From Randy, A.K.A. The Farmer:
The past week has probably been my worst week as far as the garden. Everything was doing magnificently (no late cold freeze and moderate temps) until I noticed that my Roma Italian beans were being sawed off at the ground.
I thought I had cutworms and put out cornmeal and flour (which is what was recommended for cutworms). However, after watching closely for several days, what I really had was an infestation of rolly-pollys (pill bugs).
They love a well composted garden and found a home in mine. Although they generally eat decaying organic matter, they are also prone to eating tender roots and stems of new plants. After the green beans, the chewed up the butternut squash sprouts and two tomato plants.
I have them under control now, but there is no way to get back the month of growth that had been invested in getting them from seed to young plants.
I can go buy the plants at the nursery, which I will probably do for the squash, but I will just have to plant warmer weather beans/peas in place of the Romas. After the attack of the rolly pollys, we had that monstrous wind and rain storm a couple of nights ago and it wiped out half of my Bok Choy and onions and flooded several other things (which I am hoping will recover).
My ground in the back slopes downward to the alley, so I built the furrows up so that they would drain well. The rain and wind was so intense that the ground soil started moving downhill and I don't have any furrows anymore - everything is flat. By being flat, the plants just sat in water and mud for about two days.
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