Growing vegetables.

[Lisa_43]

I am going to start growing some vegetables, my bunny’s favourite is chicory.

I found this website with lots of different varieties and any help picking the correct ones would be appreciated.

Other veggies I am going to plant will be parsley and mint.

Other suggestions for easy growing veggies would also be appreciated.

I have a link for you to look at, I know some of them are not chicory but the label will tell you which ones are.

 

 

http://www.theitaliangardener.com.au/category8_1.htm

[LittlePuffyTail]

I don’t know much about chicory, never tried giving it to my buns.

I grow a big vegetable garden every summer, it really saves on bunny grocery bills! I always plant a few different types of lettuce. Romaine always grows really nice. Carrots are easy too. My carrots are usually quite pitiful in size but the buns love the greens. Herbs can be a bit tricky, I had problems with them last year.I think I will start a small herb garden inside this spring (if I can figure out how to keep the cats out of it!). Happy greenthumbing!

[MimzMum]

I can’t wait to try a garden this year. Living in Alaska, we get HUGE veggies with our 24 hr daylight. Btu I have a pitifully PURPLE thumb, so I am hoping to get the hubby involved. He could make plants grow on the moon! ^^

[kimberleyanddarren]

at the minute all i grow is parsley and strawberries though i am considering growing carrots, both parsley and strawberries are easy to grow

[kimberleyanddarren]

at the minute all i grow is parsley and strawberries though i am considering growing carrots, both parsley and strawberries are easy to grow

[bunnytowne]

awe what a great idea. if we can get rid of the fireants behind the building here we could grow a garden too. I think I am going to have to rid them myself or just grow in pots. yes carrots mine loves the greens too. he hates mint        and I have beautiful mint trees yes trees or a bush rather came from caribbean. and some sage. only thing  cotton likes is romaine parsley cilantro I hate collard greens so he hasn’t tried them. he lieks spinache I have lots of frozen spinach in freezer. what could I grow that he likes. carrots for the greens on top. in a pot and the roses for the petals heheee. I love broccoli but I been afraid to give him some cuz with hubby he will give a whole lot if he sees me give something and i dont’ want for cotton to get too much and get upset tum tum if it makes me gas imagine what would do to a bun

and yes rabbit pam cotton likes to go places with me short trips. he even jumped into my arms the other day to try to get out of going to bed. I saw a mini grocery cart at a thrift store hubby pointed it out said it is cottons size I laughed I can take cotton with his little cart and me in the big cart to the groc store so he can pick out his greens himself ahaaaa. I have done that b4 by the way with the big cart and cotton in his carrier hehee. I took him to pet store to pick out his hay but he didn’t seem interested at the time in hay. of course he wanted the alfalfa. he just wanted to go hide behind the hay bags he doesnt’ seem to mind being carried as I did this when he was 8 weeks old when I got him. after his adolescence he has gotten back into the swing of things. I can pick him up if he is on top his cage or his favorite lie down spot. but off teh floor oh he grunts and bats at me. so I back off. he will come and put his tiny little front feet on me too I think he means for me to pick him up as he jumped into my arms the other nite doing that yes of course trying to avoid bed time oh he bangs his bell ball vegie holder around if he is in his cage and we are still up he gets mad. let me OUT it isnt’ bedtime YET

[kimberleyanddarren]

omg a bunny cart… i want one!

[kralspace]

Yeah! another gardening thread! I didn’t think of chicory or strawberries. This morning I sowed the packages of Dutch white clover I ordered, the parsely and some leaf lettuce. My weeping willow tree Binky bunny helped me decide on is growing like a weed! I have lots of rose bushes, but I use a insecticide feed on them because the bugs are so bad here so I guess I better not feed the buns those. But I did get a couple of marigold plants. 3 buns will attack me FOR them and the 4th, Lola will attack if I get one near her so I guess it’s a personal taste.

[kimberleyanddarren]

what do u do with the weeping willow tree? is that wood for them to chew?

[kralspace]

it’s the willow that the toys are made of, and my bunnies went crazy for the bag of leaves I bought them for Christmas. It’s like the greens I buy, I’ll still buy toys, hay and all, but it’s kinda nice to be able to walk out and grab a few fresh ones for them.

[kimberleyanddarren]

oh thats good, i hadnt considered that you could actual grow your own tree instead of buying stuff! you learn something new everyday!

[MimzMum]

Oh hey, here’s a thought that I’d like to bounce off you all…
Does anyone know how to best grow DANDELIONS? ^^ Honestly, they are my bun’s FAVORITE food in the world and, sadly, I cannot get them to grow in the house during the winter. I’d also like to grow some plantain…both of these weeds are legion in my yard during the summer, but I think Mimzy (and Pip) will enjoy having the fresh green taste during the cold months as well.

You’d think, being weeds, that they’d grow like, well, WEEDS, but I tried last year and all they did was mold up.

I also have wild yarrow and chamomile in my yard. Does anyone know if these are good for bunnies?

[Scarlet_Rose]

I second the yay another gardening thread!!!  In fact I just picked up some seeds last week!

Chicory is O.K. and is on the “approved” list, check it out here: https://binkybunny.com/Default.aspx?tabid=144 not sure if there is a specific kind, type or species that is better over another though.  Are they nutrionally the same?

Parsely is great, although I usually opt to grow my herbs in pots on the deck, saves me running out too far in the yard to harvest for my two veggie monsters (i.e. the rabbits). Be sure to use a potting soil specifically for containers as it retains moisture better and some even has gel in it that helps ration-out water and retain it in the soil, especially in the hot summer months. There is a high tendency to over-water container plants and so might be why some of you have trouble growing the plants indoors OR you are trying to take too much care of plants that like neglect, such as dandelions.

I grow carrots in the garden and the key to that is to loosen the soil, break up any hard chunks and remove rocks so the root veggie can grow bigger and they love compost, in fact the more nutrient rich the soil, the sweeter they are! Mint can overtake anything and in fact in some areas like the UK mint is planted as grass and trimmed up just like it and it makes a fragrant bed especially when tirmmed with the lawn mower.  That being said, if you do not want it taking over and sending runners out all over your yard and beyond, either grow a runnerless kind or confine it to a pot.

Oh strawberries, my favorite is the French runnerless strawberry.  The fruits are small but packed full of flavor and great on salads!

Some easier to grow veggies: lettuce isn’t too hard and I opted this year for the sweet salad mix, microgreens, carrots, parsely and zuccini. The zuccini is selfishly for me, rabbits can have it but my experience has been that 98% of them will not eat it, period. Lisa, I don’t know too much about growing veggies in Oz though, I’m one mile above sea level and while it is arid and considered a desert, I am not sure if it is more or less so compared to Australia.

I am definately heavy on the herbs when it comes to planting and have yarrow too as well as hyssop (smells like licorice and pretty flowers an drought tolerant), German chamomile – which is bunny safe, my two adore it, lavender, soapwort, french cooking thyme, oregano, basil, echinacea, sage, rosemary, and mint.  The thing to think about when you want to offer you bunnies an herb, use one that you would eat yourself and not any with complex properties and are usually used for their medicinal properties like hawthorne berry, foxglove (digitalis) and so on.  The stronger-scented herbs like oregano can upset a rabbits GI tract so it is best to only offer a little bit and use it as a treat.

I like to use this web site to look up flowers, veggies, fruits etc. and their care: http://www.botany.com/ and of course there is always the USDA: http://plants.usda.gov/ also check out your local extension service for local tips etc. on plants and care, what grows best etc.

 

[kimberleyanddarren]

i thought there was just strawberries.. and strawberries not different kinds lol

[MimzMum]

Scarlet, do you happen to have a link to the German Chamomile? I can’t find a piccy of it anywhere and I wanted to compare it to our wild.
What part of the yarrow can the bunnies eat, BTW?
We also have wild strawberries here. They have runners though, and the mower just spreads them everywhere! It’s going to be a race to see who can get to them first, me and the bunnies, or my hubby. ^^;

[Scarlet_Rose]

German Chamomile or Matricaria recutita L.

Drawing from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Chamomile

Picture:

http://www.altnature.com/gallery/chamomile.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My two are crazy about chamomile and it has a natural carmative effect too.  The yarrow I hav e not given to my two at all, and I’m not real sure about it as it is usually used medicinally and not for flavoring in cooking or in tea.

[MimzMum]

Oh dear, that doesn’t look like ours at all. Our stalks are shorter and there are no white petals on our chamomile. Guess I’m out of luck there. (I used chamomile tea for years for upset stomach and nerves, I was thinking it could do the same for the buns.)
Well, I continue to keep the yarrow from growing inside the Bun-Galow run area until I know more about it then. So far the only things I can feed naturally from our yard is the plantain, dande’s and hayseed.

I’m hoping to learn to dry the yarrow properly and use it during the winter for tea for the family. It has wonderful flu-killing properties. ^^

[osprey]

yay for bunny gardening!  I gave my crew some home grown radishes tonight.  They love the tops and the stems, these are super easy and fast to grow.  Lettuce is always good, you can just scatter the seeds and harvest them small for a nice spring mix for you and the buns.  During the summer I grow basil, oregano, mints and lemon balm for the buns.  The mints grow like crazy, the others not so much.  They are more of a treat than a meal.

For the very best info I have found about herbs, check out the Canadian company Richters. I have yet to order from them, but their site has an amazing variety of herb seeds and plants.

And remember, if you have room, compost!  The contents of your litterboxes makes great compost, which gives you a wonderful organic soil amendment, and keeps the contents from ending up in a landfill someplace.  I find the cycle of food -> bunny -> compost -> plant -> food to be theraputic somehow.

 

[BinkyBunny]

I save so much by growing Italian Parsley. Easy to grow here. I cut it, and it quickly grows back! Love it.

[Lisa_43]

I brought pasley, mint, basil and chicory. I also brought cat nip and pet grass, I brought them home and the cats went nuts, I had to take it off them before there was nothing left.

[Gravehearted]

I really miss having a bunny garden. We didn’t grow enough to feed only from the garden, but it really helped. We grew Italian parsley, dill, basil and cilantro for Niklaus. we also grew lemon cucumbers and squashes for us – we discovered that Niklaus really loved zucchini too!

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