My own guess is that you'd end up with more bunnies and they'd eat anything they felt like. Have you tried some of the spray on repellents on the market like Liquid Fence?

I'm new to gardening this year and I hadn't heard of Liquid Fence. I'll look for it. Thanks. Once my garden is big enough I may not mind if the bunnies munch here and there, but when I only have a few blooms I hate to see them disappear...and find shreds of them on the ground. OH! Those fuzz balls! :)
Thanks for the recommendation!
Heather

There are a few different things you can do, not to minimize their eating but to minimize the perceived damage they cause:

Allow a small patch of grass to go to seed. They will eat the seedheads and ignore other stuff (they'll also like the cover it provides).

Don't herbicide the "broad-leafed weeds" in your lawn. Those are also known as violets and clover, many creatures' favorite foods.

Have so many plants, so crowded together, that the damage they do becomes unobtrusive. When I had just a few shrubs it seemed like the rabbits were always devouring everything. Now I sort of notice some rabbit damage in early spring, but it's no big deal.

Hawks and foxes are the real long-term solution. We had a big hawk in the next yard for much of the winter, and I'm happy to say that the rabbit population is greatly diminished this year.

And just remember that it's the nature of wildlife to eat plants. That's what a wildlife friendly garden is all about.

Rabits love clover. Plant as much as you can to keep them happy.

The cottontails in our yard savor the wide-blade grasses, large clover patches, dandelion greens. They've left most all of our plantings alone (save for whichever not-caught-on-tape critter chewed the cheap cotoneasters put in last fall - as wildlife-friendly berry bushes). Then again, I ain't goin' for any prizes w/my blooms! As for the neighbor's vegetable garden, she's got it screen protected too, but usually the 2-3 cottontails are seen munching the clover just on the other side of her large arborvitae. When the Tru-Green truck rolls around, I hope to heavens the dude and his hose ain't gonna overspray, or the breeze won't blow chemicals in our yard.

Good vibes on the extra, dense plantings of non-toxic items and grasses rabbits can nibble to survive. You certainly can plant a rabbit-friendly patch and devote a special area! They do a fab job of eating plentiful cheap weeds or searching for some delectable greens.

(I adore living with the rabbits because we're soulsisters when it comes to herbivore diet/s. After 40 yrs. of eating hamburgers, the book STORIES RABBITS TELL made me a no-red meat convert, overnite. Free-roaming cats, rabbit-hunting dogs, hawks, owls & preds who live upwards of 15 years in our area, have effectively wiped out the number of babies & adults I'd love to see.)

Being able to co-exist with several cottontails and herbivore creatures, plant for them and screen areas to protect your most precious plants, will bring serene contentment.

They prefer their own territory, so let me know at most how many you see? 8? 10? 15?

Heather, it's very cool you are considerate of their munching needs and want to keep them around. Gotta love wildlife-friendly humans,

Elaine covered things very well. Also, when you are establishing some of your plants, do protect them form cotton-tails the first few years, so the shrubs can survive. Then, when the shrubs are established, they can handle the nibbling, so can be uncaged.

Glad to know you are enjoying seeing them around. They are lovely creatures.

My neighbor has the same issue- she is constantly shoo-ing them out of her wildflower garden. She went to our local garden store, Comstock Ferre, and got jars of coyote urine that she stakes around her garden. Ever since she put them there the bunnies still come into her yard, but they leave the flowers alone.

Here is a link that might be useful: Comstock ferre

Thanks for all the advice. I do love to see the bunnies hopping all over the place. We've got tons of babies this spring, some living under our porch...the Dianthus attest to that!
I will consider screening, fencing, spraying, or somehow protecting my non-bunny food plants until they are big enough to handle nibbling. Meanwhile, I think I might plant a little place for my friends to snack.

My neighbor tells me that every morning she gets up (around 6:00, way earlier than me) and watches two baby bunnies play in my back yard. The one that lives under my porch scoots like crazy every time I come down the steps.

Our dog once brought a baby bunny in the house in her mouth. She found it lying in the grass and didn't know what it was or what to do with it. Our dog is a Yellow Lab. She brought it in and put it in my hubby's hands. We nursed it, bought special "milk" for it. It was doing really well, but because of an emergency we had to have a friend care for it, and the friend didn't have the time to do the research we had done...well, you know what happened. I've always loved bunnies, but ever since then I've loved them more. We had that little one for about 10 days, it's eyes weren't opened when our dog found it. It was the most precious thing.

Just for those who are thinking we should have just put the baby bunny back outside.....We didn't know what was in her mouth until it dropped in hubby's hands. Once it had the dog's scent and human scent on it the mother bunny wouldn't have taken it back and it would have starved to death...if we would have been able to find the nest and put it back the mother never would have returned to the nest and all the babies would have died. So, we did what we believed was best. In other cases we have found bunny nests and gone out of our way to avoid them...leaving mounds of grass unmowed for a LONG time!!! LOL

Anyway, thanks for the info...the furballs here will be happy for it!
Heather