The (Draft) Safe Plant List for Florida Rabbits

     There is a large conversation taking up bits of internet as more people worldwide work on safe, natural diets to feed rabbits. There is so much information out there, but most is for climates that have plants that do not grow well here in Central Florida.
     The nutritional makeup up a rabbit's complete diet is a large subject best explored here (Rabbit Nutrition: The Numbers). This is meant to be just a list of safe plants, along with a list of common but unsafe plants. Starred items I have personally fed my rabbits with no ill effects.

Grassy Types 
     Banana leaves*
     Rye*
     Bamboo*
     Yellow Nutsedge*
     Bahia*
     Plantain*
     Sunflower
     Sorghum*
     Pampas Grass*
     Fountain Grass
     Kenaf
Papyrus*

Legume Types
     Cowpea leaves*
     Peanut leaves and shells*
     Black Turtle bean leaves*
     Green runner bean leaves*
     Desmodium spp. leaves*

Herb Types
     Spanish Needle (Bidens alba, Bidens pilosa)*
     Soap Ginger*
     Cardamom Ginger
     Purslane*
     Sweet potato leaves*
     All Rosaceae family, including blackberry*, raspberry, pears*, and roses
     Sycamore*
     Maple*
     Hibiscus*
     Mulberry
     Citrus leaves*
     Persimmon leaves*
     Canna leaves*
     Squash spp.*
     Carrot leaves*
     Cilantro*
     Rosemary
     Basil
     Parsley*
     Lemongrass
     Oregano
     Sage
     Prickly Pear (spines removed)
     Pusley, Brazilian* and Floridian*
     Violet Woodsorrel*
Palmetto*
Spanish Dagger*
Cabbage*
Spiderwort*
Loquat*


Unsafe but common plants
     Crinum
     Century plant
     All Prunus species including Cherry Laurel (fruit may be safe, pits are not)
     Chinaberry Tree
     4 O'Clocks
     Taro, Dasheen, Elephant Ear
     Caladium
     Amaryllis
     Gladiolus
     White Potato Greens
     Oleander
     Tomato plants
     Crape Myrtle
     Lantana
     Privet
     Frangipani
     Rhoeo spathacea Steam (syn. R. discolor Hance)
     Oyster plant
     Moses-in-a-Boat (Purple Heart)
     Rain lily
Asthma Weed, Spurge

Unknown Toxicity Status
     Heliconia
     Ixora
Oak trees and acorns
     Hydrangea
     Ferns
     Bromeliads
     Cabbage Palm
     Crepe Myrtle
     Fig
     Pine needles
     Stargazer or Daylily
     Kiwi
     Muscadine grape
     Orange Honeysuckle
     Mexican Creeper
     Passionflower
     Magnolia
     Allamanda
     Confederate Jasmine
     Wisteria
     Dog Fennel
     Liriope
     Peace Lily
     Periwinkle
     Mexican Petunia
     Air Potato, Diascorea spp.
     Mimosa
     Acacia spp.
     Begonia spp.
     Cypress spp.
     Pecan leaves
     Prickly sida, Sida spinosa
Monkey Ear Tree leaves


     Here is a quick list of some rabbit-safe forages from Hawaii. It may give some ideas to those who live in South Florida.
Kiawe (mesquite) 
Mulberry 
Plantain (the small green lawn weed type as well as the banana types of plantain)
Sweet potato vines
Sunflower - seeds, leaves and stems 
Grape vines and leaves 
Rosemary (it is said rosemary will make their wool lustrous, however they won't always eat it.) 
Basil 
Lemon balm 
Daikon 
Banana - leaves, skins, fruit and trunk
Corn - husks, leaves and stems - not too much of the grain, though.
Roses - leaves, flowers and stems 
Beet greens  - not too much of the root, but you are supposed to eat that yourself.
Pigeon Pea - leaves and pods
Russian olive - although they may not like the taste
Ti leaves
Guinea grass - although they prefer the young leaves to the old stickery ones.
Dandelions
Carrots, especially the green tops
Nasturiums
Parsley
Alfalfa
Clover
   
Rabbits turn weeds into fertilizer, just think of the possibilities...

Chinese Tallow Tree, Triadica sebifera

Uses : Medicinal, Xeriscaping. Native to : Asia.

     The Chinese Tallow tree was introduced to the United States during the 1700's, and since then it has made itself at home throughout the southeast coastal states. It is now considered an invasive species by the state of Florida and is illegal to propagate and transport. In some areas the trees are notoriously difficult to remove, being known to successfully re-sprout from stumps and forgotten seeds. It grows very well on lands that are unsuitable for row agriculture, like, oh, most of Florida. It has naturalized itself in some areas, displacing native plants and animal habitats.
     It was originally introduced for commercial production of natural vegetable oil from the white seed coats, but industry never really took off. Perhaps it is too difficult to remove the seed coats from the fruit. An easy to grow natural vegetable oil would be a great crop for the South if it were viable. Popcorn trees are largely unaffected by pests. It attracts bees and butterflies. Birds and squirrels eat the fruits, reluctantly, if there isn't anything tastier to be found.
     I think the seeds would have a good use in starting campfires as a kindling, if you are a fan of cooking or relaxing with a campfire. Being naturally high in oil, they should work quite well for that purpose. It also will prevent the tree from reseeding all over your yard.
     The leaves change a range of beautiful oranges and reds in the fall, which is one  of the reasons it formerly was planted nationwide as an ornamental. This quality and it's fast-growing nature would make it an excellent specimen for a bonsai practitioner, being mindful that it is illegal to propagate. Then again in Florida gardening is only illegal when it bothers someone else... so a well-maintained bonsai (with prompt fruit removal) from is unlikely to cause trees sprouting in the neighborhood.
     The milky white sap of the tree is toxic, like all other plants with milky saps. Please be careful when handling parts of Popcorn tree, and avoid sap to skin or eyes contamination.
     The seedling problem is largely overstated here in West Florida where we have very distinct dry and wet seasons. There are maybe 10 to 30 Tallow trees here in this town, and they all appear to be about the same age, which leads to the idea that perhaps they all came from one nursery about 25 years ago. There are no seedling trees here to be found, possibly a side effect of frequent urban mowing.

Canna Lily (not really a lily at all)

Uses: Edible, Forage, Xeriscaping. Native to : Southeastern United States.

     This popular ornamental plant can be seen blooming everywhere in midsummer, but it is also a valuable part of a survival garden. The leaves and flowers are showy and tropical, shooting up from a rhizome that is loaded with starch.

     They are closely related to ginger, and will do well in any area that ginger does well in. Like ginger, they will freeze to the ground in wintertime and come back next spring. Cannas can handle full sun if planted in well-drained soil with adequate rainfall. Like taro, they do well in fairly damp areas.
     The roots can be dug and cooked like a potato, usually for at least two to five hours. Traditionally the rhizome was cooked then mashed and strained to remove the fibers. The starch is well known for being easily digestible for infants and elderly. In Vietnam, large amounts of canna are grown to make cellophane noodles. 

     If the rhizomes can be used as a potato, it would logically follow that a very enterprising individual could distill liquor from them much as a vodka is made. Perhaps cannas and taro could be a great source for  a southern alcohol bio-fuel?
     The leaves and stems are used as animal feed in some areas, as cannas can grow well on marginal lands with little soil nutrition. The plants are relatively unaffected by pests, which is no surprise considering how well they do here in Florida.

     Ms. Wildcraft from Backyard Food Production put up a great little video about some plants that are useful and can really take the heat. If you want to skip to the part where she talks about cannas, that would be about five minutes into the video.

The Rabbit Manure Garden


     I didn't believe the claim that rabbit manure was garden gold, so I decided to prove it for myself. After all, if a five gallon bucket of this stuff can go for $10 or more, it must be great, right?

    The patch above was the remains of the first pond hole, the hole that had the cable line running through it. I filled it with rabbit manure and planted some seeds, topped with a bit of mulch. (A sunken garden bed). With the watering and excellent spring weather, the squash plants quickly overgrew the beans and peanuts, with the cannas reaching outrageous proportions faster than the cannas elsewhere. I didn't even expect these squash to do much more than sprout, since I have had such dismal luck elsewhere in the yard. They are even larger than my dad's squash plants, and he's a gardening genius who's fond of fertilizer. It would be pretty nifty to get a squash out of this bed, but if I don't, the squash leaves are good rabbit eats.
Same squash plants planted at the same time lacking manure.

     There are wild claims on the internet that rabbit manure is wonderful because it contains no weed seeds. That is true, but only if you feed your rabbits commercially prepared pellet diets and no other food. My rabbit manure has weed seeds from their favorite weeds, and seeds from some of their other foods like strawberries and blackberries. So they poop out more food to eat. Awesome.
     An interesting, but unrelated paper about phosphate.

Rosary Pea, Precatory Bean, Abrus precatorius

Native to : India. Uses : Xeriscaping, Jewelrymaking (if you're brave).
    While camping at Oscar Scherer State Park last fall, our campsite had a beautiful climbing vine at the end of it. When I pointed it out, everyone in my family said, "Is that a fern?" Well, it turns out that it is a non-native, naturalized vine, that is listed on the Florida Invasive Plant List as a Category I.
     This particular vine was about 15 feet tall, it climbed from the ground into an oak tree very dramatically. It had 4 or 5 stems which were intertwined (growing up an older vine?) and many, many clumps of pods that looked like this one. I regret not having my camera for a photo of it!
     Historically it was cultivated for ornamental value. Both the vines and beans are attractive. The beans were formerly used to make jewelry, particularly necklaces, hence the name Rosary Pea.
     It is also known to be one of the most toxic plants on the planet, even more toxic than castor bean, because it contains a chemical called abrin, which halts all cellular protein synthesis. That sounds like a relatively painless way to go, is it any wonder that Rosary Pea had been used historically as a suicide agent? Most poisoning occurs unintentionally when children and animals eat the beans.
     It was featured in this National Institute of Health paper about death by mail-order. Among the natural toxins in this study, it is ranked fourth, while castor bean came in at a lowly twelve.
     Why are beans so toxic? Why are brightly colored things so poisonous?

Best Beer Bread Recipe

Best Beer Bread Recipe, Ever!


Four cups of flour
12 ounces of beer
1/4 cup sugar
Two tablespoons baking powder
Two teaspoons salt
Two eggs, slightly beaten

Technique: Mix the beer and flour together hours before so the flour can absorb the liquid. When ready to bake, add the rest of the ingredients and mix for about a minute, then pour into an oiled baking pan. Pop into the cold, unpreheated oven, uncovered, and bake at 350 F for 50 minutes. The first ten or so of that will be your oven getting up to temperature. Very fast and simple bread, so you can fake being a knowledgeable baker. I prefer to use one of my favorite beers, Blue Moon, as it comes out flavorful. Homebrew beer is always a better choice.

Can Permaculture sustain us?

     Toby Hemenway is one of the best-known Permaculture advocates available. He is quite knowledgeable on the subject, and gives talks and teaches courses over there on the west coast. An article from his website was probably the best gardening article ever written, which is to say most horticultural information is content-milled. That article really inspired me to find out what is native and useful here, and I can't imagine living anywhere else.
     But can Permaculture really sustain us? Some people think of it as more of a religion rather than an agricultural technique, which is definitely a problem. And the answer, which Mr. Hemenway sidestepped a bit, is that it cannot. Unless we change every aspect of our lives to really coexist with the planet. That would include less future children, and not more. Less fossil fuels, not more. Less air conditioning and heating, and not more. Less can be more with proper design, hence, permaculture.
      It really comes into perspective when you attempt to figure out the acreage it would take for a family to feed itself. More than one acre, for sure. At least one adult working  full-time on that acreage to plant, harvest, and maintain production. Families would be forced to to move to be spread out in order to have that land for use. The surface area of the arable parts of the planet is known and can be calculated. The calculations do not add up to the population numbers that we have now.
     That's sad, right? Not really. I can't even tell you all the people that I've met that never want to have kids. They are a product of our industrial society, and they don't want to give up the luxury they would miss out on  if they had to raise children. Then there is also the fear that this industrial society isn't worth living in, that it would be a shame to bring a child into this. Personally I think that's why zombie flicks are so popular, because people secretly long for a less complicated life where the threats to your welfare are clearly visible. Children are an investment no matter what your ethics and religion, of time, energy, even patience.
     But that's just one aspect of how lives must be changed to have a future for our race. Toby Hemenway  forsees a potential future for us that he describes well in this video. What do you forsee?



Chicken Rules for Hernando


"A divided county commission voted Tuesday to allow chickens in residential areas but tacked on several restrictions that call for neighbor buy-in and assured residents the new ordinance doesn’t supersede existing deed restrictions.
They also capped the number of backyard chickens to four per household and required the owner keep the coop out of view from neighbors."

      According to my source (the chicken lady herself), the permits are $100 with an additional $25 inspection fee. Safe to say the people already keeping chickens illegally will probably not be wasting their time and money on the permits.


Easter Eggs Done Right


Technique 1: Get Some Eggs from some chickens.

     Boil the eggs in with your dye solution, generally with vinegar added to mordant the colors to the eggshell.  Let the eggs cool in the dye solution, overnight is ok. Wrapping onion skin around the egg will make a marbling effect. Secure any stickers or flowers by wrapping the individual egg in nylon or cheesecloth. Speckle eggs by adding oil to the dye bath.
     Pictured here from left to right: orange marbling with yellow onion skins, wrapped and boiled, yellow egg dye made with celery and Bidens alba / Tradescantia flowers, blue egg dye made with purple cabbage and Tradescantia flowers, orange and purple marbling with yellow and red onion skins, wrapped and boiled.


  • Red Cabbage - Bright Blue
  • Beets - Pink
  • Yellow Onion Skins - Orange
  • Turmeric/Saffron, Celery Leaves - Yellow
  • Grape Juice - Bluish Purple
  • Grass/Sedge Leaves - Green
  • Cranberries - Pale Pink
  • Blackberries - Pale Purple




Technique 2: Get your eggs from some rabbits.




Technique 3: After the rabbits hides your eggs, send the kids out to find them and then prepare Die Eier von Satan (Deviled Eggs).

Citrus in Florida

     Back when people first started moving to Florida in the late 1800's (No AC, what were they thinking?), they tried planting groves of the different trees over the entire state. I'm pretty sure Swingle and Dancy cultivars were created here. Since then, years with freezes have slowly been driving the industry to the areas south of Tampa and Orlando. It's still a multi-billion dollar a year industry, employing thousands of workers.
     Pest pressures, like fungi and insects, make our oranges unsightly, so bland eating oranges usually come from California or Arizona, while Florida's tasty oranges usually go to make juice.
     Here in west central Florida, just north of Tampa, I have been having a lot of success with loquat (sort of a citrus). The other varieties of less cold sensitive citrus are Meyer lemon and tangerine/mandarin. Key limes can't handle the cold. Ugli fruits are even more tender, Americans sometimes import them from Puerto Rico and further south.

     Over the years I have watched my father struggle with trying to grow citrus here. He's tried every variety, all different kinds of planting situations. He's tried planting on slopes. He's tried planting near a pool (heat sink). He's tried planting near a south-facing wall. We've agreed to give up on oranges, particularly since the price of trees has gone up over the last few years to usually at least $35 per tree. Could it have something to do with this?
     The state was found to be at fault for the forced removal of 865,000 residential, dooryard citrus across the southern counties. They have been paying approximate $30 million in damages, to replace the removed trees.
"[Judge Robin Rosenberg] wrote that “exposed citrus trees, which were not determined to be infected with citrus canker but were located within 1,900 feet of another citrus tree determined to be infected with citrus canker, do not present an imminent threat to the public health, safety or welfare, or constitute a public nuisance.”
    There is something to be said for planting the trees in the appropriate microclimate. Sepp Holzer, farming genius, can supposedly grow them in snow. If you use blankets and Christmas lights to keep your tree warm, do be sure they are the old fashioned incandescent type, as LEDs won't make heat for you. My father has used the blankets and lights trick successfully, but in my not-so-humble opinion, it's really not worth the effort. There are so many other kinds of good fruit trees to plant, why try to baby one to keep it alive? Spend electricity on plants? What?
     Always beware that due to pest pressures a lot of citrus are grafted onto root stocks, and a particularly tough freeze cycle may kill your citrus but the root stock may survive to provide you a less than desirable fruit. One of the most common is sour orange, which is actually a pretty nice fruit. Tart like a lemon, but orange flavored. I made sour orange meringue pie one year with it.