I know the frustration. In my yard, this kind of digging is caused by skunks primarily. At other times of the year, turkeys can cause similar disturbances. I find that squirrels only mess with my plants or containers when they're stashing seeds or nuts for the winter. Raccoons, however, are monsters! They dig deep into containers, and they tear whole plants out of containers. They also knock things over, even if they're not looking for food. Anyhow, my money's on the skunk. Our skunks have been very active for the past month. Josh

Even though the attack is spotty, it's probably deer. Nothing else would eat a whole perennial like that (rabbits are too short). BTW, cuts from rabbit teeth are sharp and clean as if they were made with pruners. Deer cuts tend to be ragged since they pull and don't cut clean. I suggest spraying with a good repellent--Deer Off, Liquid Fence, Plantskydd, and try to concentrate on plants deer don't like. Strongly aromatic plants are not only unappealing, but also have some repellent value as the scent jams deer's predator defensese, their sense of smell. Such plants include Agastaches, Perovskia, Nepetas, Calaminthas, Geranium maccrorhizum as well as 'Bikovo', 'Karmina' et. al (but not other Geraniums). Growing plants that they really like, like Phlox, is asking for trouble. Now that they're in the restaurant, it's only a matter of time before someone tries the other items on the buffet.

Never saw a hornworm in 26 years growing tomatoes, that is until year 27. Didn't even know what one looked like and had never heard of them before either. Year 27 was last year and anyone who wonders how quickly they can destroy a tomato plant, trust me, it doesn't take very long. This was a tiny tim on Monday. 14 inches tall. It rained all day Tuesday, so was not outside to check anything or even see anything that was going on. Same tiny tim 9AM Wednesday morning. There was nothing but a few stems left and a couple of tomatoes. Luckily though, there was enough left in the season, half of August and all of Sept. for regrowth and toms before the frost set in. regrowing tiny tim This was on the other side of the yard, so none of the other tomato plants where affected, but trust me, i was going through those plants with a flashlight several times a day looking for any sign of them and found none. By the way, those hornworms measured 4 inches long and there where 2 of them on that poor little plant. So far this year no sign of them. A question though. My grandparents had a summer veggie and flower farm and my grandfather always swore by companion planting of marigolds and tomato plants. He always had marigolds surrounding his tom plants. and he had at least 150 tomato plants. I've always done the same thing when I plant them in the ground and when I use pots for the toms, I always plant a small growing marigold in the pot, right at the edge of the plant. I've never had an insect problem before in now 28 years of growing my toms, until last year. That one tiny tim didn't have a marigold in the pot with it, all the others had marigolds surrounding them and in pots with them and they never got any hornworms. Does anyone think that the marigolds help to keep the hornworm away or was last year just a coincidence and I've just been lucky all these years? Fran

Would need a physical barrier to keep deer away… 'pests' has a broad definition that includes every thing from mites and mealy bugs to deer, neighbors and even 'clumsy friends'. Fortunately most humans just tromp on these, not eat them.. .but just about everything else does. I find rabbits do not like the darkly colored Aeoniums, so you should be OK there.. .but gophers LOVE These plants, and so you may need to plant them in a wire cage. Mealy bugs also love these, but less of a problem if not over shaded. Grasshoppers also love them and no idea how to stop that problem. Ground squirrels also seem to like these and it's pretty hard to keep them away without screening them in 360degrees. I deal with pests by continually beheading my Aeoniums and replanting the cuttings, making so many available no pest can eat them all… working so far.