Rabbits, and Opossums and Foxes, Oh My!

Surfaces bursting with potted plants line the far side of my enclosed front porch. Three wide open days lie ahead of me. Time to plant many of them, beginning with the wild ginger, the May apples, and the Virginia ragwort.

This year I also have a box full of 18’ high gate panels to build in some rabbit protection around my natives. So far I have not seen any rabbit damage to my woodland phlox or for that matter, anything else. This is puzzling given that we have oodles of rabbits in the neighborhood, but I have a couple of ideas about why they might be keeping their distance from us this Spring.

Several weeks ago, early in the morning, Molly saw a possum scurrying from the back yard towards the side of the house where our raised beds reside. A week or so later Brian saw the same activity, also very early one morning. Both were convinced that what they saw was a great big opossum. A huge monster of an opossum, in fact. 

We came to believe that perhaps she was pregnant, and no one has seen her since. But the hole leading into the crawl space is where we believe she lives and perhaps is nesting. Research suggests that an opossum eats small mammals which could include mice, perhaps chipmunks, and can be a threat to newborn bunnies as well, 

Foxes have also been sighted in the neighborhood this Spring, so perhaps we are cycling away from rabbits for now. I welcome each and every fox, including their nocturnal screams while mating, until my tender natives grow tall and tough.