Beginner Gardening: Plant Them or Forget Them?, 0 by bgrumbin

bgrumbin wrote:
They were coming along soooo nicely. I was starting on the essential thinning process, grouching only because the seedlings weren't transplanting to other areas at all but promptly shrivelling up in new locations. I had three nicely filled out rows of little seedlings in my open front yard resulting from the seed contents of that original cantaloupe. Watered them one day. Went back to water them again two days later and they were GONE. Only a tiny few extremely close to the ground seedlings remained in my completely filled out cantaloupe patch which had many lovely prospects for full growth and fruiting. The attached photo shows the suspected culprit who accounted for the difference in that 36 hour period.

I'm in mourning at the moment for my gone forever cantaloupe crop. Not sure I even want to try to grow something that has to be so vigorously defended as special fencing (especially not in the open front yard, although I might try it elsewhere) and traps are also not really permissible in the open front yard due to the potential for curious children getting themselves into trouble. But I'm wondering whether it is now getting a bit late in the season to be trying to start over, even with rabbit fencing and/or humane rabbit traps and transport devices to try to protect the crop. Any thoughts on the subject?