Safe Vines for shade.

[leenpockets]

Yes, I know that this is "Natural Feeding". Hear me out. It'll tie in!



We have two miniature English lops. They rule the backyard. But we've recently decided that it's too much to have them all over and recreated their original pen. When we brought them home, we fenced off a section of the yard. BUT it was very small fence easy for bunnies to hop over.

Well, in all the re-fencing, we've managed to contain them but there is limited shade. We have deep eaves on our house(pen butts up to the house), a card table, little red wagon, and a small dog house they can go in and out of in their pen. Hopefully I can add the pictures so you can see! We're very proud of what is accomplished, but it still needs to be improved on.


This is where I'm hoping to get some advice. The fencing would be great to hold some vine flowers or ivy. Though, I do know that Clematis, Honeysuckle, most Ivy are toxic to bunnies. So I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction? I saw that grapevine is safe, but in my research I've learned that it takes a couple years to establish. The original plan was to have the plant of whatever sort in hanging baskets but grapes need to be in at least 12" of soil. So, we're kind of stuck.


Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated!!!




P.S. If anyone has tips for uploading images in this forum, I'll take those too! I'm having a rough time getting that to happen. TIA!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Grapevines are a great choice, but do take time to grow. Other safe choices would be brambles- raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries, etc.

Until they grow, maybe you could just attach shade cloth to the wire.

P.S. If anyone has tips for uploading images in this forum, I'll take those too! I'm having a rough time getting that to happen. TIA!

Since we love pictures so much here, we have not one, but TWO tutorials! Maybe one will help you:

attachment-tutorial-t5.html

picture-tutorial-t6003.html

 

[akane]

There are climbing versions of nasturtiums. Pole beans should be safe for that purpose but I have not fed them in constant free choice amounts. Passion flower is on the edible list but never grown it. Long term fruit vines probably are the most durable but eating too much of the fruit is not healthy for them. Grapes have even killed animals and are controversial to feed in larger amounts anyway. The problem is anything edible will need protecting or it will get eaten. You could also consider nontoxic bushes or thick plantings of edible wildflowers that they can burrow in to. Some nasturtiums can grow 3-8'. It is easily my favorite edible flower for planting most any space because it makes a dense mat at whatever height or style you want. http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/a ... #gsc.tab=0 Again though you have to protect the plants until they are big enough to withstand some munching and in a confined pen you might not ever get there with annuals or plants that die back each year. It may take woody perennials that can sprout back on the old wood as a booster to growth or you may have to cast shade from plantings outside the pen. Planting thickly on multiple sides of an area with something tall and bushy (can I mention nasturtiums again) can really cool the area in between down a lot.

 

[squidpop]

I love nasturtiums, and I feed it to my rabbits all the time. Another one to look into is Star Jasmine, it has to be star jasmine and not other kinds of jasmine because they can be poisonous.
Blackberry, might be one of the best choices though because its is such a good safe food to feed and they can never have too much of it.

 

[PSFAngoras]

To ad to Akane's thought about passionflower, you can grow certain varieties in the southern states, and a more hardy version in the more mid latitude states, but it is a sedative and could make your rabbits sleepy when they eat it (I haven't heard whether it had been used in rabbits or not, so to hear that it's on the safe list is nice.) it does tend to die back to the roots every year and re-grow from runners off the roots (at least here in CO) so it won't stay where you put it very long before it starts rambling.

I wonder if hardy kiwi would be toxic or not?

 

[Dood]

Many climbing veggies should be suitable and that way in the winter when you want the sun to warm them the shade plants will be gone

Pole beans and peas can be started very early in the season and will quickly grow to give shade

Cucumbers, squash and sweet potato will take longer but will offer dense cover in the late summer as the peas and beans start to suffer from the heat and may even die back

 

[Marinea]

Another vote here for brambles- blackberry or possibly wild roses- not only for their value as food, but for possible protection from predators.

 

[alforddm]

Oh roses would be a lovely shade and you can get varieties that grow almost anywhere.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I would suggest either using a trellis or a double fence space 4"-6" apart and planting your choice on the outside fence. That way the rabbits will be able to "trim" only overgrowth and not the main structure of the plant itself.

 

[wamplercathy]

Many climbing veggies should be suitable and that way in the winter when you want the sun to warm them the shade plants will be gone

Pole beans and peas can be started very early in the season and will quickly grow to give shade

Cucumbers, squash and sweet potato will take longer but will offer dense cover in the late summer as the peas and beans start to suffer from the heat and may even die back

:yeahthat: You took the words right out of mouth. :lol: We used to use cucumber to shade our back porch.

 

[the reluctant farmer]

All the suggestions are great. I'd add in blueberry plants. They can be grown in large pots if your soil is too shallow for planting right now. They are acid-loving plants, but I handle that by dumping used coffee grounds on them as mulch, dumping whatever is left in the coffee pot on them from time to time, and in winter chopping up our christmas tree and mulching my blueberries with it.

I have passionflower ("maypops" in the south). Mine are the wildflower Passiflora incarnata. They grow vigorously and re-seed. The buns have been rather meh about eating them in the past but they are edible (and you can make jelly from the fruit, plus the blossoms are very attractive to fritillary species butterflies. Their larva will eat the leaves heavily, but if you have kids they get to watch them coccoon and hatch.) My buns, who are at this point on a pelletless diet, will eat bean leaves in mass amounts if given the choice, so if they are in reach they won't have a chance to grow around here. But.cucurbits-cucumbers, squash, zuchini, pumpkin--are edible but not beloved.by the buns at my place, so they'd stand a chance of growing big enough to provide shade.

Some folks I know who are market farmers have used bags of potting soil to grow in when they were expanding their garden beds. They literally took a decent sized bag of potting soil, put the plant in the top, poked holes in the bottom for drainage, and let it grow. After the growing season they dumped the soil in their new beds. If the dirt by your pen isn't suitable for growing right now, or you don't have time to make s small raised bed, this is another quick fix to get you by.

 

[PSFAngoras]

Thanks reluctant! I couldn't remember which passionflower of the two common ones did better in the south, so that means that P. edulis is the kind we can get to grow here. But again, not nearly prolific as they are in the southern states since we have the winter die back.

 

[Honey]

You could grow some squash or pumpkins. They grow fast, are safe, feed bunnies and people. And, they're a great natural wormer! You can toss in the leaves as they grow and save the fruits for you or feeding the bunnies in the winter depending if they're a winter or summer squash. Tomatoes, cucumbers, bean and peas would also be nice.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Tomatoes, cucumbers, bean and peas would also be nice.

Tomato plants are said to be toxic- although I have had goats, chickens, AND rabbits eat some of our tomato plants with no ill effects. :angry:

Planting tomatoes outside of the reach of the buns is a great idea, though, since the plants get so tall.

 

[leenpockets]

Thank you all so much for your input! these are all very helpful suggestions. I forgot to add we're definitely using some sort of shade cloth. Oops. We still have to do a little searching because we want it to be in the hanging basket and grow down, and our garden is already getting the foodstuffs for the most part. Though, we do have a ton of raspberries growing. I could easily transplant some and do the double fence suggested until they're established. And still do something that vines across the top for looks. Hmmmmm. We're very excited and I'm thankful for all the advice!


Does anyone know if Hops are safe? Living in central Oregon, I know they'll grow well. And you can train them up go where you want. But I'd hate for some to drop in their pen.