John: For a groundhog 200 feet away, your watermelons are right in his back yard. I just now walked up from the garden with a groundhog caught in the trap and dispatched with a single shot in the head from a pellet gun. I seem to get about 6-8 weeks between groundhogs, than another one discovers my easy pickings and I have to get the trap out again. One of my neighbors who also gardens has the same problem, and borrows my trap from time to time. He lives about a block away, and between the two of us we keep the groundhog population under control. Otherwise, we could forget growing anything like melons, squash, beets, tomatoes, etc.. The biggest one I ever caught weighed 17 pounds, but the average is 8-9 pounds. Don't know how big they get in Oklahoma. When there are existing tunnels in the area, it is easy for another one to move in. The tunnels are large and very extensive underground. Smoking them out with those smoke bombs that look like big firecrackers should work but it does not. And they are a pain to use, with very short fuses. My trap is the large 48" model live trap, and cost me about $60.00, but I have used it for close to 10 years now. It has a treadle type release which drops the front door when the groundhog steps on it. I don't think Lowes normally carries them, but they are widely available from other sources if you look around online. I had to tighten up all the little metal clips around the frame with a pliers because they were not tightly installed at the factory. The best bait I have found is peaches or nectarines, which work nearly every time. Other baits like lettuce, cabbage etc. do not attract. There are also commercial baits sold, but I doubt anything could beat a couple of nearly ripe peaches. Once in a while, you may get a possum or a raccoon. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I'm a bit late to answer, I know, but it might be interesting to note that snails and slugs love artichokes ! I have planted 12 artichokes, far apart one from the other, and they are fighting to survive against the snails and slugs. Ferramol the little buggers don't find it tasty enough. My ripe strawberries they don't give a rat's butt. Obviously the weeds they are fed up with. But the artichokes they are mad of them ! Gourmet meal ! Even the big hard leaves ! So I had to buy grounded coffee, kilos of it, and to make a ring around the artichokes. I sort of mulched around the plant and the circle is about 60 cm in diameter. I wish I had stock in starbuck because me alone have helped their business a lot ! Oh, there's hand picking as well, which I used to do at 6 in the morning, when only the artichokes were planted. Now I have to water the 50 tomatoes and 10 zucchinis and 5 squash (the lattest being a tasty meal for the snails too apparently ! ) so there's no time to pick the buggers before work any more ! Good luck ! Enjoy it that you're not here in the South of France where we have billions of little white snails called "limacon" ! They are so numerous that they stiffle whole big trees in summer when they stuck on them to avoid the hot soil !

Grasshoppers? I am having a hard time with them this year.

I think there is a bug that saws off branches/leaves by chewing. If you google pumpkin pests...you may find your answer.