Oh boy. I guess what happened to our dwarf apple tree could be partly our fault. It is a 6 yr. old tree that up to now had not given us very many apples. But I knew that one of these years it was going to surprise us. Well not anymore. Above the protective wrap the rabbits chewed all the bark off the tree all the way around a good 6 inch high. They have never bothered it until this year. I think the snow cover may have helped them reach that part of the tree. I am not sure if we want to graft some of the upper branch's on to the 16 inch stump that will be left when we cut it off just below where the chewed area is. I had complained about mowing the lawn under the tree because some of the branch's were pretty low hanging. So if we were to graft some of the upper branch's onto the stump the branch's would really be low hanging. Oh boy. Maybe we will just cut it down, and plant a different apple tree further up on the hill with the other fruit trees. I would love a Snow apple, or an early Yellow Transparent. But it is still sad that the rabbits caused it's demise. :-|
The rabbits played havoc in my yard this winter too. They killed one young apple tree, and wounded another. They also 'trimmed' a Forsythia, Wegelia, and the Burning Bush beside my porch. They actually chewed the lower branches off and then started the higher branches by sitting on my porch!! The nerve!
That's very sad! I have problems with squirrels, but they aren't as destructive as rabbits, more disruptive than anything. I'd love to hear if you are able to nurse it back to health or if it's too late for this sad tree.
Oh my Tooty! How disheartening. You could try grafting it onto the stump, but if you want it moved to where the other trees are, now is really the best excuse to pull it and start over. It is such a waste, though!
Patti, I have a 'too little, too late' solution to your rabbit problem.... My cure is too late to save the plants they destroyed this last winter but it will protect future crops.. Rabbit, fried Rabbit, BBQ'd Rabbit, stewed Rabbit Gumbo Rabbit Sausage and there are many other recipes, those are just a few of my favorites.. Hank
You guys are funny. I love wabbit. I have to buy farm raised stuff but sometimes my friend brings me some wild stuff.
I'm so sorry for your tree. The roe deer do a lot of damage around here, but thankfully not in our garden.
Netty boy those little buggers sure do have a lot of nerve and do cause so much damage. To bad about your fruit tress also. They also chewed off our burning bush and wegilia. :-x Codefly I believe it would be impossible to nurse that apple tree back as the wound is to extensive. If the rabbits would have only chewed on one side of the tree bark. But they peeled it off all the way around the tree so the tree will die. Carolyn yes that is so true. I guess we will go with the pull it out and start over idea. Henry, that sounds like the perfect way to get rid of those pesky wabbits. We also love oven roasted rabbit. But I will have to look into making it with some of your other suggestions. Not sure if I could do in a live rabbit. Barb, like you we get ours from friends that raise them for meat. They have them already butchered, cleaned, cut-up and frozen. Yummy! Like I said, we are to squeamish to butcher one ourselves. FBG- Now that sounds like quite the delicious recipe. I can just imagine how that would look. I will have to check out that recipe also. Droopy thank you. We also have deer that also do a lot of damage in our yard. They have eaten the ends of our red twig dog wood bushes off and the rose bushes. At least those will grow back. But they have also eaten all of the bottom foliage off of our cedar trees up as high as they could reach. We had put wire fence around some of our smaller cedar trees to protect them. But with the snow being so deep this year. The deer just walked on top and ate the tops of the trees off. So now we have some really weird looking cedar trees. Just skeleton branch's at the top and full foliage at the bottom. One of our neighbors down the road puts electric fence around his cedars in the winter. During the summer they don't bother anything in the yard. Oh well, that's life in the country. I love it.
