Lawns, Tomato cages & Celery

Its time here to be fertilising your lawn......Almost two weeks ago is when I fertilised my front lawn.....the photo below actually makes it look rather good, but look closely and you will see that it could be much better....lol

 Using Shirley's No17 from Bunnings, I got to work.............and followed the instructions.......

Look how lovely and green my lawn is now....there is a brown patchy area behind the trailer,  but that is where the trailer WAS originally,  I just need to fertilise that area, and it's all done!

It's the first time I have ever fertilised the lawn....and I'll be doing it again next year when it's time.

I'm really pleased with the outcome.

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Tomato Cages....For the last few years I have had good production of mini tomatoes, but I find in the heart of summer it is a daily chore to be tying them up and supporting them.....This year I hope to at least lessen the time spent tying them up, which will also mean that I reduce the time I spend 'touching' the plants too. The less I 'tend' or 'touch' my tomato vines, the less chances I have of damaging them. Sure, I pick out the new growth directly above the leaf, but other than that....I want my time used in other areas in the garden.

I have always just stopped and stared at the huge prices that Bunnings and other garden centres charge for tied pieces of wire mesh (Tomato cages, and other vine climbing bits and pieces) ....

So while at Bunnings, I picked up two rolls of 5 metres of wire and decided to make my own......

If only I could have sourced the wire mesh at the metal recyclers...they would have been even cheaper. Unfortunately, wire mesh is a rare sight at the recyclers....or it's in a huge roll, way to heavy for me to handle.

Towards the end, it was hard on my hands, but ten cages for roughly $20....is good spending in my books. And, the tomatoes look much happier in their new cages....don't you think?

 

This year I have decided to give larger varieties of tomatoes a go...

I figure Why Not!

In the garden, I've planted Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter & Ox Heart.

I love the tiny toms, and have a few new varieties to try this year.....

They include: White cherry, Black cherry, Red cherry round, Red cherry pear, Yellow round, Yellow pear and Tigerella mini. I think that's all....Only problem now is all the labels have faded and I don't know which are which in the spare ones I plan to share out.  

NOTE: Don't use milk cartons with marking pens (permanent marker) to identify your plants...It fades in the sun....rather quickly too I might add.

I'm hoping for a lovely range of colour in my tomato salads this year, with lots of flavour too.

These have all been planted by seed, and most are in the large tub below. I used the top of an old trellis...and threaded our old clothes line 'wire' (white) back and forth to help give them support.

I'm sure it will help! I will probably need to add more support later though.

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Celery .......Richard from the gardening course will be pleased to know that I have been supporting my celery plants with milk cartons.....I have gathered them from Poppy in Victoria, as we don't buy milk by the carton...You could use wrapped newspaper too if you like, but I was offered these, so I took them. I have plenty of milk cartons now for my celery, even the ones that are still coming along. I'm not sure if they will be large enough, but if I can get the celery to fill the carton..I'd be happy with that too..lol

Celery supported with milk cartons.

Younger Celery supported with toilet rolls.

I hope you enjoy reading about my garden, and what I'm doing......I hope to get some more kitchen posts done shortly....so keep an eye out for them to come.....

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Hey! I don't mind sharing.....but when 'they' take everything in one night...it's a bit rough.....

Here is/was my marigolds planted below some tomatoes to ward off nasty bugs....

and here is the culprit I found moving away from the plant.

This is part of growing with no chemicals...sometimes you share more than you want to...luckily it was just a flower plant this time....last time it was my vegetables.

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.

This is a Friday photo feature that anyone with a blog can join. To take part, post a photo on your own blog, write a short caption explaining it, and link it back to here from your blog by saying you're part of "On my mind". Please write a new post, don't link to an older one. When you've done that, come back here and add a comment below, with  a link to your blog.

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?!