Grasshoppers!

I seem to have found at least one of the culprits in my mysterious plant disappearances ... or at least the eatings.

I found grasshoppers inside the cage, calmly munching away at my broccoli plants, which are now reduced to nubs.

For some reason, the plants I put in the front yard have been untouched.

Bad news, good news, and a mystery

The bad news is that one of my blueberry plants looks dead.

The good news is that my daylilies have returned. Several of them had totally died back in the heat, and things looked discouraging on that account.

In the meantime, I got more plants for the back yard (and perhaps some for the front, I haven't decided yet).

I'm having a terrible time with something stealing seed potatoes and eating the tops off of plants. I'm calling it the Rascal Thief, because whoever it is can climb onto 4 foot high shelves covered with 2" pots, eat the top off of a plant, steal a potato out of its container, and get away without disturbing the other plants.

This thing has eaten all my peppers, the tops off my tomato plants, a whole basil plant, all my potted collards, and a whole lot of other things. It has climbed up on things and stolen slices of pineapple rind that I had lying out drying for my rabbits.

It's a mystery that about has me wanting to buy a surveillance camera to see what this is that's stealing and eating.

So when I got these new plants in yesterday, I got worried that they were going to end up missing today, all eaten before they had a chance to grow up. Then I got an inspiration.

I put them into a cage I had sitting around, covered them with shade cloth (it was still hot and sunny), and thought everything would be fine.

Here's what I saw today:

The cage was still covered with the shade cloth and the door was latched. I counted the plants and they were all there. But some of them appeared to have been eaten:

The arrows show where the plant was bitten off cleanly.

And this one seems to have been lifted!

I have no idea what could have done this. A raccoon, maybe? I've never seen any here. This is really a mystery to me.

Any ideas as to the identity of the Rascal Thief?

Blueberries and daylilies and bananas, oh my!

This has been a busy time -- my oldest son is in marching band, and school is starting soon, so it's been a lot of driving to practices and shopping for clothes and all that.

But after months of 100F+ temperatures, the season seems to have turned. It has rained several days this week, and just in time, too -- I think my blueberries and daylilies had just about had enough of this nonsense. :)

A week or so ago, I found a lady on Craigslist who was selling banana plants, so I went into the city and got three.

It took me a while to figure out where to put them, but I put the tallest one in the back yard, near the dryer vent, so it will hopefully stay warm over the winter. (I think I planted this one too close to the wall)

Another one I just put in the front yard near the pond -- I'm keeping my fingers crossed about this one. The third one I haven't decided where to put yet. I may just keep it in the pot, just in case one of the two doesn't survive the winter.

As you can see, I'm way behind on the weeding.