Possums and Bandicoots - deterrent trials

I have a real problem with Possums & Bandicoots, not in my veggie patches; I have fenced all these off, but in my gardens and lawns.

We have divided our backyard into a couple of different styles. We have a Cactus & Succulent area and a Tropical Garden/Rain Forest area as well as the veggie beds.

The front courtyard has lawn and is surrounded by a boundry garde

n bed (approx. 4m x 8m) I have planted an array of flowers in the edging, as well as a hedging plant in front of the Japanese Maple we planted not long after we moved in.

We have put a 10cm in depth Cream pebble's (size 20-40mm) down to give it a dry river bed look with a curvey line of gold Cowra river pebbles. It looked great, until the Bandicoots decided to see what was under them. Who thought they would do so much damage to pebbles. I thought they would be to heavy for them to move, but no.

The Tropical Garden/Rain Forest area has been mulched with Cy

press Mulch, which smells divine and looks great, until they the Bandicoots appear.

What I have tried to deter the critters!

******as I have a cat I have to be careful what I use as kitty needs to use the garden when nature calls******

Passionfruit Vine

Camphor - those little ones that you hang in your closet.

Result - made the yard smell nice, but did not work as a deterrent, FAIL.

Multicrop SCAT Bird & Animal Repellent.

Result - ate every leaf on the plant, FAIL.

Garden Beds (rainforest, cactus & courtyard)

Pine-O-Clean

Result - smelt nice and made me feel like I had at least sanitised the possum pee, FAIL.

Dynamic Lifter/Dyno Fert (Chicken poo pellets)

Result - fertilised garden only, FAIL

Chili Spray - homemade

Result - will let you know, I have only just made it and sprayed it on a few small areas in the gardens.

There are a few more things I can try and will if the chill does not work.

Soil, Compost & organics used for Veggie Beds

As previously noted, I used a total of 3 Tonne of Organic Dirt, delivered by my local Flower Power Nursery.

The soil where I live is quite clayey and if able to dig more than 30cm down I would know doubt hit and have hit sandstone. Good old Sydney sandstone.

So once the beds were made, I churned the dirt as best I could, to this I added Gypsum, a good few handfuls of chicken pellets (DynoFert) a couple of bags of mushroom compost, 1/2 a bag of cow manure and covered it with a good quantity (about 1 large garbage bag) of shredded paper (recycled from the office I work in).

I let this sit for a week then turned it, then I added the bought bulk dirt. To this I added yet another 2 bags of mushroom compost and another 1/2 bag of cow manure to the top and the good 'ol chicken pellets, I lightly mixed this into the top.

Give it a good water and the next day good to go for planting.

I have done this with all 3 beds, though with the smaller of the 3 beds I have led the mushroom compost only.

Cost of Gardens Beds

So the beds themselves were quite cheap.

Each sleeper cost $8 (we used 20) and about $20 in bolts in total. Hubby wanted to make sure it was not going anywhere, nails would have done. Also $7 on wooden pegs.

Screw them together straight and even to form a box. Do this again and lay one on top of the other and screw into small wooden stakes for extra support.

3 Tonne of organic dirt was delivered in total. 1 Tonne each for the two larger beds, 1 Tonne for the smaller bed and the rest just got mixed in the rest of the garden.

We have a slight slope in the backyard, so a little digging was required.

Planted to date - Garden Bed #2 & #3

So during April 2012 garden bed # 2 & # 3 have been set up and planted with Winter Veg.

Bed #2

Seed - none

Seedlings - Onions - Brown, Leeks, Garlic, Parsley, Lettuce, Perpetual Spinach & Pak Choi.

Bed #3

Seeds - Carrot, Cauliflower, Sugar Snap Peas & Butter Beans

Seedlings - Parsley, Brocoli, Cauliflower & Pak Choi.

I accidentally planted Cauliflower seeds instead of Cabbage. So there will be a lot of Cauliflower this year.

Photo of hubby planting bed # 2.

Now we have a rather bad pest problem and not the buggy kind. I live in an area where possum's and bandicoots rule supreme at night. So all my beds are surrounded by chicken wire. I simply role it around and wedge in with small wooden stakes, it is good an floppy so if they do try and climb it, well they will fall flat on there bums.

Since my veggies are all protected the possum's and bandicoots have decided to dig up our lawn, my cactus patch and the grasses we have planted. Oh and the rain forest garden we have set up.

As annoying as this is, constantly plugging up the holes they leave behind and ridding the yard of the smell of their pee, this tells me we have turned the gardens around from hard compacted, weed infested grass to almost weed free grass that looks very happy & the old soil to viable, worm enriched soils.

I do wish they would eat else where though.

Planted to date - Garden Bed #1

So all beds are now in and planted. I have three beds, all made of wood, there sizes are 1.8m x 1.8m x 400mm (2) & 1.8m x 1.8m x 200mm (1). I have given the very glamorous names of Garden Bed # 1, Garden Bed # 2, Garden Bed # 3, the order in which they were constructed.

My first bed went in in February and was planted with

Seedlings:- Lettuce - Mixed, Beetroot, Capsicum - Chocolate Beauty, Aubergine - Bianca Rosa

Seeds:- Chives, Carrots, Radish, Sugar Snap Peas

Plants I had & bought:- Birdseye Chili, Rosemary - Standard, Stevia, Curry Plant, Basil

Everything is growing along really well. Whilst waiting for it to grow and establish, my reward after watering and feeding it would be eating the radishes, which grow so quickly. It's a great teaser to what is too come.

I was able to start harvesting the lettuce and looked around to see what else i could pick for my first salad. Then I saw my beetroot. The leaves were tender enough to use in a salad so I picked a few and of course the radish. It was not by any means a huge salad from the garden, but a basic one.

Since then the only addition has been basil and sugar snap peas.

Photo's taken in 18th Feb at planting and at the end of March

Early days yet...