Shape of holes match transplanted seedling pots placed there 12 days earlier.
No other transplants disturbed.
Small impressions in the surrounding soil surface, not clear enough to identify fingerprints, footprints, or tool marks.
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| survivor - Red Express cabbage |
The broccoli plant is known to have been dead at the time of disappearance, but the missing cabbage was said to be vibrant and healthy, with its whole life ahead of it.
Who would steal a tiny cabbage and a deceased broccoli, and why?
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| cucumber seedlings in coir pots |
A witness interview revealed that an unidentified bird was recently seen flying from the yard with a large mass of fibrous material in its beak.
The starter pots for both missing plants were made of coir, fibre from coconut husks. Could the need for nesting materials have motivated a bird, or perhaps birds, to dig up the brassica pots?
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| found! |
Within minutes, both fibre pots were spotted where they had been carelessly discarded in the beet and chard bed. The perpetrator had obviously worked away at the pot material with little effort to protect the health and safety of its inhabitant.
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| not dead yet |
The traumatized cabbage was replaced in its original spot. Odds for survival are not good, given the stem damage sustained, but we are doing all we can for it. It is fortunate that the incident occurred on a cool, rainy weekend.
With all the seedlings that have been set out to harden off in the last few weeks, unprotected in their coir pots, it is remarkable that there have not been more incidents like this. It was a careless gardener who put her plants in such peril.
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