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The New Ten Commandments

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by jardinier

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by cas1949

Your 6th reminded me of the 18th Century clergy, who had time on their hands and were wont to describe an English garden as the perfect example of God's creation, with all of His creatures living in perfect harmony. Until, that is, someone took the trouble to look, and discovered the truth: that it was a battleground, with practically everything preying on everything else.

The survival of the fittest?! (Now, where have I heard that before?)

by jardinier

is the law of nature.

I actually avoid watching nature documentaries largely for this reason. Too gruesome for me.

And as a gardener by trade, whatever I try to grow, some little beastie wants to eat it, or some fungus wants to grow on it and sap the life out of it.

Here is a current real-life story. About 18 months ago I planted a number of rose bushes in a garden which I am paid to maintain. It was so long since I had grown roses that I had forgotten all about possums. They are nocturnal feeders and eat the young shoots, as well as damaging the plants by bending down the new stems so that they can feed.

Realising that I had been through this scenario in my own garden, I knew that the only effective answer was to feed the possums each night.

As the poor woman for whom I work has said: "You have given me a lifetime sentence." They must be fed EVERY evening or the exercise is a waste of time.

So we started off with two bananas and two slices of fruit bread. All was well.

And then one morning the roses had been attacked again (an additional possum having been invited to dinner no doubt) and so it was three bananas every evening.

When it got to four bananas I suggested to my client that it was a losing battle but she was prepared to fight on.

Now it is five LARGE bananas and five slices of fruit bread and the roses are looking marvellous.

by jardinier

When I was formerly living with my Mum we had a large garden and I had about 80 different varieties of roses, including some miniature ones. It was easy to see the possums' route to the garden as they climbed down a particular tree and walked a short way along the top of a paling fence before descending to the garden. They were clearly visible under floodlights which I had installed in order to (a) hang out my washing at night and (b) view the garden at night.

There is no question whatsoever that if I had possessed a firearm I would have shot the blighters (totally against the law as they are a protected species). However not being an American ;) I did not have an armoury.

My brother-in-law USED to have a .22 rifle because he often had large amounts of cash in the house. However at this stage he was in the process of dying from brain cancer and I guess it never occurred to me to check for the rifle.

HOWEVER, once I had spotted a mother possum with a baby on her back, well they looked so cute my animosity gradually waned.

Just a few nights ago when I was driving down my own driveway at night, I saw a small mother possum with a huge baby on her back. The baby appeared to be almost as large as the mother.

I am aware of your attitude towards "pets," but some folk like myself really appreciate most kinds of fauna.

Early in the episode I described in the previous post, I received an excited phone call one evening from my client: "I saw the possum ! I saw the possum !"

As she has always wanted a furry pet but it has not been feasible because of her lifestyle, she is more than happy to feed the possums.

We make lots of jokes about this ritual of feeding the beasties and so it is no longer regarded as an onerous task.

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