When I left off Part 1 of the war between me and rabbits, I was planning on attaching chicken wire to the older raised beds.

The next morning, Mr. Bee and I were discussing the feasibility of fencing in the entire area (expensive and time consuming), or sticking to the chicken wire per bed for the short term solution. I was looking at the new, higher beds and realized the rabbits had indeed, gotten into the new beds.

They didn’t chow down with the same gusto as previously, instead munching on just the buds (the phlox) or only a single plant, such as the asters and a dahlia. A DAHLIA, the queen of cut-flower gardens.

Tears were shed.

Mr. Bee jumped into action. He dug into his saved future-furniture stash of boards and started adding a new row right away. There is no way the rabbits could get into these beds now!

Something was niggling at the back of my mind about this plan though. I woke up at 3 a.m. realizing once all the plants grew to full size, there wouldn’t be any air flow in the beds. That would mean fungus and other diseases and the plants would die. Yikes!

Over the next two days, I removed all the plants, added soil, and re-planted everybody. One perk is it’s easier on the back with higher beds!

Everyone seems to have survived the great transplanting! The lemon basil is still sulking but I think will come around. And look at this ranunculus making a great comeback after being eaten practically to the ground.

I still had to address the older beds, especially after a bunny climbed over the netting fence to eat a sunflower. These beds have well-established plants I can’t transplant. We remembered a roll of wire fencing from other projects (used to make the trellises for sweet peas). At 4′ high, it’s impractical to use around the beds, but we cut it in half and I zip-tied and used coaxial cable clips I found in the basement to attach the fencing. It works perfectly and I love how it’s almost invisible.

Take that, you wascally wabbits!