On my mind...Sacrificing fruit for good roots.

FIRST YEARS FRUIT TO BE SACRIFICED
I must straighten this back up too
after the horrible wind storm we had the other day.

Many thanks to Rhonda at Down to Earth for this concept.

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Yep, this one is going to hurt....I was looking forward to having oranges this season, but I have learn't that in order to set your new fruit tree up for a good life....it's best to sacrifice the first fruit so that the energy goes into the root ball, and not into growing fruit. This sets the fruit tree up for the following years to be a much healthier, happy plant.  Ohhhh, it's going to hurt....My little Seedless Valencia Orange is full of fruit, but what Richard says in the gardening course........makes so much sense!

So Richard, if your reading this..this post is for you..to show that I am a good student,
and I do as I am told....lol

Dwarf seedless Valencia fruit ALL GONE
:(  equals  :) next season

I also sacrificed the lime flowers too......so it can grow and become stronger. Ahhh, no point worrying about it now...can't glue 'em back on...lol....Oh, if your'e wondering about the size of the pot....It's not permanent...It's going to be planted in the front garden once it is built.

LIME TREE - FIRST YEAR
Sacrificing the fruit buds.

I'm such a good student.....hmmmmmm, all that fruit that could have been.....will be on my mind today.

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RATS IN YOUR GARDEN? 

I have two types of rats in my garden at the moment.....

one feral, and one not so feral named Rusty.

I'd like to tell you about a little thing that happened in my garden yesterday......

Every morning, Rusty comes out with me to the garden, I go out there, just to check on things,.....water the mushroom compost...and take stock of what still needs to be done....Rusty, on the other hand, comes out with me...to hunt for lizards, and anything else smaller than her. Her motto is....'Anything smaller than me, on MY property...MUST DIE'..... she even takes cockroaches out of the house to kill.

Rusty is a good hunter too...never giving up on a scent.....staying so focused she becomes out of breath from searching every trace smell left behind by 'Anything smaller than her'. Sometimes it's cats, sometimes it's a rat....mostly it's just lizards though.

Yesterday, while on our morning walk around the garden....Rusty's behaviour told me that a rat had walked along one of the big black tubs.....I had a few trays of Tomato seedlings sitting in the tub to protect them in the horrible wind storm we had.......The tub is full of soil, waiting for some of my seedlings...........

Well, Rusty, my darling dog who I tell ..."Is the most beautiful girl in the whole world"....decided upon herself to remove the Tomato Seedling pots from the top of the black tub....so she could jump up into the tub for a better sniff and hunt. One by one she had stretched her neck far enough that she could grab the pot by the top with her teeth...and dump it on the ground. There were 6 pots on the ground. I had a mess to clean up, and some seedlings to save.....

Meanwhile Nanna (my Mum) yells out her window...."Can you come and put my slippers on for me"....and as I had just finished cleaning up the mess....I guess she heard me yelling at Rusty....so off I went and helped Mum with her slippers.......

By the time I got back......there were another 9 seedlings and their tubs dumped on the ground....and one very dirty Rusty Dog! I yelled, I ranted, I raved....I even threatened her with a cane close by, by tapping her on the rump with it. Not very hard...just enough to give her the message, that it is serious. ( this is the first time too for such a tap, so she didn't know what hit her......no pun intended here).....

So........... she goes around the sink area, to avoid me......and back to the Tomato Seedlings....with that; I gave her another whack; on the bum this time..and a little harder too.....sure; I don't think it would hurt her much...but it would give her something to think about. 

I work too hard to have it all tossed on the ground....so after cleaning up the second bigger mess....and saving what I could save...I realised there was no way I was going to stop Rusty from hunting for the rat that had long gone....but had left behind a trail of scent to annoy her anyway....So I relocated the pots to another area.

Different varieties of tiny tomatoes.

You may think I have lots of Tomato Plants...and be wondering what I am going to do with them all....surely they aren't all for me?.....No they're not! This is what grew when I planted seeds....so I will give them all a chance....

• Some I will keep for myself...the strongest of them all...probably about 4 of each variety...they are all the mini tomatoes....
• Some I will donate to my local Community Garden......
• Some for an elderly couple up the road............for their grandchildren when they visit them.
• Some I will sell on the trade table at the Garden course........( a new idea of Richard's)
• and Some I will donate to freecycle..........

They all get a chance, and I get to share....win win for everyone.

Do you have any 'First year fruit'.....will you be sacrificing the fruit so your citrus can develop a nice big healthy root ball? 

Do you have any rats of the Rusty variety? what did you do to keep them from being a rat?!