Argh! :-( That bites. I'm so sorry, Dear! Is the garden fenced, or can you put one up?

That has to be so, so frustrating.

i have never had a problem with 4 legged animals in the garden, mine is weeds and birds. when we left on vacation our plum trees were all slap full of plums that would be ready to pick in a couple weeks. 7 days later we get home to find 7 plums left on 5 trees! remains were all over the ground, so we know it was the birds. i keep saying every year that i am gonna get nets for the trees, and every year i don't do it. last year we filled 25 5 gallon buckets with plums from 3 of the trees, the other 2 were too young to priduce much. this year we got 7 plums!

my veggie garden the weeds shoot up overnight. it got so bad from teh rains the last few days that i actually used my weedeater in the garden to knock down the weeds along each row. lost a couple beans due to getting over zealous, but at least it looks a LOT better. before i started you could see a couple beans between the weeds, now you see 6 100' rows of beans!

Here's a great solution to the garden critter problem that I found on a blog.

Looks like fun, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Contech Scarecrew

Those things are $89.00. $89.00 could buy alot of ammo...

Do you have a problem with deer in your area? My sister has a small garden with one area just for peas. The deer got them first then onto her cucumbers and when they were gone, started on her okra. I have deer problems also, but I plant enough so some are left over for us. Peas are their fav, but will eat corn, watermelons, etc. If it is deer, you should see their tracks, looks like a calf track.

Shot

if it is deer, you either have to have a fence at least 8' high, or a fence with a top! you would be surprised how high those jokers can jump.

i would go sit outside one night and try to see what it is. a pellet gun makes quick work of the smaller critters, and coyote urine makes the deer leave.

It's not deer. We have a fenced yard, and no deer have been spotted , no tracks. We DID see squirrels out Saturday though! Dogs saw them off.
I put sprinkled black pepper over the veggies and area yesterday and they haven't eaten anything else... so far!

Forget coyote urine. You can get a man to do it for free. I don't have to ask my husband to do it thanks to a fence and a dog, but friends of mine swear by it.

Black pepper..... hmmmm great idea... now just wait outside and see what sneezes... lol

Good luck - really.

Shot

I have had squirrels take the tops off of corn plants and bring them up into the trees for their nests. I saw some of the corn plant tops half way up the tree. So squirrels would be my guess.

Don't know if this will help you or not. Just sorta thinkin out loud for ya. I have several families of squirrels here. Yet, they have never gotten into my garden in the five years that I've been here. They are only 20/30 feet from it. We have lots of trees. Now my neighbor, bless her heart, just loves those little guys. She has dryed corncobs on a couple of trees and several feeding stations with sunflower seeds/dryed corn in them. They also get the occasional peanuts that she tosses to them.So maybe, if you left them something to nibble on besides your garden they'd leave it alone.

GROUNDHOG WOODCHUCKS. SAME THING.

This is very serious. there are threads on this problem. look them up.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cornucop/msg071530552869.html

They will hit your garden at the very last light of day and the very first light of day. not at night but all day long. they prefer the two ends of the day many times. more the morning then the evening usually. now go get them. not so easy.

Here is a link that might be useful: read