[kari]

Two ish weeks into allotment keeping & I feel ready to give up  already

I've worked so hard, early mornings & late nights clearing it all, preparing beds, sowing seeds & planting little plants to catch up & last night it looks like the local bunnies & pidgeons had a feast.

I protected my cabbage plants as best I could with wire mesh, but it looks like they stood on top & pulled the leaves through as lots of the little plants were on top of the soil again.

My courgettes, butternut squash & pumpkins have been in the ground for nearly two weeks, courgettes had beautiful flowers, this morning all that is left is stumpy branches, all leaves & flowers gone  Will they grow back?

Radish are nearly all gone too, the only things I have left are the onions!

I was going to prepare more beds today, but am too annoyed & will have to figure out how to make some more protection for everything before I plant anymore

I've put a long polytunnel over the remains of the pumpkins & squash for today.

Are there any veggies I can grow which have more success against pests, anything they dont like? Do raised beds offer more protection against rabbits & mice?

[Curlytop]

Hi Kari
You are not alone; I have a slug and aphids problem, it is so disheartening. So I will be watching this thread for the experts advice 

[Livinhope]

It's well known that..... 'if you don't net it you don't get it'.

I have said recently on here that we have just netted a 10' square gazebo frame (buried the legs about 10 inches to keep firm).  The net we used was fine black mesh, black seems to be less intrusive visually that green.  The separate pieces are joined with small cable ties and the 'door' wraps round and past a leg by a couple of feet.  you need to plant cabbage far enough away from the sides so that the butterflies can't lay eggs on them.  The sides are secured with milk cartons full of water.  We've had no trouble with courgettes or cucumber or anything else for that matter.  I would advise netting everything if you are having problems to avoid damage and frustration.  It can seem an expense but it pays for itself in the long run.  Good luck.

[Livinhope]

Sorry, rabbits, it's buried wire netting or a shotgun.

[kari]

Thank you both for your replies,it seems I may have to give up hope of many crops for this year & instead spend the time &  money preparing for next year.

I'm considering leveling it all & building lots more raised beds, i'm thinking that if I then put poles at the corners & cover with netting, the wood will stop the bunnies & the netting will stop the birds & butterflies?

does anyone know if there is anything I can grow which bunnies & birds hate, whilst i'm busy building?

[pairofacres]

I can understand how you feel, as rabbits are causing chaos on my plot, which is a fair size, so I'm having trouble getting fencing up fast enough to protect everything. Pigeons were also stripping every last bit of every brassica I planted. I now dread turning up at the plot to see what damage has been done. The other day, I turned up to find a rabbit had dug out most of my asparagus bed and chewed the tops off 2/3rds of the plants, which left me feeling like hiding out on the plot at dawn with my gun 

If you look on ebay, you can find 50m rolls of debris netting for around 30 quid. If you use it over either hoops of plastic water pipe, or cane supports, it should protect against bird attack. It's also far less frustrating to use than cheap mesh netting. If you weight it down well around the edges, it'll also help reduce the attention of rabbits to a degree - possibly enough to keep them off the crops if you're on site regularly enough to fill in the holes where they're trying to burrow under the netting

Courgettes and other similar crops I protect with an upright tube of wire mesh supported with canes. Peas I'm now planting in 1 x 3m blocks with a curtain of cheap nylon mesh netting wrapped around corner posts. Planting densely inside this, with strings for the peas to scramble up strung around within the posts seems to be a workable solution against the pigeons, who stripped every last bit of growth when I planted in other way.

Planting some stuff which doesn't attract the attention of vermin, so you get a crop to boost your own morale is probably a good idea too! Beetroot, chard, leeks, dwarf and runner beans are all doing well on my plot, and seem to get left well alone by the wildlife.

As livinhope says though, wire mesh really is the only decent solution if you've got a rabbit problem.

[kari]

Thank you, some great ideas there, I am going to go and protect my courgettes the way you have done, there is a huge roll of wire mesh up there & lots of canes

[Livinhope]

Is it possible to wire mesh (2" stuff) your plot all the way round, burying some beneath the surface. or at least a largish patch where you can plant the vunerable crops against rabbits, and   that way you can cover the top, with a cheap netting which will keep out the pigeons.  I would think this would work with the debris netting as well.

[fatcat1955]

Re debris netting, just remember pollinating insects such as bees need to pollinate your courgettes and other flowering crops. Unless you are going to do it all by hand. Just remember the old saying. One for the birds one for me. Rabbit fencing needs to be at least knee high with at least i foot buried.

[Livinhope]

Our plot is going to have to be fenced, not against wildlife but another plot holder who is using it as a shortcut to the tap.

[mumofstig]

Just remember the old saying. One for the birds one for me. Rabbit fencing needs to be at least knee high with at least i foot buried.

'One for the mouse, one for the crow, one to rot and one to grow' and then the pigeons or the rabbits eat it .........if you are not careful 

[kari]

I love that quote mumofstig, thats certainly how it feels tonight, I have made some very basic caned cages of chicken wire around courgettes etc or whats left of them, looks awful, but fingers crossed.

Not too confident though, little blighters seem to have discovered we have lots of tasty young veg now, we were working till 5 tonight, came home, had tea, then went back  6:30 ish, in that time something had pulled up half a row of red onions

Had a chat with a neighbouring plot holder & she said she has seen a young deer at the end of the allotments a few times this month which is where ours is, so maybe that would explain why there was such thorough destruction last night?

[pairofacres]

Is it possible to wire mesh (2" stuff) your plot all the way round, burying some beneath the surface. or at least a largish patch where you can plant the vunerable crops against rabbits,

I've just bought fencing for mine and, if Defra are to be believed, 2" mesh isn't small enough to keep rabbits out. You need to go down to 31mm or smaller mesh to keep the young ones out.

[robbodaveuk]

Rabbits don't like lead. I had four young ones that chewed my sweetcorn one night, "poor little things must be hungry" I thought, so I fed them some lead..............sweetcorn is growing nicely again now.

  Robbo.

[paintedlady]

I moan such a lot about how destructive the foxes on our site can be - putting chicken manure and bonemeal/fish, blood & bone attracts them and they dig the plants up but at least we don't have rabbits or vermin so I should be grateful and work round that problem.  Pigeons, slugs/snails & cabbage white caterpillars are still a serious nuisance so brassicas still have to be netted.