Soil enrichment + varmint repellent

[mandikl0721]

This topic might be a little disgusting for people, as it is for me to even post it, but my husband came up with a good idea last year that helped our garden grow better and also helped to repel rabbits and other varmints that like fresh garden plants.
My husband is a hunter and knows a bit about animals and territory markings. After seeing some rabbits in our garden, he decided to use some natural repellent to drive them off and began urinating in an empty milk jug. Once the jug was full, he'd take and pour it around the edge of the garden. Not only did it help to keep the rabbits away, within a week we also noticed that the garden plants on the edges where he was pouring the jug, as well as the nearby grass, were looking much better than the rest of the lawn and garden, even with all the watering we were doing.
It still is somewhat gross to think about, but I can't argue with the results.

 

[Becky]

Sounds like a great idea on both fronts! Although I've read before that it should be diluted first as it can burn plants (eg the brown spots you get on your lawn when female dogs urinate), did you not find that?

 

[Pat]

That is very interesting, I would have thought it would burn the plants also. It is worth a try if you have animals eating your plants.

 

[maddie]

LOL but what about the smell.. how do you deal with it?

 

[mandikl0721]

We did not have any brown spots or other "burn marks" on any of the plants. He tried to mostly pour it next to the plants instead of right on them, but even the grass at the edge of the garden that it did get poured on didn't have any issues. It looked 10x healthier than the rest of our lawn.

As far as a smell, neither we nor anybody else ever noticed any when we were outside working on the garden or having a cookout or anything. He may have noticed some smell when pouring, but he never said anything about it (I know my nose is a lot more sensitive than his, though). The only time I noticed a smell was when a jug had been through a couple cycles. Then it could make a bit of a smell in the bathroom. He started swapping out jugs when he empties them, though, so there's no issue with that anymore. The lid stays on the jug when it's not being filled.