Just got back from two weeks' holiday, to find my raised beds looking like a battlefield - rows of plants eaten right down to stumps. Something has obviously taken a fancy to certain things, as it's very specific:

- cabbages, cauliflowers, mizuma, radish completely wiped out, sunflowers badly damaged

- potatoes, carrots, peppers, chillis, tomatoes untouched.

My garden guardian tells me she spotted a few green eggs on the underside of leaves - which is anoying as I'd put coarse netting over everything before I left, in order to keep out butterflies. What sort of pest am I likely to have had, and how can I stop it repeating next year (apart from only growing tough crops!) ?

[Edit: just been out and spotted little piles of tiny green eggs around the base of the worst affected individuals. Is this cabbage root fly? I understood they ate the roots, not the leaves? ]

I'm afraid I'm not the veggie garden expert on here, but as you've haven't had a response so far, I just thought I'd add my thoughts. 

There could be so many reasons for your devastation.  How close was the netting to the plants?  Could pigeons have landed on the netting and eaten the caggages through the netting?  Are there any signs of caterpillars?  Your course netting won't keep out the root fly, you need a fleece type of thing to cover your carrots and I believe it needs to be put on really early in the season.  Slugs can also be a problem... often little white ones at this time of the year.  But with regards to your little green eggs... I'm not really sure... it couldn't be a fertiliser that has gone green?  Anyway, those are my thoughts for what they're worth.

I'm really sorry about your damage... hope it doesn't put you off... that's the trials and tribulations of gardening.  I often walk round the garden and go back indoors thoroughly depressed!!  But more often than not, I do feel elated after a session in amongst the beds and borders. 

Pamela

Could be slugs and snails as well as cabbage white butter flies. Its possible that they laid eggs before you put your netting on. Just a thought but no expert.

John