I did promise to show you the other side of the garden. I’m afraid it’s not a pretty picture.

Last year we didn’t get any beans at all, and I blamed the poor rabbits. It turns out that the real culprits might have been cutworms. I know that’s the case this year because I actually found one sneaking up on a bean plant. You can see the evidence of their work if you look carefully in the orange circles in the photo below. Those green stubs are (were) bean seedlings.

I did some research and found out that cutworms are moth caterpillars that hide in the soil and come out at night. The best organic defense is birds. A few other suggestions are collars around the stems, or matchsticks on one or both sides. I’m not quite sure if someone is pulling my leg, but the theory is that if the cutworm can’t wrap himself completely around the stem, he can’t cut it. So, don’t be surprised at what you see in our garden in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, we planted quite a few more bean seeds, since less than half of the first sowing look like they’re going to make it.