What ate my brassicas??!

[ZeroZero]

I have just started gardening after years in a flat/prison.

I have built eight raised beds and planted some brassicas in most of them. All went well for a couple of weeks and the plants established, then virtually all the crop dissapeared overnight.

Whatever ate them left the peas and the broad bean plants not to mention strawberries. It went for the outer leaf parts leaving the stalk part standing. It did leave the red brassicas - mostly - having a bit of a nibble, and it seemed to go through all the beds metghodically.

What is it?Pigoens? Mice? I dont think its slugs its all done in a night..

Is it worth leaving the established but denuded plants or should Ijust get some new plants?

My guess is the only answer is to cover with old plastic bottles until the plants get bigger

all advice welcome

[Steve Peek]

[David Hare-Scott]

Check the corpses for grubs. Cabbage moth larvae can work very fast if you don't notice them and let them get started. If that is what it is you have several options.

David

[phorbin]

Around here, groundhogs go for the brassicas first. Rabbits go for lettuce and then the peas and then the beans.

My bet is on rabbits too because they disappeared 'overnight.'

The more permanent solution is a 1 inch mesh chicken wire fence sunk into the ground about 6 or so inches with an 'L' bend outward and about a foot of fence under the ground. Any gate has to follow suit, allow no gap to get through and have a lintel to attach the chicken wire to go under the ground. -- Don't be tempted to buy a larger mesh. Young rabbits can get through larger mesh chicken wire.

I thought groundhogs were North American.

[ZeroZero]

I am guessing pigeons! The pigeons ate all the groundhogs in the UK a long time ago

[Billy]

Have all the brain dead in Britain moved to Hampshire,address:SO21 2QA phone:[phone] ? Hmmm. Maybe we should just kill file the whole lot from GardenBickering.UK. Nothing but crap coming from them.

[phorbin]

Well then,

...I wish we had at least two of your pigeons.

...preferably not a breeding pair.

[NorfolkGardener]

If the plants were relatively young, slugs could be the problem, in which case I would recommend 'Nemaslug Slug Killer'

which saved my brassicas last year.

However if the plants were established, it sounds like too much damage to be slugs. Rabbits are hugely destructive and likely to be the issue here, pigeons are more likely to strip the tops rather than eating the whole plant. Unfortunately to control rabbit damage you only have two options, fence the whole area (certainly possible with raised beds) or shoot them which may or may not be possible in your location!