Possibly a cutworm. Dig around the base of the eaten plants with your finger, looking for a cutworm. Possibly slug damage. Groundhogs also do similar damage, but usually on a much grander scale.

MM

Thanks, maineman. It's puzzling, because the cabbage and flower seedlings disappeared completely, like they were chowed down. Last night, one of my broccoli plants had a couple of big leaves pulled off. Any other guesses? Should I put out a trap, and how can I bait it without attracting more critters? Or should I just forget it and hope it finds greener pastures?

Another foot-tall broccoli plant was eaten down to the ground overnight. No trace (stalk bits, leaf shreds) was left behind. Could it be a very selective deer who jumped the 6' fence? A rabbit? ?!

nygardener, is it possible that someone's pet, fully grown iguana has escaped and is hungry?

NYG,

"Another foot-tall broccoli plant was eaten down to the ground overnight. No trace (stalk bits, leaf shreds) was left behind."

Sounds like we can eliminate cutworms. Last year, I experienced what seemed like giant cutworm damage to some of my newly set out tomato plants. I put cardboard collars around my remaining tomato plants.

Then, one morning, as I was quietly weeding, I heard something and looked up, to see a large snapping turtle only a few feet from me. It had already eaten some lettuce plants and was walking toward some young kohlrabi plants. We caught it in a large plastic tub and returned it to a nearby pond (which it probably had come from.)

Apparently it had laid eggs in our garden, because weeks later we found and rescued several baby turtles and returned them to the pond as well. Do you happen to have a pond or stream around that could serve as the home for a snapping turtle? It could be your culprit.

MM

There is a stream nearby, yes. It's only a few feet wide and I've never seen turtles nearby. I'll keep a lookout, though ... thanks for the ideas!

Could be a rabbit. I've seen many of our plants mown down by them plenty of times.

If anyone has any suggestions on getting rid of a rabbit, I would be all ears! I have one doing serious lawn damage right now!

You could also try humane traps and relocate them somewhere far away.

Sorry, I messed that up. There was a lot more, so here it is.

You can try building a fence out of at least 1/2" hardware mesh around the entire garden at least 1'6" high. We did and it keeps them out extremely well. Just be sure to make it so you can open it up some how to get in instead of having to step over it. There are also repellents you can use but you have to reaply them after it rains because it washes off and that can get expensive.

I forgot to mention that squirrels, not only love to dig things up and plant nuts, but also mow things down and chew them up as well.