A client of mine has always had a few rabbits wandering around the rear garden, however despite the latest harsh winter, they appear to have bred, well like rabbits really.....
The problem is that the rabbits come from a field next door, which is (very) slowly being landscaped into fishing lakes, hence is full of great mounds of loose earth said bunnies love to burrow in, then coming into my clients garden to feast on anything green.
Shooting is not a practical option - but some idea is needed before the client has no plants left - all the perimeter fencing has been undermined and is loose, the privet hedge has now blown over in the wind as there was not soil left around the roots.....
I have used with some success the plug in electronic ultra sonic noise repeller jobs for mice/rats - any idea if these work on rabbits?
The product 'Grazers' has been tried but with limited success....
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I have exactly the same problem with one of our big gardens we took over last year. It's about 2 acres and there are warrens actually in the garden. The garden is surrounded by farmland, so they were coming in from outside to graze as well as living on site!
Half of the boundary is an old 8ft red brick wall, no problem there, the rest has now been 'rabbit proofed' with wire netting, dug in about a foot the and bent in an 'L' horozontally away from the fence by about the same so that they cant scrap under(not to say they dont try!).
The boarders have yet to be delt with!
My mum and dad have a sprnger-border collie cross or a sprollie/ springboard as they are known. The rabbits seem to have moved out of their garden.
had exactly this situation for ages on a site and eventually said that i needed more leeway in the control methods or i was washing my hands of the problem. they said yes, so i got 2 cats.... one disappeared, the other 'Bob the disemboweler' is as far as i know still working just fine.
after a few months the rabbits got the idea and stayed away - we figured the smell of the cat was enough to do the job. you can go one step further and buy neutered feral cats - nasty critters but a sure fire rabbit stopper.
it's just a question of how strongly your client wants to get rid of the bunnies.....
Proper fencing is by far the best solution in my experience. You say the boundary fence and hedging is in disrepair anyway, so something needs doing. Might as well make a proper job of it. If they don't want just a wire fence, you could work out something more substantial, with mesh installed along the bottom. Or maybe it's possible to repair and adapt what's already there.
Add onto the fencing with the electric wire style fence
it uses the same type of zapper as horse tape fencing but instead of being one length its more like sheep netting with smaller holes.
i use this down the stable yard to keep the rabbits there out of the main field and this dose the trick.
its only a low voltage fence and works off a car battery (some from the mains aswell) and if touched by the rabbits or other wild life would not kill them just send them running the other way and would eventualy build a fear up with them to stay well away.
other than that the only thing you can do is replace the solid fencing and hope they dont dig under as there is no reason there for them to be afraid of the barrier unlike the electric fence