We have built a large garden, our first, here is Salt Lake City. We got an early start against recommendations and had great success on avoiding the frost damage.

The first thing to come up and look very good was our romaine lettuce. It was looking about 2 weeks ago it was almost ready to harvest. Now we are left with chewed nubs of plants where the Romaine should be.

We have lots of stuff out there growing from seedling, tomatoes, peppers and all sorts of other things. Except for a nibble on a broccoli leaf and red sail leaf all other plants have been left alone. But the half dozen or so Romaines spread throughout the garden have been found and eaten to a variety of degree some down to a nub.

There is a squirrel that lives in the rafters of a shed 50 feet away from the garden. We also see a covey of quail around from time to time around. Which of these are the most likely culprit of the romaine only attacks?

Yesterday I bought some deer off (a capsicum based repelent) and will be trying that. I have just read the squirrel thread and am somewhere between putting up chicken wire and havaheart trap or zaparat. But don't want to waste money if it turns out to be the quail doing the damage. I am also concerned that when the romaine is totally gone they will move onto the other crops. I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks

PP