Garden Bunny

He is fluffy, destroyer of gardens. But he's so cute!!!

Looked it up and I'm pretty sure he's an eastern cottontail. I don't know for sure but if he is then he's still a baby. Maybe a month old if that. He's able to hop around the area and likes to chew bits of vegetation.  I put more cover over the area made of weeds and already dead plants that were there anyway.  Want to make sure they are safe from predators.  We have several large hunting birds in the area and the brush deters them.  The bunnies have dug through the cloth planters as you can see on the bottom of the image.  So much destruction.  The green onions though seem to be safe from chewing though.  There is plenty of mint growing so there is a good bit for them to eat.  I've let many plants grow in the back and it's perfect for a nibbling little family.

This isn't the first time we've had rabbits hanging out where we live though.  In the previous apartment we were at there was a family living in the large table cloth we used to cover the outside plants on the patio.  We were on the bottom floor so the bunnies thought it was left just for them.  It was warm and covered and there were fresh plants growing just for them to nibble.  We didn't even know they were there until it started warming up and we moved the cloth.  Mom and three babies hopped out. One of the babies even coming inside for a second.  We shooed it out to mom where she waited and appreciatively hopped away with her children once they were all accounted for.

What unexpected residents have you had in your garden?

Cactus Fruit

We recently got a cactus fruit (tuna) from a Too Good To Go bag. It was really seedy, even more so than I would have thought. The flavor was good though. This is where you would naturally get these fruits. You probably don't want to stick your hand in there to get them though.  The pads are thorny but the fruit is also. They have to de-burr them to make them edible.  

We once wild harvested some of these to make cactus fruit jelly. Probably could have done a preserver or jam but the jelly was what we had in mind and stuck to it.  It came out really nice but was a lot of work and I had stickers in my hands for months. If we do that again I will have to figure out how to get them and properly remove all of the bits to make it safe.

At the local Fiesta Mart they process the pads too and make strips out of them to add to dishes or pickle. I imagine that is even harder. We ended up discarding most of the tuna because there were so many seeds.  I kept some of course because I grow things. If there's ever been anything more consistent it is that I grow things. It doesn't matter if they are supposed to be grown sometimes.  Bamboo in pots though, I'm not trying to ruin the world with the stuff.

We just finished a podcast episode on In this episode talking about how gardening can be stress-reducing, and how it can inspire creativity. My wife doesn't feel quite the same way about gardening since it's hard to see an end. I find the harvest the occasional end to parts of the garden. Some parts may not really have an end but rather a new chapter.