Yep, tree removal is very expensive. I had 1 tree in each corner of my small back yard. Loved them and they provided shade but their limbs grew too fast and were always reaching towards the back roof so I had to have them removed. This was about 9 years ago and I think it was $800 but now I can't remember if that was one or both trees. Took the whole day and they left the stump...otherwise it would have cost even more. Planted lavendar bushes in front of the stumps and finally you can't see the stumps.
I looked at a few sites and this one showed kind of how your tomato was eaten.... http://www.familybalancesheet.org/2011/07/calling-all-gardeners-whats-eating-our-tomatoes.html
I don't think that was a bird, @Babs Hunt . I have had birds eat bites of a tomato before and it is just a little place where their beak goes in and only makes a tiny hole that is easy to cut out. I read the article @Chrissy Cross posted, and I think it is probably more likely what has happened. A rodent of some sort. One place we lived was behind a grocery store, and they had rats that got into their big dumpster, and when my tomatoes started getting eaten, I am pretty sure that it was rats coming up at night and eating them. It looked about like yours look; so my guess would be that it was some kind of a rodent, or possibly an opossum, since they will eat all kinds of fruit or vegetables. Amazon has those rodent repellers that makes an ultrasound noise that the rodents can hear and people can't. I think that dogs can hear it, too; but since you do not have a dog, it should be fine for you to try. Rats can get through a pretty small hole, so unless the fencing around the tomatoes is pretty solid, they can probably crawl through or even over top of it.
Alot of the comments of the post @Chrissy Cross shared said birds or a squirrel ate theirs like that .... I know we have birds and a squirrel, so I'm thinking it has to be one of those. I left it on the bottom of the pot to see if whatever did it will come back and finish the job. I don't mind sharing one or two...
Thank you for your research @Chrissy Cross and for your sharing too @Yvonne Smith. I just went back outside to check to take a second look at the eaten part of the tomato and whatever had been eating it came back in that short time since I placed it in the pot and had eaten some more of it in a different spot. There is a bush right by our tomato plant that the birds hide in and they have a nest in it too. So my Honey is going to sit on the porch and see if the culprit shows up again.
The culprit who has been eating our tomato is a Mockingbird. My Honey sat on the porch and caught the culprit in the act of helping himself/herself to more of the tomato that he/she had started on. I don't want to get any traps, etc. as we have never had a problem with this before. There is a nest in the bush that is very close to our plant and my Honey says there may be babies that the mockingbird is taking our tomato to feed. I'm a sucker for any kind of babies, so I'm going to share my tomatoes. With just my Honey and me to eat the tomatoes, there is more than enough for all of us.
Two more tomatoes were eaten on this morning so I took my last remaining one that was ripening and will let it finish ripening indoors. I was able to pick 3 ripe tomatoes and the one that is almost ripe...so my Honey and I still have plenty for us to eat. I have some baby ones growing now too so we will be careful to watch these and pick them before they get to the ripeness the mockingbirds like. Hope those mockingbirds don't like bell peppers as I have many growing right now. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
This morning I went to check on my tomato plant and the new babies that were starting to grow...and I found that the birds had eaten on my green biggest baby! They weren't eating the green ones before, only the ripe ones. Now we do have a problem and either I can let them have the plant or figure out how to stop them. I'm thinking of sticking 4 poles around the plant and covering them with netting.
Finally got our first ripe tomato yesterday. Four of them but two were on the ground and rotting. There should be a lot more soon.
I just found this video today about how to help pollinate your tomatos and get more fruit. Basically, you are just gently shaking the tomato plant where the flowers are at, and that helps to pollinate the flower. this also works with some other plants, such as peppers, according to the video. This looks like an easy thing to do, and I am going to try it with our tomatoes.
My one tomato plant "bit the dust" with our help after blessing us with about 8 tomatoes and at least 4 that the birds decided they wanted to eat. But our bell pepper plant is full of bell peppers in different sizes so once again we will have plenty to cut up and freeze for winter stews, etc. At one time I loved big gardens and only got a time or two to actually experience growing those. Now just having a plant or two that grows things we like to eat is plenty for us and we are thankful for the blessing of real home grown veggies no matter how many or how few.
Tomatoes have always been a 'hit and miss' affair around my house. Bigger gardens are much harder as we age. Like fishing, I finally decided gardening was not my cup of tea. Finally learned I'm not good at anything. Maybe I'd make a critic.
Our tomatoes have done okay this year. We've canned 18 pints of salsa and 5 quarts of whole tomatoes besides what we've been eating. They are still producing but starting to get smaller. I agree @Bill Boggs, gardening is getting harder and harder. I'm only growing in raised beds now, but still have trouble keeping up.
Our bell pepper plant although yielding many bell peppers for us has also grown very different this year from the years before. The middle picture shows how tall it got, but most of the bell peppers are growing in the dense part at the top of the plant. There are ten to twelve bell peppers growing in that density and although I don't think they will be able to grow to full size...with what the plant has already produced we will have plenty to chop and freeze for winter stews, etc.
That looks so good. My father used to have a tomato garden and had the best tomatoes I've ever eaten.