Mother’s Day has come and gone with joy and a bit of tiredness at the end of the day. It was a great sunny day here that turned to summer hot about mid day. The temperatures reached into the 80’s and our cool weather bodies had no idea how to handle the heat. (Yes, I know that 80’s may seem cool to some of you but here 80’s would be July and August temps not May.)
We had a lovely brunch and then my daughter and I took to sorting out the remains of the 200 some plants we started in my sun room. She was taking her share of the plants home to be put in the garden whenever she had a moment. I was left with my share which still over flows the hoop house.
It has been great fun growing these little seedling but now I move on to where are they really going to go in the garden. I had ideas and all of them have changed as the plants have been growing. I think my problem is I imagined the plants as full grown and flowering. At the moment they are small and weak looking little guys. I know they have potential and will grow into beautiful plants but in the state they are in now I am afraid to put them out into what feels like the wild world.
They have been protected from cold and bright sun. Now they can handle the changing temperatures and are doing well with the heat of the sun if I keep them watered (little pots dry out much quicker that the soil in the garden). Once out in the garden they have to deal with worms, bugs, mold, RABBITs, chipmunks, squirrels and birds. That is a great force of possible ways to get eaten.
Did you notice the caps for rabbits? They are my biggest concern. They eat everything it seems. I have read about so many plants that rabbits won’t eat. I plant those and the next day there is just the small remains of a plant and a few roots. The wild rabbits have been having gourmet dinning in my backyard. It is an expensive way to garden and feed rabbits. Now I have these young plants I have nurtured for months. I don’t really want to put them out to be eaten the same night.
I can put a lot of cayenne pepper around each plant or group of plants but as soon as it rains or I water I would need to repeat that process. I could fence but it is a large garden and that would be a great deal of fencing that just looks bad. Writing about it now makes me wonder if that is what I will need to do. Fence the area until these tender plant grow up to much stronger plants. Although I know last summer the rabbits eat even my big plants.
Geez – how do other gardener to this. When growing from seed how do I have big enough plants to put out in the garden? How do I handle the rabbit population? The bugs, worms and insect don’t really harm the plants unless it is an infestation and the squirrels really just dig up plants and then I replant them if I catch them before their roots dry out. But Rabbits are a different story all together.
I wonder about large commercial gardens. What are their plants for critters who like to eat everything? I suppose most of them use high tunnels that can protect the plants from animals. Darn it! No room for a high tunnel here in a home garden.
So on this note – I am off to pull the fences from the front gardens that were protecting the tulips from the rabbits and move them to the back garden to protect that new seedling. The tulips are fading and I am picking them for inside arrangements before they completely fade away. It the heat continues they will be gone by the end of the week.
I will keep you posted on the battle of the little seedling and the rabbits. We will see who wins?
At the moment the rabbits are winning with the plants that are already growing in the garden. Does any one know where I can get cayenne pepper cheaply? A trip to Trader Joes might have to fit into my day! PS Trader Joes was out of cayenne pepper – I am wondering if others are fighting the rabbits today as well.
Happy Gardening!
Words from JL 
Oh the rabbits! Hate them! My kids know if they see them in the yard to chase them out and then see how they got in so we can block the hole in our fence. In the past I spent so much money on expensive bunny food AKA perennials that I was going crazy. Eventually my husband started plugging up more of holes under the fence and that seemed to help a lot and suddenly we don’t have any problems with him eating our stuff in the backyard anymore. And for some reason they’ve never really gone after the stuff in the front here. I have no idea why. But I’m with you I don’t want to be putting repellent out that I have to keep replacing after every rain. I hope you sign a good solution.
Oh, I didn’t think about the rabbits when we planted the other day. (We is loose for my husband and my son. I supervised.) I probably could use a cover for my herbs like you have since the bunnies got a hold of my sage last year.