If you can see the craters of pulled up plants, obviously it won't be slugs. At any rate, just going through the garden at 10pm with a flashlight will give you an exact count of your slugs (their mucus makes them shiny, and very easy to spot on the ground and in the foliage). Given the level of destruction, and lack of tracks, I vote for groundhogs. Remediation: 1) check around the perimeter for entry points at the base of the fence. My fence never really worked until I put down chainlink horizontally, 2 inches deep, and tied to the vertical fence. I was getting rabbits under the fence. 2) for those who try to go over the fence (including deer), electric fence a few inches below the top is the only solution. You only need to keep it up a few days. They will remember for the rest of their life. Search the site about electric fences.

Ken, you called it. ==>>> you are welcome .... lol ... no.. wrong answer ... i mean.. translating it to YOU WERE RIGHT ... i cant hear that enough.. around my own house... lol .. so i have to get it from you guys... welcome to reality ... rabbits are vermin ... and not to be encouraged ... as i previously said.. so i will not repeat it ... mine all worked above the snow.. your history of them tunneling under snow.. makes no sense ... mine also girdled shrubs ... striping the bark.. not eating the center wood on a variety of stock .... again.. you confuse me ... i have a lot of damage... now that the snow is gone.. 2 or 3 feet up a branch/trunk ... where they worked their magic ABOVE the snow line ... i have what used to be a 5 foot paladin lilac .. dwarf huh??? ... that is about 8 feet wide.. now half is 5 feet tall .. the other 3 feet ... lol .. no flowers on the shortened stuff ... and they did eat it all on that ... i wouldn have thought deer damage.. but i didint see any tracks in the deep snow ... or it was done before the snow.. and i missed it .... but the upside is.. that you are going to learn about what i mean when i say that most of what you planted.. you can run them over with the truck ... you cant kill most of these things ... as i recall you not having anything that foo foo ... so tell hubby.. to suck it up.. and trim everything effected to about 3 to 6 inches.. and watch how mother nature responds ... with no insult to the root system.. you might be pleasantly surprised how well everything responds... growing to near the same size by fall ... this is the next prediction.. and i will look for the 'you were right' post in fall ... lol .. and try to contemplate.. anything lost ... is a planting hole for something new... and while you are at it ... may as well dig out the burning bushes ... as apparently they are fodder.. and irritating.. not to mention that which you dont want to hear about .... sometimes.. regardless of your wishes.. certain plants just arent worthy ... of the space provided ... look forward to the pix.. i am guessing.. they are not going to be as bad as you think they are ... yesterday i cut down a 10 by 15 foot shrub... to 6 inches.. i have no worries.. it will come back ablazing .... though i will miss its flower show.. but the other 20 of them..will take care of that ... ken ps: and tell hubby.. who cares what the neighbors think.. we dont garden for them ... live and learn.. its all a learning curve ....

@ Andrew- A lot of questions, lol. Ok, so about the mangoes: I do think Carrie is a condo variety, but more importantly, you should read this article (assuming you haven't already) from Fairchild about mango pruning/maintenance. It represents the cornerstone of my strategy to keep them going in the north: http://www.virtualherbarium.org/tropicalfruit/mangopruning.html In the Fall, I usually pull them in only when the temps are predicted to drop below 34 degrees. Of course, the longer they are exposed to those temps, the more likely they will bloom. Hence, all of the blooms I got this Winter (they were all out until November.) The Squirrel issue only affected me last Summer. Usually I use bird netting (I have a lot of cherry trees and blueberries) to keep them at bay, and it works fine. For some reason, I didn't think they would go after my one peach tree since they didn't touch the other one. *shrugs* As for the lychees: Not all lychees are equal, nor are everyone's taste buds. Taste seems to be a highly subjective thing, so it depends on what variety you tasted. If you ask Lycheeluva, he will, overwhelmingly, recommend Mauritius. I tend to like Brewster/sweetheart the best, and I'm sure Harry will definitely have a more informed opinion on this since he has so many varieties at his disposal. I got my lychee trees in 2007, and the Emperor seems to be on a 3 year schedule. Other cultivars are more consistent like sweetheart and Mauritius. It varies by cultivar a lot. The Emperor is easy to pollinate because it has primarily M1 male flowers (they are the first to bloom). This is in contrast to cultivars like sweetheart that tend to push females out first, then follow with M2 males. That is problematic since a lot of the females will drop before the males show up. Cross pollination (with regard to pollen) is essential to get the best/steady yields. Of course, there are other variables in there too, but flower order is key to having available pollen for us northerners. So, that being said, I would probably recommend a sweetheart since they are high quality/flavorful fruits with consistent blooming cycles. If you could add another cultivar, that would be advisable to get the cross pollination. I would also recommend tasting as many different cultivars as you can to get an idea of which is your favorite. I know, easier said than done. I recommend chatting with Harry about his choices before buying too. @ Simon- There you go making me blush! I'm not sure how consistent the Emperor is in ground, but the volume of pollen can't be discounted. Probably a good choice for pollinating your sweetheart. Hey, how is that Kaw Luk doing? You know I have a standing order on an air-layer from you when it gets bigger ;) Maybe we can exchange air-layers one Kwa Luk for one Emperor? Maprang? I've read Jay and others chatting about it, but never tried one. I'll have to put it on the tasting list. @ Sb- Thanks, I'm holding the torch high. There's nothing like taking a picture of flowering lychees with snow in the background. Any new pics in that nice greenhouse of yours?

Toured a very large cherry & apple orchard today, we noticed some smaller trees (apple) in the rows with larger trees and some white, square plastic pails in the rows between the smaller trees. When asked about it, the founder of the orchard, in his 80's, replied, we have at times over a hundred deer traveling through this orchard at the same time. If we didn't do this, we wouldn't be able to start new trees. He said they put an inch or two of Milorganite in the perforated pails and add a little water for moisture. He said there's hardly any smell to the human nose but the deer won't come near to those trees. Period. These people work closely with the U of M at many level with their business. They are at the top of their game. Just thought I'd share. :-) Eta: There are a few holes in the lids (that don't show in the picture).