The last two winters have been hard on the wildlife here with bitter cold and deep snow. The snow drifts over the shrubbery around the house make great snow caves for bunnies and squirrels. All winter I watched the rabbits jump in the holes in the mounds of snow right outside my office window.
It’s easy to dig in the snow and the bunnies built nice caves to keep toasty warm. Warm and well fed. The bushes that made the foundation for the snow drifts are great built in larders with no commute. Now we see what our bunnies ate over the winter.
Half Eaten Peppermint Spirea
Notice anything about those bushes? The circled part is chewed down to about 3 inches while the front side, where the snow was deeper, haven’t been trimmed at all.
Half Trimmed Spirea
Now I would not mind if the bunnies trimmed the bushes. These shrub boarders needed pruning last fall and they didn’t get it, but no way those rabbits deserve gardener pay!
Spirea Half Trimmed
There are all sorts of bushes they were welcome to eat, like these volunteer trees right by the house, or the messy grass in the garden or any of the weeds.
This They Could Have Eaten
But our bunnies like shrubs. Spirea are great as are yews and even these thorny bushes next to my back office.
Poor Yews and Thorn Bushes
The holly must not have been too yummy as they only nibbled on it.
Holly with a Raggedy Trim Job
They did a better trim job on the spirea out back.
Spirea Trimmed in Back Yard Too!
I’ll mark this round of Bunny Wars a draw. Sure, they ate my bushes but they didn’t kill anything and I can’t get too annoyed with rabbits who are clever enough to dig snow caves to wait out the winter!
Click to read Bunny Wars I, II, and III.
Leave a Reply