• Using plants to keep rabbits awayfloppy eared rabbits image by Ken Marshall from Fotolia.com
  
  Squirrels and rabbits can cause devastation in the garden. Rabbits are capable of eating their entire weight on garden produce in just one night. Squirrels are just as destructive and have a taste for nearly all edibles. They love not only flowerbeds, container grown flowers but all kinds of vegetables including corn during all stages, young peas, beans and tomatoes. Even if there is nothing for them to eat in the garden, they cause enough damage just by digging in search of food.
  
  

Butterfly Weed

• Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberose) is among the list of plants that keep rabbits away. The plant is also deer resistant. The plant is a long lived and hardy North American native perennials. The flowers are bright orange and grow in a compact cluster on the stems. Butterfly weed needs a well drained gravelly or sandy soil and full sun to grow optimally. The plant reaches a mature height of 1 to 2 feet and takes up to two years to get established when grown from seeds. When using it as rabbit repellent plant as a border around the garden perimeter to keep animals away.
  
  

Oriental Poppies

• The Colorado State University Extension cites oriental poppies to be resistant to both squirrels and rabbits. Oriental poppies are hardy plants with fern like leaves and large flowers with purple-black stamens. The flowers bloom during May and June in a wide variety of colors. The plants reach a mature height of 2 ½ to 4 feet and the flowers measure 5 to 9 inches in diameter. Oriental poppies need limited care and grow best in a rich, loamy soil and full sun. Unless there is very little rain during the spring the plants need only occasional watering. The flowers thrive in the full heat of summer.
  
  

Three Leaf Sumac

• The three leaf sumac (Rhus trilobata) is cited as a rabbit and squirrel resistant shrub by the Colorado State University Extension. The shrub is not only heat and drought tolerant but is also cold hardy to temperatures of -20 degrees F. Three leaf sumac has dense green foliage and spikes of yellow flowers from March to June that produce bunches of red fruit. The shrub is fast spreading and quickly forms thickets. The crushed leaves of the plant produce a tart scent which is commonly described as skunk-like. Three leaf sumac reaches a mature height of 3 to 8 feet and grows best in full sun or partial shade and well drained soil.