This weekend had tuned into a wet one. From last night (Saturday), w have had a fair amount of rain that hasn’t stopped since. We have had possums causing mischief and eating my beans! While Cuddles the cat would love to play guard cat, she has to stay inside with possums about!

I have purposely kept my gardening to the bare me minimum this weekend due to the fact that I have been doing a lot of studying-the dissertation won’t write itself!

As possums have likely been eating my broad beans, I’ve sown lots of new seeds. I am hopeful that they will leave some for me to allow for a bean harvest, if not then I hope they enjoy! You can take two views on possums and other animals in the garden.

The first is that they are a problem that needs eradicating. They are not a problem, they are doing as nature intended-getting on with life, as I hope everyone that reads this is. If a possum, or anything else eats your plants, there is netting and other non-chemical methods to prevent them from doing so. Also, get some plants that possums (and others) would prefer in your garden and there will be less trouble for other plants.

The other way to see things is that possums are part of the ecosystem in your local area. No garden exists in a vacuum-your garden impacts on its surroundings as other gardens impact on yours. Possums can have a positive impact on your garden, just like ladybirds eating aphids and birds eating slugs-possums will also eat your slugs. I take this second view-they are an interesting part of garden life, and I like watching them if given a chance.

With up to 90mm of rain today, I am not planning on any other gardening today. My cacti are getting watered by the rain as it’s better for them than tap water, my other plants are growing ok too.