Foliage Follow-up and a bit of a Rant on Rabbits

There is still some foliage to show for Pam's Foliage Follow-up.  I see she posted some pretty leaves, since theirs in Texas are now at their peak.

This is the honeysuckle a neighbor lady gave me when we first moved here.

The painters palette still has leaves, even though they are shriveled.
 

I'm liking the little bluestem, and the gray headed coneflower foliage.

I am looking forward to all of the prairie smoke geums that I transplanted here and there growing next year.

I'm not remembering now what the name of this annual is, but I'm wondering if it's a perennial in warmer zones, since it is still green so far.

This persicaria is still looking pretty in and under the leaves.

Here's the snapdragon foliage I said I was going to include here.

Here is one of the foods the rabbits seem to be enjoying this time of year, a daylily plant.

The amsonia hubrichtii and liatris plants still look OK, but are losing more and more foliage.

This isn't the best focus on one of the hellebores, but I included it because I am pleased that they are doing OK in my garden, even though they don't get as much water as they would prefer.

I try to garden in a nature friendly way, but am thinking about taking out the deck in our back yard, because we have seen rabbits, mice, and opossums go under there.  We won't be able to any time soon, though, because the yard is not level, and we can't afford to do much right now.  In the past, I did not mind sharing with the rabbits.  I even plant extra romaine lettuce for them, because they seem to really like it.  We lived peacefully together, except they tended to eat pea plants clear to the ground.   Then, they started eating bean plants down the same way.  They also started eating the flowers clear down to the stubs.  I don't mind some chewed leaves, but please, rabbits, let my plants grow!  I don't know why they are causing more damage than they used to.

This area seems to be one of their favorite spots to be.  How do I know?  Look at the photo that's after this one.

Should I be thankful for the fertilizer?

I do seem to be growing some of their favorite plants now, so I hope to get more of the young plants caged this spring, and hope that as they get bigger, they will be able to withstand the feeding of the rabbits.  If you want to share your experiences or advice on dealing with these critters please let me know.  I do realize taking the deck out will not eliminate the problem, but it takes up too much space anyway, and is getting up there in years.  Larry said his dad built it in 3 stages.

As for the mice, our next door neighbor lady thinks feeding the birds attracts mice, and then they go into houses.  Do you have experience with this? 

I had most of this post ready last night, the official foliage follow-up day, but got sidetracked and forgot to finish it.  I hope you all have a great weekend, and if I don't post again this week, a Merry Christmas.

Added 10/17:  I have not gotten any photos of frost yet.  There was still some left around 10 this morning. I was able to go out and take a few photos.  I found some without frost that I decided to include.

I am holding grandson #2, so will label these later.