My garden trials and tribulations this summer

My garden initially started out great this year. Everything was growing and I had minimal issues with bugs, I even added different types of melons and veggies to my repertoire. I even had so many cantaloupes at one time, I actually ran out of space in my freezer, so I began making cantaloupe infused vodka. Can you say delish? More on that in a later post. But then right before we went on vacation, my hubby was checking some melons to see if they were ripe and noticed they were extremely light. Anybody who picks melons knows that the ones that are heavy for their size and are fragrant, generally are ripe and sweet. Well, imagine our surprise when he picked the melon and it was light as feather! No really, it was light! Upon further inspection, we found a large hole in the cantaloupe and all the juicy meat was gone and we had no idea of what, who or how it happened! (see last photo) So since we were leaving we fenced the area off and went on our vacation. Whelp, our house sitter informed us that a couple of raccoons were enjoying the fruits of our labor. (pun intended) She was startled by them one day but at least we found out what the problem was.  After returning from our trip we were alarmed after reading all the horror stories on how to get rid of these pesky critters. We eventually settled on this sonic system and haven't had anymore problems so far. Unfortunately, they wrecked havoc for the short time they were here, so I'm working on getting everything together for my Fall crops.

Can any of my fellow gardeners recommend some ways they got rid of garden pests?  Any and all comment or suggestions are welcomed.

Until next time my Loves!