Until last week, I had a beautiful row of beetroot in my garden. I had started them off in modules, then planted them out under netting until I thought they were big enough to be safe from birds. Last week I uncovered them (judging them big enough to be safe from birds and needing the netting elsewhere), and within two days I noticed that some had gone. Or at least the roots have - there were still some leaves lying around. Gradually, more have gone, and I finally covered them over yesterday with enviromesh, thinking that even though it wasn't fixed down very firmly around the edges, it would solve the problem. Fast forward to this morning and I found more beetroot gone. Left behind was a trail of leaves, and it led through the chainlink fence into the neighbour's wilderness (head-high brambles, nettles, etc...). The culprit had clearly gone through the chainlink near the bottom, because quite a few beetroot leaves were stuck there where it had dragged the plant(s) through.
My first thought was rats, but don't they usually just eat things like that in situ, without taking it away? If not them, I can only think it could be squirrels, though I am quite surprised that they would squeeze under either the enviromesh or through the chainlink fence.
What do you reckon?
Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
Mark Twain
