The Beautiful Flower You Might Want To Avoid If You Prefer To Keep Rabbits Away

Using a diverse collection of flowers adds elegance and beauty to your garden, but sometimes you might end up attracting a common garden pest. If you want to keep rabbits out of your garden, one beautiful flower to avoid planting is the petunia (Petunia x hybrida). Rabbits, while known to snack on vegetables, also enjoy munching on certain flowers, with petunias being a common favorite. When living in an area where visits from rabbits are common, it's best to avoid planting petunias. If you have petunias already and have seen damage from the rabbits first-hand, there are several steps for protecting your flowers.

Rabbits have a diverse diet, frequently targeting various flowers and produce. While there are lists of so-called "rabbit-proof" things to plant, the truth is nothing is off-limits if a rabbit is curious or hungry enough. When rabbits visit your yard, they leave behind droppings, nibbled plants, and tracks in their wake. They also mostly feed at night, which makes it hard to see just when a rabbit takes a bite of your blooms. Instead, you wake up in the morning only to see your beautiful petunias ravaged by their tiny teeth. If this happens to you, you can either remove the petunias altogether or, better yet, make a few changes in your garden to curb the problem.

To counteract rabbits destroying your petunias, start with physical barriers, such as buying or making a DIY fence to keep your garden safe, alongside other methods. Some homeowners use chicken wire to protect their plants, fencing off small sections with a barrier that's 2 feet high. Fencing should be buried 6 inches into the ground to avoid these furry masterminds from simply crawling under the fence. In addition to erecting fences, you can try using plants to keep rabbits away by incorporating things they are known to avoid, such as herbs like basil and oregano and flowers like geraniums and wax begonia.

Habit changes can make your garden and yard less attractive overall to rabbits. They prefer to hide under shaded spots, quickly retreating when scared or sensing nearby predators. Removing potential cover by trimming bushes and reducing yard debris makes the area more inhospitable to rabbits, so they may move to other yards. While popular, repellents can offer mixed results because some rabbits may simply ignore the foul taste and odors they offer. They also require reapplication after rain, which may be hard to keep up with. Using a combination of fencing, reducing cover, and adding plants that they don't like can all work together to help protect your petunias.