Keeping rabbits and deer from eating your native garden in Omaha

In most Omaha neighborhoods, the animal that does the most damage to a new garden is not a deer. It is the cottontail rabbit that lives under the neighbor's deck. Rabbits are especially hard on new plantings in spring, when tender young growth is the most appetizing thing around. In yards near wooded areas, parks and creeks — on the edges of the metro, along the river bluffs and near larger green spaces — deer join in, particularly in late fall and winter.

No plant is completely safe from a hungry animal. But some native plants are much less appealing to them than others, and a few simple habits protect a garden through its most vulnerable first season.

Understanding the pattern

Rabbits and deer browse differently, and the protection that works for one does not always work for the other.

Protect the first season; plant the right mix for every season after.

Native plants rabbits and deer tend to avoid

Animals tend to pass over plants that are aromatic, fuzzy, bitter, very fibrous or milky-sapped. "Tend to avoid" is important: a young plant in an April with little else to eat may still get nibbled. Established plants of the following kinds are usually left alone.

Plants that often need protection

These are wonderful garden plants, but rabbits in particular often go after them — especially when young:

• Asters (aromatic aster, smooth blue aster, New England aster)
• Purple coneflower, especially in spring
• Blazing stars (Liatris)
• Purple prairie clover and other legumes
• Young shrubs, whose bark rabbits chew in winter

I would not avoid these plants; I would protect them while they establish and mix them with the less palatable plants above.

Protecting new plantings

The first few weeks after planting are when losses happen. A rabbit can clip a newly planted plug to the ground overnight. These approaches work well together:

1. 1

   At planting

   Put a small wire cage over each favored plant, pinned to the ground.

2. 2

   First season

   Leave cages on until plants are well rooted and bushy, usually by midsummer.

3. 3

   Fall

   Wrap the trunks of young shrubs and trees with hardware cloth for winter.

4. 4

   Next spring

   Re-cage asters and other favorites until they are about a foot tall.

Making simple plant cages

Chicken wire or hardware cloth works well. Cut a piece about two feet long, form it into a cylinder roughly a foot across, and pin it to the soil with landscape staples. They are inexpensive, last several seasons and nearly disappear visually once plants grow through them.

Repellents: useful, with limits

Spray repellents based on scent or taste can reduce browsing, particularly on a few prized plants. They need reapplying after rain and as new growth appears, and animals sometimes get used to one product, so rotating between types helps. I think of repellents as a supplement to plant choice and cages, not a replacement.

Designing for browse pressure

If you know your yard has heavy rabbit or deer traffic, a few design choices reduce the problem:

1. Lead with resistant plants along the edges. Mints, milkweeds and grasses on the outside of a bed shield more palatable plants inside.
2. Plant in larger groups. A group of seven coneflowers can absorb a little browsing; a single one cannot.
3. Use bigger plants for favorites. A larger potted aster survives nibbling better than a tiny plug.
4. Don't create rabbit cover. Brush piles and dense low shrubs right next to the bed give rabbits a place to hide.
5. Accept a little damage. Native plants often recover from browsing by branching and blooming a little later.

A protection calendar for Omaha yards

Browsing pressure changes through the year. Knowing when each kind of damage tends to happen lets you put protection in place before it starts rather than after.

What to do after damage

Finding a favorite plant chewed to the ground is discouraging, but it is rarely the end. Most established native perennials have deep root systems with plenty of stored energy, and they regrow from the base. In my experience, a plant clipped in early spring often comes back bushier, with more stems, and blooms a little later than usual.

1. Don't dig it up. Give it a few weeks; most perennials resprout.
2. Cage it now. A second round of browsing is what really sets a young plant back.
3. Water if it's dry. Regrowth takes energy; a deep soak helps in a dry spell.
4. Look at the pattern. If the same corner gets hit every year, that's where a short fence or a border of less-palatable plants will pay off.

Shrubs need winter attention

Rabbits do some of their most serious damage in winter, when snow covers other food and they turn to the bark of young shrubs and trees. A ring of chewed bark all the way around a stem can kill it above that point. Wrapping trunks with a loose cylinder of hardware cloth in late fall, taller than the expected snow depth, prevents this. Native shrubs like New Jersey tea, chokeberry and young serviceberries are especially worth protecting for their first few winters.

Living with wildlife

A native garden invites wildlife on purpose — birds, bees, butterflies — and a certain amount of nibbling comes with that. The goal isn't a garden no animal ever touches; it's a garden that can absorb some browsing and still look good. Planting in generous groups, mixing in plants animals avoid, and protecting the vulnerable first season gets most Omaha gardens there.

Designing a bed that tolerates browsing

The most reliable approach I've found is to design with browsing in mind from the start. Put the plants animals rarely bother — aromatic ones like mountain mint, anise hyssop and bee balm, and grasses like little bluestem — along the outside edges and paths, where rabbits tend to feed first. Tuck the more palatable plants, such as asters, coneflowers and young shrubs, toward the middle, where they are less exposed. Plant in groups rather than single specimens, so that a few nibbled stems don't leave a visible hole in the bed. Over time, a dense, layered planting with few open patches of bare soil gives rabbits less cover and makes the whole garden more resilient.

It also helps to keep notes. Jot down which plants were nibbled, when, and how they recovered. After a season or two you'll have a clear picture of what the animals in your particular yard prefer, which is more useful than any general list, because browsing habits vary a lot from one neighborhood to the next.

A browse-resistant checklist

• Note which animals visit and when (tracks, droppings, clipped stems)
• Cage asters, coneflowers and blazing stars at planting time
• Put aromatic and milky-sapped plants on the outside edges
• Wrap young shrub trunks before the first snow
• Reapply repellents after rain if you use them
• Remove cages once plants are established, so they don't get grown into

Browse pressure is one of the main reasons I recommend starting with a small, well-protected bed — see my first-season front lawn plan. And for shaded side yards, where sedges and ferns do most of the work, the small-yard pollinator guide includes a part-shade plant list.