What was the culprit, @Mary Stetler. We put a "holy" flat under the fruit as they form to keep them off the ground.
I am thinking voles. They were numerous that year. This year I have not seen any. My barn cat doesn't like to eat everything he catches, that is how I know. But Chipmunks!...and mice. Mostly they like cleaning up after the chickens.
We have had a bad vole year this year. They have destroyed all my garlic crop and many of our winter squashes and pumpkins.
We had a wonderful old barn cat. She died last year at 21 years old (I think). She had lived her entire life outside in Alaska, but slept in the heated garage for the last year or so.
Our 'barn' cat sort of picks where he wants to sleep with a few provisions from us. Sadly, strays sometimes take the best places. So, he comes to me to tell me about it and I set him up in the barnhouse, sometimes with a nice fire in the stove. He can't get in or out until critter feeding time. But no uninvited cats can get in. He is litter trained and catches a mouse sometimes.
@Dwight Ward I don't know if you followed this guy when I recommended him to you, but here is a question and answer session mostly about gardening in Maryland. It will apply to others as well, but Dwight has some interesting questions and seems to be a relatively new gardener.
Oh my! I don't know where to put this---under gardening or weather. We got big time rain and wind yesterday; maybe 4 inches. Blew the tomato cages over and ripped some of the plants right out of the ground. May have to eat fried green tomatoes for a few days for dinner. No harvesting today. Unless its apples. A lot of downed apples and since I picked a lot already, don't know if I can dry them all before they go bad. At least the deer will be happy. They look so funny trying to eat apples since they can't bite them into pieces first. They look like someone with a BIG chaw of tobaccy. Maybe should have put this under critters
I just saw this post,we have 10 biddies behind us here in living room as I type, raised them for over 20 years so need any help let us know.
I bought a manual but I'll be checking in with you, Marie. There's book smart and there's people smart.
In front of our porch we have Silk Weed mthe monarchs seem to really like them, we watched two more hatch from caterpillar to beautiful butterfly's. We photographed one hatching a few years ago. But the seeds probably won't get started now since we are both not feeling well and he spent so much time on autos and I just didn't feel good. I'm really burnt out on this isolation now. Its been to hot to go to ther beach or travel to visit the family's, hubby brothers came down as did the kids a few times this year we took his brother and SIL out on the boat down the Suwannee. But I'm no longer enthused with these rivers after 25 years. I do like the beach. So more rural things like gardening s not on my list. Keeping the vines and weeds is enough a job for me. I'm just old and tired of all work and no play. I do enjoy reading your post and seeing your veggie's though.
We got our carrots and beets out of the ground: 60+ pounds of carrots and 30+ pounds of beets. We will dig potatoes if we get a dry spell, as we try to use the tractor to harvest those, but if it stays too muddy for the tractor, it will be laborious hand-digging. Leeks, cabbage, kale, and Brussels sprouts are still out there too...and parsnips.