Rabbits benefit gardeners

Rabbit farming is the perfect complement to gardening. We already knew this, but we rediscovered it last year when our lion head rabbits and our garden were side by side. While the rabbit cages were being cleaned, all those beautiful and powerful pellets (also known as manure) went straight to the garden beds. As a result, we had the most prolific garden we’ve ever had.

Most people don’t realize that rabbit manure is like little magic bullets that can be placed directly in the garden. They will not burn your plants, but will provide nutrients that will enrich your soil and allow the plants to continue producing and prolong the production of your garden. Rabbit manure is even richer in nitrogen than bird manure and also contains a large amount of phosphorus which is important for flower and fruit formation. As a result, our tomato harvest last year was superior. In all my years of gardening, I have never seen a tomato plant produce so many tomatoes. When it looked like the harvest was waning, we simply added a small trowel filled with rabbit manure around the base of each tomato plant and within a few days more flowers would start to form. We were still picking ripe tomatoes after our first frost here in North Texas. (We had covered the plants with tarps to protect them).

Since rabbit manure doesn’t really need to be composted, it saves time and energy. However, we still add generous amounts of rabbit manure to our compost pile so that it gets processed into good quality compost very quickly.

Another advantage of rabbits is their therapeutic nature. They are great stress relievers, especially when you handle and brush them, and they make absolutely wonderful pets. So the dual therapy of gardening and handling rabbits should help your stress level; Unless, of course, the rabbits manage to break loose and eat your garden!

So enjoy the benefits of rabbits along with your gardening. Rabbits + garden = higher productivity and wonderful synergy.

There are also many useful e-books available if you are interested in learning more about raising rabbits. See the resource box for more information.