Given the drought that is plaguing much of southern Wisconsin there is very little reason to even think about lawn mowing. The grass is either brown, or growing so slowly there is no reason to cut it, and harm it in these conditions.
Thankfully for the grass that remains green and growing there is a natural ‘lawn mower’ that takes care of our concerns.
Over the past couple weeks James and I have been watching the ‘little sticks of butter’–baby rabbits–frolicing about on the lawn as they eat grass. They are continually eating, but remain so tiny–and irresistibly cute. Where the young rabbits have boundary issues we spray some chemical fence that alerts them to eat the grass–and not the rose leaves.
A number of days back we witnessed the mother–apparently making some sound discernible only to the young ones hiding under day lilies and hostas– that it was feeding time. From several directions a slew of ‘butter sticks’ came running and squeezed under the mother–one even hanging upside down–for meal time.
It was a sight I had never before witnessed.
Though I grew up in the country I have been closer to Mother Nature–and it more close to me–while living in the city.
Today one of the youngsters and mom were out-and-about for Sunday brunch.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
yeah they’re cute and all… but
if you get a Heavy Rabbit Habit in your yard (it seems to me that once they feel safe in an area of land, and it can be a small area, for example living downtown as I do,my yard is not huge) but if they feel safe, omg they hang around. Maybe their kids also hang around. And then have kids who also hang aroundThey must, because we have a LOT of rabbits. Very early this a.m. an unruly mob of about 10 or so were cruising through, talkin’ smack. Once they establish turf as their own, things get ugly.
I am not going to say something like “poison ’em” or chase them off or anything like that. Fences don’t keep them out either. Once they’re there, they’re there. But there is a SERIOUS downside to bunnies.
They may not be decimating your plants right now (I also have flowers and flowering shrubs that took significant effort to get to this point) but if the bunnies stay, they will pick and choose amongst your plants. They are hard to predict. I’ve had sad amounts of Asiatic lilies literally mowed down to 3 inch tall sticks before they ever get to the point of blooming. Year after year and it gets upsetting. Young-ish dogwood bushes (the yellow-green ones, more so that the red twig variety) just annihilated over night. In early spring if the snow lingers or they are extra-hungry for some reason, the stuff they will eat goes wild. You get up in the morning and see random stuff sawed off at the level of the snow. They eat what is at the level they stand at and that’s quite often not good.
Nuthin’ you can do about it. That plant may have taken 4 years to reach that level – gone overnight. I have only one rose bush which they have never bothered. As far as my experience they don’t like roses. Or grapes.
My Northern Lights Azalea bushes (they were somewhat unusual and gorgeous back at the old house which is where I probably should have left them) omg 6 years of Rabbit torture. I should do the humane thing and pull the bushes out of the ground and call an end to it all. In spring other people’s are 4 foot round balls of color. mine struggle as 8 inch leafless sticks Lily Munster would be proud of and produces one angsty bloom a month late and then screams in agony for the rest of the summer.
Here’s the really gross part. The droppings. The small piles of round offerings to the fecal gods are bad enough in summer, they kinda of kill that Free and Easy barefoot in grass feeling
But it’s really really bad just after the snow melts and you have a full winter’s worth of crap-blanket. Like you can’t imagine how dense the stuff lies across your newly exposed lawn. Mega-gross. Also bunnies carry fleas. which can be spread to dogs. (which it sounds like you don’t have, but still…fleas, ew)
For some reason we have a vastly different experience in a more city-like yard than we did in a more sparsely populated area. Theoretically if they were going to be a problem for you you would have seen that long before now….maybe you’ll stay lucky and they have a sot nearby they like better than your yard..
p.s. I am not understanding the butter stick thing, but that’s okay
Good luck then (rabbit’s foot humor not intended)
The butter-stick term is used as when I first saw them they were no larger than a butter stick running around the yard. Our whole area of the neighborhood is like watership down on this part of the isthmus. In 2008–the spring that year–was the only time my tulips and such were attacked by the rabbits. We moved here in 2007 and so it was not really until later summer of 08 that we had the grass starting to look like it should and by spring 09 there was so much lush grass that the bunnies never munched the flowers. Roses are things I watch, and when needed apply chemical fence that does the trick. For the most part we have not had the problems with them…but I do understand they can be an issue as you described.
them are good, especially in gumbo