Garden helpers.

Planting a garden for some is a way to relax and enjoy the outdoors, others it may be a supplement to fruits and veggies from the grocery store. Whether you have flowers for beauty or food for nourishment nobody wants any little invaders playing havoc on your crops.

This past weekend as my daughters and I were taking inventory on our garden plants that came back from last season, strawberries and herbs, we found a guest. As we made our way to the herb garden, right there huddled down in the tall grass by my chives was an adorable little fur ball.

The bunny was rather calm so we were able to scoop it up and have him pose for a couple of pictures. As you can imagine this overwhelming cuteness prompted the question “can we keep it?” I assured my daughters although we love animals and would care for it, having a wild rabbit in captivity is not best for the animal. I also told them that this little guy was still living at home with it’s mom and siblings and was just out for a bit of exploring. After a little more cuddling, the girls put him down and the bunny hung around for awhile as we continued our garden work.

This was a perfect time to show them how and why we put up our chicken wire fence. Moving back to the strawberries I showed them that one of the plants had been nibbled on by our little guest. My girls also had started some sunflower plants from seed and were excited that they were growing so well.

Having this investment in the garden they saw the need to keep invaders from eating the young plants. We are not master gardeners, ours is one for fun and learning, with the reward of a small crop. We have a simple chicken wire fence with a few stakes to hold it in place, still allowing access for weeding. We may look into some netting for the top so that our bird friends don’t eat our berries before we have the chance to harvest them. The sunflowers are mostly to spruce up the yard and we will gladly let the birds and squirrels feast on the seeds.

The second stage of our garden chores was to mow the grass; which I explained to my girls not only looks nice but the bunny can’t hide in short grass waiting to eat our garden. Instead of spending the whole weekend glued to the computer, TV or video games, this little garden gives my family a reason to get outside and enjoy some fresh air and quality time together. Whatever the reason for your garden, we hope that your time spent in the garden is enjoyable.