As I've written elsewhere, we spent the last week of September and almost all of October either in Europe or in overpriced aluminium tubes travelling between Europe and Australia.
This of course meant we missed the prime growing season of early spring when we normally plant our summer vegetables.
September was warmer than usual, so in the weeks before departure I planted seeds, bought tomato plants, planted our early potatoes.
In fact I bought tomato plants twice as the first lot I planted out were decimated by possums.
Now that's never happened to me before - yes we've had the odd bit of nibbling, but usually they leave the plants alone.
Not this year.
So just before we left I planted out more (and bigger) plants in the hope that the possums would leave them alone.
They didn't.
The tomato plants were reduced to bare stalks, and the zucchini seeds, if they germinated, have all been eaten. The parsley had either bolted or been eaten, but strangely the basil had survived.
The potatoes were fine, as were the broad beans, despite the possums having had a go at them in early winter.
So, I took a punt and bought a couple of tomato and parsley plants.
You can guess what happened - our pouched friends decided to get in on the act.
So, yesterday I went over to a local garden centre, bought some late season tomato plants, zucchini plants, and some herbs and potted them up and put them on the back deck inside the fenced off area we have for the cats - they both have no road sense and are happier and safer confined to a catio than let out to roam.
It also means that we have native birds in our garden, and can have a bit of a wildlife haven - even if that does involve rampaging possums.
The plan is to grow the plants on in pots, and once they are big and hairy enough, transplant them to the garden beds, and hope that by then the possums have lost interest.
Longer term, I can see myself building some simple vegetable cages in the autumn to keep the pouched demons at bay ...
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