So sorry. Not likely a cutworm if they are still in pots. Do you have deer? Or rabbits?

Well yes rabbits but I had these up on the back porch by the house and they were all still in pots cups trays.
They were sheared off at dirt level.
3 of the jalapenos, Tam I believe, are completely gone, 1jalapeno I got from the spring fling has 2 tiny leaves that the monster missed.
And something dug up one of my raised bed areas where I had seeded herbs. I covered that in chili powder along with my other beds, in case it was a cat.
kim

I'm betting rabbits. Porches don't stop them. I've also had possums and coons eat plants in containers on the porch and patio.

As for the digging? The diggers that dig up our yard usually are armadillos or skunks. Before we had a sturdy enough fence in place, they'd slip into the garden and dig up everything .

Sorry about your plant loss and digging damage.

Gardening with critters around, particularly during drought, is like waging war. Every time I figure out what to do to stop one critter or another from getting the plants, some new critter shows up. During drought, the hungrier the wild animals are, the more aggressive they are and the more damage they do.

Well this is war! I would not use a shotgun but will have to borrow my sons dog for a few days.
kim

Out of about 200 pepper starts, I ended up with 6 Serranos and 3 Jalapeños, because of something eating them as soon as they sprouted. After looking for ground dwelling critters, I finally decided it was more than likely a mouse.
Starting to think everything on this earth is working to stymy my gardening efforts this year. Definitely wondering how I ever managed to get everything done before I retired!

Well no more damage to report thankfully. I moved all the unaffected plants and had covered everything with chili powder. I have no idea as to the culprit but I am high alert now. I just couldn't imagine bunnies going past carrots beets greens of every kind to get on the porch to eat pepper plants and the other stuff. Hopefully no more I am planting out everything today.
kim

I planted the rest of mine on Friday, left town on Saturday, and came home to sad, sad looking plants. First order was watering.

I was in Tulsa. Looks sad there too, but my MG friend tossed 2 inches of water out of her gauge twice last month.

Not fair... LOL

Moni

PS, this is a picture of Sonoma Lake I took on Saturday. Last time, it was a real lake with water in it.

{{gwi:1106753}}

That is a sad picture of the lake. I hope it is not a snapshot of our future.

I think you are right, Larry, We are staring at the future, and the future seems to be constant low lake levels.

Even as big as Lake Texoma is, it is at the lowest level it has been at since the 1980s. A North Texas water district is about to resume pumping water out of it to serve some of the Dallas suburbs, and at the time they are scheduled to begin pumping, the lake will be at its lowest level since the 1970s, unless we get some miraculously heavy rainfall very soon.

The Lake Texoma area small businessmen and local residents are having a fit over the pumping, but it is legal and the North Texas Municipal Water District is going to take every bit of water they're allowed to pump out of the lake, even if it puts local marinas and other lake-related businesses out of business. They have been unable to pump out water since 2009 because of the zebra mussel issue, but now have completed the filtration system that will keep the zebra mussels from reaching the Texas lakes via the pipeline. If they'd been pumping out water since 2009, there's no telling how low the lake level would be.

If it doesn't rain soon and often, all our little plant babies will be in trouble, and it won't be because of hungry bunnies.

Oh Moni that is sad picture of the lake.
That's so true Dawn, water shortage is a harsh reality here too. I currently have "unlimited" water but I do not waste water. In fact I am trying to design a rain catching system for my son. He has a lot of roof area and a big garden. We just have to get rain to catch LOL
kim

I really need rain gutters put on my roof and a rain barrel at each corner, but I'm not interested in investing in dust gutters or dust barrels, so that's out. Instead, I'm phasing out all plants that cannot be eaten or live on miniscule amounts of water. Walked through Lowes with Cookie the other day and every fiber of me was screaming WANT WANT WANT WANT in a knee jerk reaction to all the plants everywhere. Soooooo hard to just buy mulch and gravel and leave.

We have unlimited water too as long as we are willing to pay for it. There's a point in my budget-conscious mind where I just draw the line and say that I've spent enough on water and need to stop. In a drought year I can hit that point as early as June. We belong to a very well-managed water co-op that refuses to add more members than it can support, so we never have water restrictions, or at least we haven't had water restrictions since moving here in 1999. I'm not going to say we'll never have them, but so far, so good.

The next big battle in this country will be over water rights. In some areas, it already is going on. OK had to fight some TX municipal water districts in court who were trying to force OK to sell them water. I was born in TX and love TX, but they need to build their own reservoirs and drill their own wells and stop suing OK to try to force the sale of water to them.

Getting rain to catch may be the issue because it surely is not falling. At least here in OK we can catch rainwater and use it. It is illegal to do that in Colorado.

Okievegan, I just try to avoid looking at all those water-thirsty plants that I don't want to have to water all summer long. It is so hard, but it is wise to avoid planting anything nowadays that will guzzle water. At our house, for something to get planted it has to be useful--either an edible in the garden, or useful to wildlife for its fruit, flowers, nectar, etc. or something that will attract beneficial insects to the garden. I mostly rely upon beneficial insects for the control of pest insects, so I plant lots of stuff that will attract them. Nothing much gets planted outside my fenced garden anymore because if it isn't fenced it is Deer Chow or Rabbit Chow. I fought the critters for years in an attempt to have flower beds around the house, but finally gave up. All those plants that deer and rabbits supposedly won't eat? I learned if it gets hot enough and dry enough and they are really hungry, they'll eat all those plants found on those lists of plants that wildlife don't eat.

It seems like it is harder every year to have a nice garden and yard in the absence of reliable rainfall and in the presence of hordes of hungry wild things.

If it were simply an issue of drinking water and other important things (a few pets, washing car occasionally, keep a few plants) I'd be sympathetic to the TX water grabbers, but it seems more than that. Like Dawn I spent most of my life there, and most of it in the Dallas-Ft Worth metro area, though I was raised in rural E Texas. DFW people want to keep their grass green through July, Aug and Sept when, breaking news for them: the natural color for grass is brown in N Texas much of those months. One of the ag extension agents in Collin County (Dr. Church, if I remember) told me 2 years ago that he was stunned to learn how during intensity recent drought Dallas had not imposed water usage restrictions at all yet, whereas in Collin County, a far less populated county, had already tightened things up twice.

By the way, in June of last year the Supreme Court unanimously supported Oklahoma's case against Texas, probably the conflict Dawn mentioned. A very important case.

The basic problem seems to be that the Trinity River basin can only support so many people there in DFW. Why not tell DFW: "You've reached your limit. Time to curb development, constrain your appetite." But DFW looks at rural areas, whether in OK or E TX or wherever and argues, "You're not using the water, so we should be able to get it." So when food prices get high will they lobby for land usage control in rural areas? Just what does land ownership mean if it is subject to the will of 51%? (You'd think we'd have learned by now from the Peloponnesian War.) Urban centers have immense clout at the statehouse, much more than a small rural region. Indeed bc of the water shortage DFW is seeking to flood 70,000+ acres of private land (forcing owners to sell) out in East Texas, creating Marvin Nichols reservoir, which the locals don't want or need. I'm *very* concerned about how this whole water rights issue will play out, and it is playing out now, so time to get involved if you're not already. Without saying too much, to some extent I left DFW to find refuge up here. There's a significant difference in how rural and urban people think and I just can't do cities very well. I do admit I haven't visited the issue for a while and there's much I don't know, and am open to correction. Pls forgive any uncharity in my words.

most people here in the OKC area seem to like green grass too.

I don't understand it.

You water the grass, you fertilize the grass, you pay someone to mow it... all for what?

Green grass?

Why not plant stuff that can be eaten, or Xeriscape or at least, plant low water usage plants, and water directly, not broad coverage?

Moni

PS, no, I don't mean all of you on this forum... I mean the others, the green grass worshipers.

Moni, you've just demonstrated my point. Urban people and country people think very differently. For plenty of urbanites, food appears miraculously overnight on the shelves at Kroger and Wal-Mart. Well-manicured green lawns in August have zero connection to that.

Charles

This reminded me when I lived in Denton. They would have water restrictions and the city would water their plants at 2 AM and the water would be running down the road into the runoff areas every night. The edge of the streets would be flooded from the overspray. I always wanted to take pictures or video this. For grass and a few high maintenance flowers.
I prefer edibles and xeriscaping myself but have been encouraged to plant grass. I am going to plant something I can at least use for mulch when I cut it.
or feed my bunnies...
kim