Rant

the word possum always reminds me of dame edna everage; i'd never heard the word before.
i just assumed it was a term of endearment.

sorry they're not endearing themselves to you, OP.

I feel your pain. I have muntjac deer invading my garden. They've munched their way through some of my favourite plants.
I hate the little b*****s.

It’s slugs and snails for me when you get up and see the slimy trails and then your plants decimated My friend gave me 6 lupin plants and 3 have been completely stripped not a leaf or even bit of a leaf left just 3 completely bare stalks So so disappointing

Beasts, the lot of them! We have 2 sorts of possums in our garden- little ringtails which are quite cute and great big brush tails, bigger than our cats. They make a funny noise at night which sounds like a heavy breathing pervert in the garden! They are protected here but in NZealand they kill them and make things from their fur.

How utterly sickening for you, nanna8. 💐
I’m reminded of the time I strove to make a little bit of garden when we were living in a Middle Eastern Desert. Some ‘sweet soil’ (just non-salty sand) was delivered and my plantings were finally beginning to take off, when I came home from work one day to find that locusts* had descended in droves and stripped the lot.
*a biblical-type plague at the time. A friend who was a nurse once had young local boys trying to appal her by devouring live locusts almost in her face! To them it was hilarious.

Here at the southern end of the UK we have urban foxes, big American grey squirrels and more than our fair share of slugs and snails all waiting to pounce after dark.

nanna8 I feel your pain - shared by gardeners the world over. Have you thought of a dartboard with a picture of a possum on it to alleviate the stress?

Grey squirrels are the focus of my ire. In our garden we have a beautiful hazel tree and, now, also a walnut. In 28 years living here we have not consumed a single nut off either tree.

The squirrels get there first and every lovely brown nut I pick off the grass, I turn it over and there is the hole drilled out and the kernel gone.

I HATE grey squirrels.

It’s slugs n snails here in the north west England. I can’t grow lupine in the borders. I love hostas and grow them in pots with copper tape round them to try and stop the things climbing up. Once one SAS type gets over the tape, it absails or leaps from pot to pot munching the leaves and laying next years invaders.

It’s a great shame those pests are are protected, but if it was me……..

Don't know why gardening is good for mental health. All I do is kill things. Worse than that the first thing I do is clear the corpses that I killed yesterday. Meaning slugs and snails.
And clearing up the poo from foxes hedgehogs and cats.

No wonder you hate that Possum. Grey squirrels stole all the bulbs we planted once. They also took over the bird feeder scaring the birds away from it. Pesky creatures.

My dad was in a constant battle with wild rabbits!
There's always something!

My friend has just had her kitchen garden munched to bits by the rats who attacked all manner of vegetables etc. She lives in the middle of the country.

It’s the damn red Lily beetle I do battle with every year!

I remember staying in a wooden chalet in the Tropical North, nanna8 and woke up to hear a gnawing sound thd other side of the wooden wall.
"Aw, it'll just be the possum, mate" was the reassurance!

Destructive little beasts but so cute and they are protected so farmers can't dispose of them.

I'm sorry about your plants, how upsetting.

M0nica

Grey squirrels are the focus of my ire. In our garden we have a beautiful hazel tree and, now, also a walnut. In 28 years living here we have not consumed a single nut off either tree.

The squirrels get there first and every lovely brown nut I pick off the grass, I turn it over and there is the hole drilled out and the kernel gone.

I HATE grey squirrels.

They're so cute too but they bury nuts all over the garden which sprout into oak and hazel trees and empty my pots, throwing soil over the patio and gravel.

I grow fruit, vegetables, flowers and shrubs to feed the local wildlife which runs riot in the garden, OH and I eat and admire what's left! We've had lots of moles this year, they love our poly tunnels especially when we have watered but their runs disturb the tomato plants, we caught one yesterday and I felt so mean, they are such cute creatures.

I planted winter cabbage plants just a few weeks ago. Diligently putting the frames in position I placed the netting over, checking that every point of entry was closed off.....................and STILL THE BUTTERFLIES GOT IN!

loopyloo

Don't know why gardening is good for mental health. All I do is kill things. Worse than that the first thing I do is clear the corpses that I killed yesterday. Meaning slugs and snails.
And clearing up the poo from foxes hedgehogs and cats.

Not with poison I hope? Especially if you have hedgehogs
which will eat the snails. Hedgehogs are your friends.
I hadn't seen one for a while but was pleased to see some hedgehog poo on the lawn the other day.

Pigeons ate my strawberries, at least the ones the slugs didn't get.
Blackbirds ate the few raspberries we had this year.

Both eat the grapes.

Sorry, and sorrier that your rant did make me smile!!

For us it’s foxes and squirrels!

They are a menace in our gardens, urban foxes that people feed!

Cossy

Sorry, and sorrier that your rant did make me smile!!

For us it’s foxes and squirrels!

They are a menace in our gardens, urban foxes that people feed!

Chris Packham's favourite animals, Cossy! 🦊