Growing bunny-safe flowers!

[BunLuvvie]

I am going to be growing bunny-safe plants in pots (our yard is clay-soil) Anyone know of a really easy flower? I like sunflowers but I don't know if they grow well in pots. Marigolds maybe? I have no clue.ink iris:

 

[crazymandolinist]

sunflowers grow great in pots.

 

[Hazel-Mom]

Marigolds, nasturtium, pineapple sage, roses (especially tea roses, the smaller kind), ornamental kale, lots of the herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, marjoram, dill, parsley, cilantro, salad burnet, chervil...), strawberries, violets, pansy, mints, Anise hyssop, maybe Lovage, and that's all I can think of right now
I bet you could find some more.

There are several recent posts about the same subject, plus i wrote a bit about it in Pipp's thread on recession proofing your bunnies.

 

[Hazel-Mom]

I did a quick Google search, and found several helpful sites on container gardening:

http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstechniques/containerindoor/container.asp
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/container/container.html
http://www.containergardeningtips.com/

and there are more
Most include lists of plants and vegetables suitable for containers, and tips on how to grow them.

You can check the suitability for bunnies against the lists in the library.
I like this one a lot, because it's very extensive: http://earthhome.tripod.com/saferab.html

 

[BunLuvvie]

Thanks!! Those guides are great!! I will look into the herbs and I love marigolds so yay!:thanks:

 

[crazymandolinist]

I wouldn't do strawbs as "bunny safe" because they contain lots of sugar and I know exactly who'll get to them first. All the other ideas are good.

 

[Hazel-Mom]

The strawberry leaves are great for bunnies. If you plant them in those "hangers", or just put the pot somewhere they can't get to the fruits, they should be fine.

 

[Leaf]

I never thought of doing sunflowers in pots... I may try that this year

 

[Hazel-Mom]

crazymandolinist wrote:

I wouldn't do strawbs as "bunny safe" because they contain lots of sugar and I know exactly who'll get to them first. All the other ideas are good.

Did you know strawberries have about half the sugar as apples, less than half as bananas, as much as carrots?

They are one of the lowest sugar content fruits. So I wouldn't say they "contain lots of sugar" at all.

 

[naturestee]

:yeahthat:

Berries such as strawberries are usually lower in sugar (and higher in fiber and vitamins) than many other fruits like apples and bananas.

Not to mention that most home-grown varieties are smaller, less sugary and with more flavor. I get maybe 2-3 strawberries a year from my few plants that the wild buns don't eat. They'll do anything to get them! My buns enjoy the leaves though.

 

[naturestee]

Also, lavender makes a pretty flower and is a tasty bunny plant. I just love picking a leaf off and carrying it around with me to smell.:biggrin2:

 

[tonyshuman]

I think the easiest thing to grow that bunnies like to eat is pet grass, like wheat, oat, or rye grass. It looks cool in a pot too. But that's about as easy as boiling water.

 

[firebird96ta]

I was thinking of this the other day when I bought some Romaine lettuce starts to grow in porch pots for Bunn. I was thinking...What about dandelions? I've read they're safe, and I know I certainly don't have a problem growing them, lol. I was thinking of digging a few and potting them, then maybe keeping the flowers picked off so they can't seed the yard any more than it already is. Wouldn't make for a very pretty pot, but do you think it would work?

 

[Hazel-Mom]

It might, but you'd need a rather deep pot, as dandelions have a "tap root" that grows straight down, and can go quite deep.
It might be easyer to start them from seeds in a pot than dig them up, because of the deep root. You can just collect the "seed puffs" and put a few seeds into your pot.

 

[Dublinperky]

My brother tried to have a contained dandelion pot once but the flowers can seed over night and they will get everywhere! If you don't mind having lots of dandelions in your yard I think it is a great idea. My bunnies love to eat dandelions.

Aly!

 

[Hazel-Mom]

Or you can let the bunnies eat the flowers before they seed

 

[Sabine]

My problem is that my bunnies love the flowers so much that nothing ever grows in our garden. They even managed to eat some rather large flowering shrubs
I am trying to find a system this year to have the flowers to enoy for a while before the bunnies devour them in minutes.
I wouldn't expect to see any strawberries if left in reach of the bunnies. The plants they could reach were completely destroyed before we could harvest any strawberries. I don't know what it is with my buns - and I do feed them, honestly:?

 

[Hazel-Mom]

Hmmm... sounds like it's time to invest in rabbit-proof fencing
If you don't want to fence in the bunnies, you'll have to fence in the plants.