successful doing that in the past in my raised beds, and never had issues with the bed being too "hot", but other than manure I don't have a lot of high nitrogen ingredients. I top off with more compost through the season if I have it. At the end of your growing season, the surface level of your bed will have sunk way down since everything will have composted, but you just add more vegetable matter, compost, soil, or whatever.

 

[skysthelimit]

would you believe it if I said I have no tree leaves? Only two of the original trees are left on the property, and they were so small, what leaves there were pretty much blew away.

How about straw. The raised bed is about 10 inches tall, and there's about 2 inches of bunny berries. Can I just layer it with straw and bunny berries? I know I can grow potatoes in straw, will it work for others.

 

[ladysown]

you can dig the bunny berries and straw into your raised bed and it will do really well.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Straw will work, but it will take a really long time to break down if you leave it whole. It would be best chopped into short pieces. You can either run it through a chipper shredder or run it over with a lawn mower (preferably one with a bag to catch the clippings).

You could also talk to the gardeners at your school (or local parks) and see if they will let you have bags of leaves or grass clippings to add to the mix- the more variety you have in your pile, the better. I would ask what types of fertilizers or pesticides are used, but with all the budget cuts I doubt they are used routinely any more. Also, many communities now have a "yard waste" recycling program and offer free or low cost compost. If you are anywhere near an agricultural area or properties zoned for large livestock such as horses, you can probably find someone who would LOVE to get rid of piles of aged manure.

 

[skysthelimit]

Straw will work, but it will take a really long time to break down if you leave it whole. It would be best chopped into short pieces. You can either run it through a chipper shredder or run it over with a lawn mower (preferably one with a bag to catch the clippings).

You could also talk to the gardeners at your school (or local parks) and see if they will let you have bags of leaves or grass clippings to add to the mix- the more variety you have in your pile, the better. I would ask what types of fertilizers or pesticides are used, but with all the budget cuts I doubt they are used routinely any more. Also, many communities now have a "yard waste" recycling program and offer free or low cost compost. If you are anywhere near an agricultural area or properties zoned for large livestock such as horses, you can probably find someone who would LOVE to get rid of piles of aged manure.

Ok, so scratch the straw idea. I'll just buy top soil from Home Depot.
I'm claiming city slicker status as my excuse. All of the normal things that it seems most people here have, I don't
I don't have a chipper or a lawn mower with a bag, and the school does not have a yard. I am 15 minutes from downtown, basically anything that can be concreted is. It's very odd that I even have a yard, most of my neighbors yards are 20x30 plots. I checked the city of Cleveland website; Cleveland does not recycle yard waste (they do not recycle anything), nor offer lawn cuttings from public parks to residents (who can verify what people dumped in those parks with are generally filled with glass, and trash.) Neighboring suburbs do collect and recycle leaves, but they sell the leaves to companies that make compost, they do not give it out for free.
I am 45 minutes away by highway from anything zoned agricultural, which is why I often frustrated. I can't find straw, hay, grains, unless I am driving 30 or more minutes to get anything rabbit or chicken related, including the rabbits and chickens themselves.

Don't need any more manure, or anything that smells. I just don't feel ready yet to plant directly into bunny berries, and I want some soil or something else to fill it up tot he top. Can I use shredded paper? I have plenty of that.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Yes, shredded paper works too. As for driving 30 minutes to get Ag. type stuff, that doesn't sound too bad to me. We have to drive an hour to get "city stuff" i.e. groceries, etc. However, you probably don't have a truck so it wouldn't be as cost effective for you to make the drive since you couldn't buy large quantities. We have an F250 and a Ford Expedition, plus an enclosed trailer for when we really load up. We usually only go to town every 3 weeks or so, except when we are taking our classes on Sundays.

If you buy soil in bags, you can also plant directly into them- just poke some drainage holes in the bottom, cut slits where you want the plants, and voila! Instant planter bed! If you have a picnic table, you could cover the table top and benches with the bags and have a "raised garden" that the dogs can't stomp on. You can store them for use next year, or add the soil to your raised beds at the end of the season.

I just read an article in the Farmer's Almanac about using styrofoam coolers as planter boxes- they reflect heat, and have lots of space for the roots at the base of the box as opposed to traditional pots that have more area at the top where most plants don't need it, and narrowing at the bottom where they do.

 

[Miss M]

Hey, I've got a whole different take on rabbit gardening! :twisted:

We had just built the raised garden, when we needed to remove the rabbits from the rabbitry for a day so the termite man could treat behind it.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Nice crop!

 

[skysthelimit]

I find most of the time mail order is cheaper than driving the actual highway distance. I have a mini van, which I am desperately trying to keep clean, because it's the vehicle that I drive to work and everywhere else. If it smells like dog, so so I.

30 minutes by highway is a long time in the car for me, since I'm within minutes of most things I need. I have walked to Walmart, it's less than 5 miles away. The 45 minutes it takes for me to get to herding lessons is like an eternity. Spoiled a bit.

I like the soil bag idea.<br /><br />__________ Mon Mar 19, 2012 12:15 pm __________<br /><br />That is a wonderful raised garden!

 

[hoodat]

I highly recommend red clover in a rabbit greens garden. You can get an awful lot of greens off a small patch and in season it recovers from a cutting in no time. I found a strain of giant dandelion last year and I can send you some seed when I get over my heart operation. Remind me by PM in a month or so if you want some.

 

[AnnClaire]

As for "finding" free soil, if you can make a cage from wire ... anything used, needing a new purpose works fine ... then line it with newspapers, then dump all the bunny cleanings in there ... in an out of the way corner of the yard works best. This way, you can compost your bunny cleanings/hay/straw/etc. in a way that will keep the odor down and produce the best compost for your garden next year. You can also add shredded paper and kitchen scraps (no meat, cheese, or oil please ) which will help reduce your 'trash' footprint. In the city, you might want to keep a small hand trowel near the compost so you can bury the scraps to keep the varmints from dining at your place :lol:

Also, any neighbors who repot their houseplants might donate the used soil to your compost pile ... it will add vermiculite and sphagnum moss (or coco coir) which will help retain moisture.

 

[hoodat]

If you build a compost heap like that (with a lot of bunny berries) the worms will find it and it will break down in no time with little or no odor.

 

[AnnClaire]

Oh, yeah, another great addition to compost piles is coffee grounds ... if you have a local starbucks, many times, they will park their coffee grounds outside the back door for folks to take ... some ask that you provide a bucket for them to fill up ... just talk to the manager. In a small pile like yours, you would probably only want to add coffee grounds once every couple of weeks or so. Another man I know has a deal with a local grocery store to pick up their produce throw-away and that makes an amazing amount of compost for him!

If you cannot find other organic matter, fresh produce will still make a great compost for you city slickers :lol: Maybe there is a flower shop nearby that has a lot of leaves and spent flowers they toss? I would think one of those plastic totes from the big box stores would fit in the back of your minivan and keep vegetable matter from making too much of a mess, and simply adding a full tote of organic matter each week will produce amazing results in a short time

 

[skysthelimit]

I have lots of shredded paper, and coffee grounds are easy to find, I brew enough coffee at work to take care of that. Going home to find out what I can use as a bin. Great advice everyone, finding a way to keep the smell down is most important. Because my backyard opens onto another street, putting a compost heap at the end of the yard meant people could smell it as they walked by, and any closer would mean it would be too close to the house. I am boxing up the shredded paper now. i have a bag of frozen stir fry veggies that have been in the freezer since September, I'll put those in there. What little kitchen scraps I eat where going to the chickens, but now they are going, so I'll have some place for them.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Usually compost heaps don't stink unless they are too wet or the balance of carbon to nitrogen is way off- for example if it is mostly grass clippings with little or no brown leaves/sawdust/etc. If you have a fireplace, ashes are said to reduce odor and are beneficial to the compost/soil also.

 

[skysthelimit]

Usually compost heaps don't stink unless they are too wet or the balance of carbon to nitrogen is way off- for example if it is mostly grass clippings with little or no brown leaves/sawdust/etc. If you have a fireplace, ashes are said to reduce odor and are beneficial to the compost/soil also.

hehe, what's a fireplace? Never had one of those in an actual house I've lived in, except in college.
The bunny berries stink, and I can smell them 75 feet away went I dump them into the yard.