Posted on by Heather

Ten out of our eleven pastured bunnies escaped and ate all the plants Josh bought for me for Mother’s Day. So yesterday I repurchased all my Mother’s Day gifts and replanted them. Two Juliet tomatoes, habanero, and thai chili–but I didn’t replace the snapdragons because I don’t want snapdragons in my garden. I also didn’t replace the leeks because they will grow back. The peppers might grow back too. I also need to replant some greens that the bunnies ate.

Grant, Isaac and I put 2 inch poultry netting on the bottom of the rabbit tractor so they won’t escape, but they’ll still have access to fresh grass.

I also planted 8 Italian Paste tomato plants, another habanero + thai chili for Josh, along with a spicy basil and 6 nasturtiums.

Today I am soaking beans for 12-24 hours before I plant them. I also dug up the horseradish and comfrey and moved them out to the exterior of the pasture.

Today I’ll dig up the ditch in front of our house and plant some wildflower seeds. Mostly sunflowers and millet. Maybe a few other seeds, too.

Posted on by Josh

In the stories of Peter Rabbit, as of today I ally myself with Mr. McGregor.

The bunnies are escaping on a daily basis. They mowed down all of the leeks, tatsoi, peppers, tomatoes, snapdragons, a few garlics, and all of my lettuce. I’m not a happy gardener.

Posted on by Heather

About a month or so ago, Grant and I built two “rabbit tractors”. These rabbit tractors are large, bottomless cages that we can move around the yard. It’s a way for us to feed our baby bunnies with almost zero feed costs.

We came up with the plan to pasture our bunnies when our first grow outs were burning through 5-6 cups of pellets while in their cages. Btw, “grow outs” are bunnies that have been separated from their mum at 6 weeks, and are destined for freezer camp as soon as they hit 5 lbs.

Although moving the rabbit tractors to fresh (poopless) grass every few hours is labor intensive, it really is the best farm chore. Every time I go out to move the tractors, it’s 100 percent cuteness overload. Bunnies are naturally curious, so as soon as they hear me they come right up to the cage door to see what’s going on. They love fresh food, so whenever I bring something out like a pineapple top or shabby ol’ celery leaves, they devour it gratefully. Bunnies are in the same category of gentleness as sheep. Super sweet, super soft, and super affectionate. Truly a very adorable animal! (Unless you decide to try to pick it up–then it will eviscerate you with its razor sharp, deceptively strong hind legs. Seriously, don’t try it.)

Another benefit to having our bunnies in a rabbit tractor is that our grass is getting fertilized with nature’s best fertilizer! Rabbit pellets are considered a cold manure–meaning that it can be put straight on plants without having to compost it.

Posted on by Josh

Heather brought home another rabbit today, so we have one buck and two does. This one might be pregnant.

We planted the rest of the garden today:

  • Row 1: transplanted two tomato plants
  • Row 2: seeded bush beans
  • Row 3: transplanted 2 tomato plants
  • Row 4: seeded corn, transplanted delicata squash, two watermelon plants, and pickling cucumbers

Grant transplanted a bunch of chives along the north wall of the carport.

Posted on by Josh

Heather’s next adventure: raising rabbits for meat. She picked up two New Zealand rabbits today. They’re about two months old. They can start breeding in June or July.