You wait all year in anticipation... and overnight your crop is gone

How many of us plant and tend to a crop, whether it be fruit like apples and pears or a crop in the vegetable garden like delicious strawberries, only to have possums, rabbits or birds nibble away at them?

It might not be so bad if these unwanted guests decided to eat just one item in your prized crop, but they seldom do this, instead preferring to sample a bit of everything. You can muck around with hanging up all sorts of paraphernalia, but they seldom work for any length of time.

The only real way to keep your crop for yourself is total exclusion of the vermin, but stretching bird netting over plants and then having to remove it to pick is tedious and time consuming. Would it not be so much better if you could walk into a vermin exclusion zone and pick at your leisure?

Hunkin Garden Products have such a product with their Uk-made fruit and vegetable cages.

Walk-in aluminium fruit and vegetable cages are the most cost effective way to protect your crop. These cages feature 25mm diameter, non-rusting aluminium poles, heavy-duty fruit cage side netting, and high quality anti-bird fruit cage roof netting. The cages provide 2 metres of working (and plant growing!) height and are supplied complete with a door, netting, clips, pegs, and ties, and a fully-illustrated instruction booklet.

So if you actually want to get to eat your crop this season install a fruit and vegetable cage - you will be amazed at just how much you have lost in the past to vermin.