If you have had any contact with me in the last three years, you know that I struggle with rabbits. I have annuals hanging in baskets far out of reach of the rabbits and my vegetables growing safely behind chicken wire, but I really wanted to see some bulbs come up out of the ground unobstructed. When I found bulbs on sale for $1.00 a bag at Walmart last fall I decided to give them a try. As you can see from the above picture, it didn’t start out so well! Then I discovered how to make my own inexpensive, organic rabbit repellent.
To make the repellent fill an old milk jug with water, add 5 crushed garlic cloves, a teaspoon of crushed red peppers (you can save a packet from the pizza delivery for this) and 1 Tablespoon of dish soap. Shake well; then let it sit in the sun for a day or two to make sure the water is saturated with the flavors and smells. Shake well, then spray or pour on the plants that you don’t want the rabbits to eat.
I had to reapply once a week for a couple of weeks to convince the rabbits that my tulips were never going to taste good again. With my other bulbs I sprayed them as soon as they started to poke through the ground and then reapplied the repellent once a week and after it rains.
Tulips that have been treated with rabbit repellent. I have even had to treat flowers like marigolds and sunflowers that rabbits are not supposed to like with my homemade rabbit repellent.More Frugal Gardening Tips:
How to Make a Frugal Cloche
How to Make Raised Garden Beds
How to Extend a Short Growing Season
How to Make a Planter Out of a Tree Stump
How to Make a Mini-Greenhouse with Recycled Items
How to Make Fast and Easy Compost Pile Using Hay Bales
How to Extend Your Growing Season with a Container Garden
How to Get More from Your Square Foot Garden with Succession Planting
I will DEFINITELY be trying this! Thanks, Alea!
I also tried blood meal with some success, but it didn’t stick to the plants (that is what the dish soap is for) and it was quite expensive.
Anyone hear of using human hair clippings to keep bunnies away?
I need a suggestion to keep them from chewing the electric wires to the lights I have in the flower bed. They chewed right through them & started on the thicker cord to my water fountain, but gave up (I hope) because it's so thick.
I have the wires lifted off the ground (wound through stakes that are intended for growing tomatos,) but there has to be something better. I prefer a homemade grannual to keep them away. My sprinkler system would wash off a liquid everytime it waters.
Lynne, Sorry to say that human hair doesn’t work on rabbits here on Cape Cod.
I used hair in little pouches made from knee-highs to keep away the deer. That works beautifully especially around all my Hosta which is a “treat” for the deer”.
It seems the only thing that works on rabbits is a garlic tonic similar the the one posted.
Good Luck
Good luck
Our elderly neighbor had a beautiful garden she tended the old fashioned way, with hoes, maddox (or mattox), etc. and the area just beyond the garden was unkept – grass grown waist high. Her garden was straighter than any I’d seen plowed with more modern equipment and she had the most beautiful rose bed I’d ever seen. Older people used to know how to lessen damage to their crops naturally and she had tricks I’d never seen in my life. She had placed glass gallon jars – (like the smaller jars we use for canning), one sitting upright half full of water between rows , but I cannot remember if there was one per row. When asked what they were for, she said it scared the rabbits away from the garden area and they didn’t raid her garden with those out there. Neat. Worked for her, I’d be interested if it worked for anyone else since I can no longer tend a garden.