Permaculture Living

I appear to have won the ongoing battle with the possums. The answer, which was kindly provided in the comments earlier in January, is mosquito netting.

Enclosing the whole garden in a double-bed size net has kept the possums from climbing the fence and from eating any of the vines that are growing along it. It also filters the hot Queensland summer sun a little.

The one caveat to covering your garden in netting – remember to open it up during the day, otherwise the pollinators aren’t able to get in and the harvest may suffer.

I was keeping a close eye on the first watermelon on the vines, which was growing nicely, from this…

To this…

Then the day I hoped would never come arrived. The possums have figured out how to collapse the top of the fence and get to the fruit growing on the wire.

Sigh. I guess more fortifications are in order.

I’m used to sharing Queenslander-style houses with a variety of wildlife, but snakes are new. Last night I was surprised by a two-metre long python on the back veranda, which hung around for a few minutes then disappeared back into the roof cavity.

I’m guessing this is why the possums have not been bothering us for the last week.

Battles with the local possums continue. Not content with eating every tomato, chilli and capsicum plant within reach, they have moved onto the pumpkin vines.

Two of them have been returning to the pumpkin every week or so to test for ripeness. This was their last test – it’s now been fenced off.

Such havoc a single possum can wreak in a single night. From this:

To this:

It didn’t even eat much; it just tore off the top branches, took a couple of bites out of a capsicum, and then left them in favour of demolishing the tomato seedlings.