When is a birdcage not a birdcage?

When is a birdcage not a birdcage? Why when it’s at the front line of defence against possums!

Over the years some of you have made caustic comments about my endless ‘collections’ – blue and white china, ‘little houses’, fabric (which includes many sub- categories including birds, cherries, pansies, roses spots, stripes …), baskets, bird nests and birdcages to name a few. Shoes and clothes don’t count as collections.

I did cull some of these before we moved as in I returned the bird nests to Mother Nature, mostly because I was worried about the bio security side of things, but also because they are a bugger to pack (OK the one Kira gave me for my birthday a few years ago did come but I gave it a good spray with Moreton).

All of the birdcages made the trip south, much to the amusement of the removalists ( I use the word amusement lightly) and they were lined up under the house awaiting their new assignment when it dawned on me that they were perfect possum proof enclosures for tender, juicy plants.

Conversations about gardening on Bruny inevitably return to the topic of what you can grown outside of the cages/poly tunnels/greenhouses that are possum resistant. The list is not huge and subsequently most gardens have a similarity – echium, pelargoniums in various shades of pink, daisies, succulents and some natives. A good deal of chicken wire has been sacrificed to make little hats to keep precious things safe but it does give a feeling of Colditz.

Trees too often wear metal bands to keep the blighters from reaching the canopy. This is particularly the case with some eucalyptus species which are the preferred habitat of the critically endangered Swift Parrot. Sugar gliders which were introduced to Tasmania attack the nesting female and her eggs.

Even our enclosed back garden has a band of shiny metal on the fence supposedly to keep the possums out. I wouldn’t want to point out to whoever put it there ( not us) that Mr/Ms Poss could easily drop down from one of the overhanging trees. But of course we have the ever vigilant Ruby on patrol to keep this area safe!