In the Garden: A Whole Lotta Rabbits, A Bush Hog, and Mr. McGregor

I wish that I had some beautiful vegetable pictures to show off, but I don't.  Instead I have this hideous photo of the recently bush hogged garden that, as Ethan said, really just shows off how much junk there was under all the weeds.
There's been a run on the garden lately by what must be an army of rabbits, judging by the quantity they have eaten, despite the netting on each row, and not to mention the 2ft high rabbit wire fence that surrounds the entire garden itself.  It's been grim, very grim.  A whole beautiful row of gorgeous cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage starts nibbled to stumps overnight.  The kale, nearly ready for the first tender harvest - stripped to stumps.  The peas - gone.

I have two words:  Onion-sauce!  Onion-sauce!

Ethan has gone through the brush of the summer garden with Mr. McGregor (the .22) and found mostly well-worn rabbit trails. The best thing, we thought, would be to bush hog the whole thing, which is what we wanted to do anyway, before seeding a rye cover crop. The rabbits don't like the open areas because there are too many owls nearby. They were almost exclusively eating the garden on the edges by the wild overgrown remains of the summer garden, with the minor exception of some very tender pakchoy starts, which must have been overwhelmingly tempting.

I was wondering, looking at a bed planted with lettuce and beets, why the seeds on one side of it seemed to be flourishing so well, while the ones on the other side had appeared to not have sprouted at all. They were eaten as soon as they had, of course!