Select Page

Report From PIA – July 21

Today I played hide-and-seek with a rabbit. I was in my kitchen, freezing beans from the garden, when I saw him or her scoot across the patio and into my mixed border. Naturally, I grabbed my camera…if this little bunny was going to be eating my plants, the least it could do is pose for a photo op.

As you can see by the picture below, the little guy/gal wasn’t too cooperative. I’d catch a glimpse of him/her behind the birdbath or skittering across the lawn, but it was never still enough for me to take a picture.

If I start seeing large numbers of my plants being mowed down, you can be sure that I won’t settle for a photo-op game of hide-and-seek. I’ll get out the Liquid Fence, or install the ScareCrow and drive this little one out of the garden. Until then I’m willing to share a few of my plants with Thumper.

When I spoke to members of the Orenda Wildlife Land Trust last night about Gardening for the Birds, Bees & Butterflies, one of the things I emphasized is that we need to keep in mind that there is an acceptable level of damage. We’ll always see leaves that were munched by critters and bugs. There will be some leaf-spot fungi, failure to thrive and unexplained plant death.

In every garden and every life there will certainly be destruction and failure. We should take this as a given.

Forget the messages that we get from advertisers, movies and television that show seemingly perfect people with supposedly faultless lives. They too have holes in their foliage, and their life’s gardens include dead and damaged plants surely as ours do. The key for all of us is to embrace the whole experience.

I’ve got my camera in hand, now where is that rabbit…

I'm loving this Redhead Coleus, sent to me by the folks at Simply Beautiful plants. Although Thumper went into this bed, he/she didn't eat the coleus or the Clethra behind it. So far, bunny and I are in harmony...

Don`t copy text!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This