Rats in the Garden

It is very disheartening seeing your produce been attacked by rodents just before it is ready. After soil preperation, cultivating and nurturing your veggie garden, a rodent will happily enjoy your hard work and not even thank you. Worse still they often don't finish what they started. They will take a bite or two then leave it behind. As they spread desises on your property, there is no option but they have to go. 

The first step is to be proactive rather than reactive. You can do this by making sure there is no old fruit or vegetables on the ground rotting. Being on the ground makes it easy pray. Having said that, rodents may leave them there are go for the good stuff, the stuff you have your eyes on also. 

Some fruit such as tomatoes will ripen inside. So as soon as they start to show some colour, pick them and put them inside in a warm place away from your attackers. 

Know your edomy

First you have to be sure it is a rodent and try to see what size. You can tell this by the poo they leave behind. It could easily be something else, so be as sure as you can be before you catch the wrong predator. 

Once you are sure it is a rat or mouse, have a look at what they are actually eating. Then for a few days actually feed them that in a place nearby where you can later set the trap. This is far better than getting bait, as the rat is already used to seeing what they are currently eating, but not used to seeing bait in the area. For instance, if it was apples, pick some and put them on the ground in a place so the rats will eat these picked apples, rather than the ones up the tree. Have a rat trap next to them, but do not set the trap at first. 

After a few days, they will have got used to seeing the trap, so set the trap. Rats are clever animals so if you set the trap to early, they may try to work out how to get the food off the trap without it going off. 

Another way is to set some bait without a trap. This poisoned bait will attack the rats organs and kill the rat. From personal experience, I have done this and later heard a rat scream in pain a little while later - not something I forgot in a hurry. 

There are two problems with this method.
1. Depending on the size of the rat, it could take several days, even up to a month to kill the rat. Meanwhile your produce is still being eaten and there could also be new babies born.
2. If the dead rat is eaten by another animal, such as a dog or cat, it also could get very sick. Worse still, a young child could start playing with it as they often seem to die out in the open, rather than underground. Even their urine while they have taken the bait is harmful to your garden.

Carrots - what you need to know

The best time of year to grow carrots in southern Australia is between August and October. If you plant then later then the seed will grow in the hot summer and need to much water. 

Prepare the soil being careful not to add to much nitrogen as this can cause the carrot to fork. Carrots need a deep well drained & structured soil with some organic matter. 

Over fertilised or rocky soil can cause carrot roots to fork. This veggie isn't a heavy feeder. Grow them in loose soil.

Sow seed into furrows about 6mm deep, they need light to germinate so don't plant to deep or in a dark place. 

Water deeply but infrequently to encourage long straight tap roots. 

You can mulch between rows with straw to inhibit weeds. Remove weeds along rows by hand as carrots don't like competition. 

Once the carrots are big enough to eat, thin them out. Harvest alternative carrots first leaving space for remaining roots to grow bigger. 

As soon as you pull the carrot out of the ground, keep them out of the sun and pull off their leafy tops. If you leave them in the sun with the leaves attached they go rubbery and tasteless within minutes. 

 

Working in the garden on a cold day

It might be winter still, however it is a good time of year to get the garden ready for spring. In between showers you can do a lot of the heavy work now just to keep warm.

As we approach spring, make sure your compost is well on the way to being distributed. Dig it over several times to speed up the process.

There will be more to see here soon. 

Look up gardeningmelb on twitter or Facebook