Still standing but incursion has happened

 It's high overcast and going to be downright pleasant for most of the day. It's very muggy but with a good breeze and fans we can survive for a while without running the AC. I mentioned in my fb group that something happened yesterday evening. The gopher tried to eat the small sunflower.

Picture on the left is from yesterday, freshly dug dirt at the base of the plant. Light level is almost the same in both pictures. I also sprayed neem on the sunflowers to knock down the lace bugs and it did the trick. Not 100% but got them sufficiently.

You can see how half the stem was chewed just above the soil. I packed the hole with wood and bark chips. I encountered several people that said, 'I saw a gopher run across the yard last night!'. Um no, you didn't. If you did it was likely sick. Did it have a tail you could see? Yes? Then it was a rat not a gopher.

Other than that, I almost panicked when I saw yellow pollen bits and black frass on the sunflower.

Green worm caterpillar is chewing the leaves but the pollen is just that and perfectly normal., I was worried it was eating the petals as well.

I pulled a leaf off last night to inspect and spray it and then left the worm on it. Well the little guy started crawling back to the sunflower so guess what? Me being the kind hearted gardener just took it on another leaf and dropped it in the asparagus fern. Torture I know but it's far away from my garden.

Everything else is doing just fine, amazing what some partial cloudy conditions can do for plants. No wilting today and only now (11:30 am) are the clouds drifting off wiht a strong breeze coming up.

I noticed on my way back to the apartment that the jade next to the bird of paradise is wilting. It gets water from the lawn cycle and has survived this long without any issues. I even noted a year ago that it was looking green and healthy compared to the other two next to the sidewalk that have more sun. I think the gophers have gotten to it.

Big difference from a year ago. If that is failing due to gophers, why isn't the bird of paradise? Because it tastes nasty. It also has a bigger root system than that jade. But why isn't the one in the corner of the garden being eaten? Wish I knew, I'm only guessing at complete failure like that was due to root loss. I tried to move a branch to see if it was loose but it was solid as a rock.

In any case, my sunflower is a success, hoping the cucumber starts producing soon or am going to start planting garlic over there as well for the fall. Like I said, the other beds are lost to the gophers, here's hoping the south bed is protected enough.