Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Now What !



Ok, I'm trying not to say the words that are going through my head, at least not publicly.  So I'll just ask this.
What Is This!
Who ate my beans!?

Gone- bit clean through.  No footprints, the bed is fenced and wrapped in fishing line.  No sign of bugs.  Nothing could reach these, they are in the middle of the garden. Birds? They sit on the cattle fencing.  Maybe?
Just when I think I'm getting ahead.


Not all is bad.  The little digger got a couple of peppers but there are signs of new growth where the bitten stems meet the main stem.  We'll see.


The squash is doing well but I found some eggs beneath the leaves. Baaad eggs!   I took those leaves off and squashed those eggs flat and then squished them Big Time!


Tomatoes are doing well, both in this bed and the little side garden. I'm also getting some eggplants, little tiny purples ones- so cute!

I have next week off so I'm going to find some farmers' markets.  I always try to take my birthday week off because it's halfway through the year, a nice break.    I can get up late (that would be about 6:30 for me) and drink lots of coffee before I putter around the garden.  We're having company in July so my husband is trying to finish some projects that never quite got done.  I'll post about those when it's finished.  

In the meantime- what's up with the garden?  Who ate my beans?
How do I protect beans?  They will grow through netting, do I get mesh?

HELP!


14 comments:

Farmgirl Heidi said...

Wow Kathy, that's awful. The damage looks like a large animal ie: deer, but if they're not getting in there, who is? How far of the ground is the damage and do you see any animal scat?

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

I would have though a deer too but it's climbing a cattle fence and the top has grown up and over it. I'd say the damage was from almost the ground all the way up, about 4 -5 feet. No evidence of animals. It's a chicken wire fence strung loosely so if anything climbs it, the fence would sway or at least remain bent. Nothing like that. Nothing could reach this by bending over. I do know birds sit on the fencing. Only the pole beans were touched, not the bush beans.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

I saw on-line that someone else had this problem and they thought it might be a squirrel. We do have squirrels, being wooded. The cats usually take care of them but for some reason there are more this year, perhaps the mild winter.

KarenLynn@Lil' Suburban Homestead said...

I get so mad when I go outside and see that some "thing" has been chewing on our veggies! Ugh.....but your garden looks great!

LindaG said...

Good luck figuring it out, Kathy!

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

We got some red pepper and gonna find out how to make some really HOT spray! Hope the squirrel doesn't love hot food! (If it's a squirrel, I don't think birds can taste the pepper).

Yahoobuckaroo's Blog said...

Japanese beetles love beans. Maybe a whole bunch of them swooped in quick, ate, and swooped back out.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

I found them all over my roses and grapes tonight. They are now DEAD.

Yahoobuckaroo's Blog said...

Uh, umm, now I'm confused. Did you kill them, or did you just find them that way? If it's the latter, I think I'll have to pass on ever eating any of your grapes! :)

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

I killed them. We also have one of those bags that catches them, but it's up by the top of the property so it won't attract them to the flowers. That bag has a bunch of them in it too so they must be arriving quickly. We will have to get a couple more of the bags.

Beth in NC said...

Wow, what a sneaky culprit! I don't know?

Everything else looks great! We have something that gets up in the stem of our squash and kills the entire plant. I have been canning them as they come in, but I think I need to plant some more and quick.

Love your garden! Thank you for visiting me.

Blessings!
Beth

Candy C. said...

I hate when the critters start eating the garden!! :(
I keep having that problem with the strawberries despite being completely covered by bird netting.

Anonymous said...

Here in south Texas, caterpillars can do that overnight. Last year a whole tomato plant was almost completely stripped in one night. 4'-5' tall, 2'-3' wide. And you can't find them in the morning, even at first light.

momto8blog said...

those cute little chipmunks!! they love the zucchini and almost everything else in my garden too..
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