Edible Gardens for Cats

Someone came across my blog while searching for "Edible cat plants" and since it looks like I don't have a post on such a subject yet, I offer the following:

Catnip (Nepeta Cataria) and/or Cat Mint (Nepeta mussinii) are, of course, a must.  Each cat has her own preference. Some like catnip better, and others catnip.  Some cats, like mine, are even "catnip connoisseurs", preferring the taste and scent of one individual catnip plant over another of the same species.

Cat grass is essential for indoor kitties.  This can be grown from seed, or purchased in small containers in pet supply stores, already sprouted and ready to grow.  I found a small windowbox container in which I have sprouted a small "lawn" which my little orange boy keeps very evenly mowed.  This alone may be enough for some cats. If your cat goes outdoors, he may be happy to mow your back lawn for you, to the best of his ability.

(Source)

In my house, catnip, catmint, and cat grass do quite well on a sunny west or south facing windowsill with enough room for the kitty to sit and enjoy his plants.  If your windowsill is wide enough, I suggest adding a place to nap. After the Teflon coating began to flake off of one of my roasting pans, I lined it with a towel, and it now serves this purpose. The metal allows the bed to heat up when the sun shines directly through the window, and the cat loves curling up in it.  If you really love to spoil your kitty and there is an electrical outlet handy, consider the addition of a drinking fountain for pets.

Dr. Leonard Perry of the University of Vermont also recommends Cat Thyme (Teucrium marum)and Valerian (Valeriana officianalis), though he warns that rodents also enjoy Valerian. This may be fabulously entertaining to your kitty, but not so attractive to humans, especially if your feline herb garden is indoors!  He also suggests some interesting features to add to an outdoor cat garden to protect plants from overly-enthusiastic kitties, and to encourage play and frolicking.

I have also read that some cats enjoy parsley and sage.

Some cats also express interest in vegetables eaten by humans. Mine loves canned pumpkin (plain, not the sweetened pumpkin pie filling), which is a good treat for kitties according to Wellvet.com. Some cats also enjoy raw pumpkin:

My furry companion will also ask for lettuce on occasion which, according to the ASPCA, is safe to serve your cat.  An old college friend of mine has a cat that craves asparagus.  I have no idea if this is safe or not. Spinach is a bad idea though. I have read it can give kitties kidney stones. That can't be pretty.


Indoor plants not only provide nutrition and entertainment for your cat, they can also keep him from eating your ornamental specimens.

Speaking of ornamentals, it is important to note that some cats still do not confine themselves to plants intended for their use. The really determined ones may even attempt to nibble synthetic plants! If this is the case with yours, or if you are unsure, please keep plants not specifically recommended as feline edibles away from your cat.

As always, when in doubt, ask your vet!

Unwelcome Garden Guests

Every now and then when I was in my teens,  my family used to slather on the bug repellent and sunscreen and take our alaskan malamute with us for day hikes up in the hills around where we lived.   She loved it. So did the ticks.  Inevitably, within a day or two of our hikes I was helping my mother pull these little vermin off the dog.  I'd feel crawly for days afterwards.

In the region of California in which I was raised, deer ticks are very common in the grassy places where people often love to hike and camp. Learning to recognize ticks was just like learning to recognize poison oak.  They were a fact of life if one wanted to enjoy the great outdoors. Aside from dealing with the dog,  I never had any trouble with them on me. Probably because I made good use of bug repellent. That hasn't stopped me from being a little unnerved at the thought of encountering them on my person.

So, when I saw what looked suspiciously like a tick crawling around on a branch I had just pruned from a long-neglected shrubbery this morning, I got that old creepy-crawly feeling again.  Ewwww.  It's so easy to forget about such things in the supposed civilized safety of one's own backyard. Thank goodness I had been using the rake instead of my hands to load the pile of cuttings into the wheelbarrow.

American Dog Tick (Photo Source)

After a tick check and a run for the bug repellent, I finished my work (still using the rake of course), tossed my gardening clothes straight into the washing machine, checked myself again and ran for the shower. This time I appear to be unscathed, but I shall be more careful in the future.

In my transition to Texas from California, I have had to learn a few new things and re-learn a few old things. Fortunately, what I know about ticks applies in both places.

Ticks like wooded areas, thick shrubberies, and tall grass, so consider the following if you plan to be in such places:

• Wear light colored clothing, to make ticks easier to see.
• If you can, wear long pants and sleeves, and tuck them into your socks/gloves.   This can be difficult in hot regions.  If you are a "belts and suspenders" type of person, you can also use some old shoelaces to tie off the bottom part of your pants to make doubly sure. Just tie them too tight. You still need circulation in your feet!  
• Wear insect repellent that is labeled as effective for ticks. Treat clothes and exposed skin, following label directions. (I'm usually not crazy about chemical repellents such as DEET. If I'm just going to a barbecue, I usually wear a bug band to keep mosquitoes off, but for hiking or gardening in a tick-infested area, I make an exception.)
• Check yourself thoroughly for ticks upon coming indoors. Pay special attention to all cracks, crannies, and crevices, and places covered by hair or close-fitting parts of your clothing.  Use a mirror or a spouse to help you check hard to see places.
• Take a shower and wash your clothing as soon as possible. (CDC recommends within two hours.)  If you've been playing in the dirt or hiking, chances are you'll be hot and sweaty and will want to do this anyway.
• Keep pets indoors if you can, check them often if you can't. Give them flea/tick preventatives regularly either way.
• If you find one attached to you or your pet, see the links below for more information on removal and symptoms of tick-borne disease. If you develop such symptoms, seek medical care.

A few links:
Tickinfo.com
Texas A&M Tick Research Labaratory
The Gulf Coast Tick (TAMU profile)
UC Davis: Ticks of California
Control Biting Pests in the Organic Garden
Consumer Reports: Tick Control with Landscaping Techniques
Centers for Disease Control Tick Info Page
The Big Game Hunt: Preventing Tick-Borne Disease
P. Allen Smith: Tick Control
DogsAndTicks.com
ASPCA Tick Page
CatHealth.com: Tick Parasites of Cats

Chick Food

Some days it seems like I put more work into maintaining and improving my garden than I do into actually enjoying it.

Not today.


Today, with the weather being so mild, I took the opportunity to just sit around out there with my crochet work, watching cardinals come and visit the bird feeder. (By the way, for those of you wanting to attract cardinals to your gardens---they LOVE safflower seeds!) I saw my first juvenile cardinal in person. Accompanied by both of its parents, it waited for them on a nearby brick wall, hidden by tree branches while they made trips back and forth to the feeder to bring seeds back for it. Sometimes they would set the seeds down and let the baby pick them up himself, other times they would simply feed him.

Now I need to work on attracting butterflies and hummingbirds.

The Cardinals have Returned!

I saw the first cardinals I have seen yet this year yesterday morning. They were chasing each other through the air above my garden and perching in the trees, singing their lungs out.

I never heard cardinals before I moved to Texas, and I think their song is among my favorites now.

I am also seeing what looks like woodpeckers.

Spring must be coming!

Speaking of Catnip...

To see how far some cats will go to get their catnip "fix", have a look at this.

Fire ants and Containerized plants.

It seems like every time place another potted plant outdoors, it gets invaded by fire ants, despite the fact that we broadcast fire-ant granules around our entire property--which hasn't been as effective this year, as it was last year. We still get the occasional mound here and there, and even my indoor potted plants have been invaded on occasion.

The trouble with fire ants in plant containers is that they aren't always visible until I repot the plant. Talk about a good reason to wear gloves!

For my outdoor, non-edible container plants, I have tried using the same granules we use for spot-treating mounds. So far, this seems to work.

The question is, what to do about indoor containers, and containers with edible plants--especially those herbs and veggies? I have used fire ant granules in small amounts in my indoor containers, but I dont' know if that's really even a good idea, and I'd certainly prefer to try something less toxic.

A friend of mine says that she has had good success using cornmeal in her vegetable garden. She gets it in bulk at her local feed store. The advantage here is that it is cheap and non-toxic. The disadvantage is that it does not always work instantly. I have yet to try this method for myself.

On this gardenweb.com discussion forum, other suggestions include molasses, instant grits, orange oil, diatomaceous earth, and even coffee grounds. One person suggests a Green Light product that contains spinosad. I have no idea if that is safe for use in indoor pots.

Here is another forum, with a discussion of containerized fire ant situations.


More on this issue as it develops...


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A note for those Central and South Coast Californians who drop by this blog occasionally:

Imported fire ants appear to be gaining a foothold in parts of your region as well, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Quarantine areas include parts of Orange, Los Angeles, and Riverside Counties. A friend of mine says that she has seen them active in San Luis Obispo County as well. For more information on fire ant quarantine areas in Calfornia, go to the CDFA website.

Search: Pruning roses

With cold weather approaching, several people have dropped by searching for information on pruning knockout and double knockout roses. Many of them end up at my post "Double Knockout Roses Kick Lantanas' Butt", which does not have specific information on when and how to prune knockout and other roses.


The good people at the nursery where I purchased my plants indicated that they handle pruning (and just about everything else) very well.

With any rose, it is a good idea to cut off any diseased or dead canes. It is also a good idea to make sure no canes are rubbing against one another. This light cutting can be done any time of year.

If you feel like dead heading (not required for knockout roses to perform), they way my mother taught me was to cut the stem above the first set of five leaves, at a 45 degree angle, with the lower edge of the cut on the same side as the leaves. When I lived in coastal California, this was most of what I did with my roses. Heavy pruning never really entered into the picture because of the mildness of the climate.

Around here, the traditional time for yearly rose pruning is around mid-February, usually on or near Valentine's Day. This way, any new growth isn't as likely to be zapped by excessive cold. For colder regions, this might vary. In general, it is my understanding that roses do not need to be pruned in preparation for winter, unless this will help you shelter them more effectively.

I have heard that heavy pruning of knockouts or any other shrub rose for the first two years after they have been planted is generally not recommended. This gives your shrub rose time to mature. Mine are still new and very short, so I don't think I'll be doing much in the pruning department this year.

As far as how to go about it, that's up to you. Some people just take an electric hedge trimmer and prune their roses into shapes. I have seen some used as box hedges around town. Since I personally prefer my roses to be in a more natural shape, I will not be doing that.

This page suggests pruning knockouts in the same way as other shrub roses. For spring pruning of most roses, the Houston Garden Book also recommends thinning the small branches out until there are three to five hardy main stems left. It also suggests using directional pruning techniques to encourage a vase-like growth habit. This means cutting canes down just above a bud that is pointing in the direction in which you want the stem of the plant to grow. For more on what that is, and for step-by-step spring pruning directions click here.

For those interested in pruning your knockouts back for the winter, here is a short article on winterizing roses in Southern climates.

I like to use shears like this when I cut my roses:

Photo Source

Shears such as those shown above are easy to get at most hardware stores.

I also recommend wearing some good sturdy gardening gloves to protect your hands and arms from thorns. I have a long pair, specifically made for handling roses and other thorny plants. They have thick leather palms, and they go up to my elbows. I have even used these while handling bougainvilleas, which have thorns up to an inch long, and also while playing with a visiting cat who dropped by while I was planting my roses, and they have protected me well against thorns, claws and teeth. :) I could not find any at the larger home and garden centers where I live (Lowe's, Home Depot). I ended up going to a local nursery.


Here is a post with links to more information on winterizing your roses.

Read my other posts on Double Knockout roses.

Catnip as Mosquito Repellent?

I found an article from 2001 on ScienceDaily.com describing a study that suggested that Catnip oil works as a mosquito repellent--allegedly even better than DEET-based repellents.

My question... if you smell like catnip, what is your cat going to do? (Assuming your cat is one of the 50% of cats that react to the stuff).

Another article from 2002 on the same site discusses tomato-based repellents, which again appear to be more effective than DEET

I myself have tried using a lemon-Eucalyptus repellent when in the garden. It seems to work. At least, I haven't been bitten yet while using it. I can say it definitely smells better than DEET or Picaridin. (By the way, there is some kind of little biting gnat or something around here that responds better to DEET than to Picaridin, in my experience.) However, since the label does not say anything about its effectiveness on chiggers or ticks, I probably won't use it if I am going someplace where I should be concerned about either of those.

But, don't get too excited. Another 2002 study suggests that DEET is better than plant-based repellents.

Whatever.

I guess I'll just have to stick to what seems to work for me.

Catnip bites the dust. Or the Gumbo. Whatever.

I planted some catnip (Nepeta cataria) outside last spring for two reasons:

One, to encourage our neighbor's free-range cat to frolic in our yard. She likes to hunt.

Two, to see what would happen.

Well the cat disappeared, and the catnip flourished for awhile, even in the black gumbo soil, growing at a dizzying rate. "Hot dog!" I thought. "And without soil amendments or a raised bed or anything!"

Then July came. Rains got heavier, sun got hotter, and the catnip started to look a little peaked.

Now it is definitely on its last legs. It is dying from the roots up, instead of from the top down, like plants usually die (and I've killed my share, believe me). I'm thinking root rot may be the primary culprit, but I'm sure the heat isn't helping.

It'll be raised beds or containers (and hopefully better luck) next time.

Spiders are fine, but don't touch the caterpillars!

Speaking of Brazos Bend, here's another inhabitant of that particular area--the Golden Silk Spider. Harmless, but not altogether friendly-looking:

(Photo by Aaron.)

By contrast, there's a cute, fuzzy-looking variety of caterpillar out here that I have never personally encountered, which goes by the ominous nickname of "asp". It is so named because its "fuzz" is actually a collection of venomous spines. A close personal encounter with this little guy has the potential to send you to the emergency room.

The South is also home to other varieties of venomous caterpillars.

Being from a region where fuzzy caterpillars provide children with endless entertainment, this is all very strange to me. My rule of thumb while I'm still fairly new out here is not to touch any strange animals until I know exactly what they are. :)

Reptiles and Rain

If you live near a body of water out here, it is a good idea to keep your eyes open for reptilian visitors, especially snakes.

One family in our subdivision (which is located near a river) found a six foot long alligator on their front porch one morning recently.

Here's a picture of an American Alligator taken by my brother at Brazos Bend state park. (Yes, he has a telephoto lens. Gators have a thing about their personal space--don't ever get as close as this picture looks.)

To see more of my brother's photographic genius at work, visit his gallery at DeviantArt.com

Fire ant First Aid

As I had my third encounter with fire ants yesterday, I have been doing a little reading about how to treat these stings.


Here is a useful page on the subject.
And another one with recommendations for bites on children.

For relief of the skin irritation, the most common solutions I have seen, after the wounds have been cleaned and disinfected, are itch creams such as hydrocortizone cream, as well as witch hazel. Oral antihistamines can be helpful as well. I have also seen products at the drugstore labled specifically for use on fire ant stings, but I have not tried them yet, myself.

Some websites also suggest elevating the stung body part as a component of first aid treatment, to help minimize the initial swelling.

As always, severe allergic reactions should be treated in the emergency room.

And when in doubt, see a doctor.

Duh! Closed toed shoes best for gardening

Despite the fact that I knew better, I wore flip-flops today while I was gardening.

And something bit me.

And it hurt like the dickens.

I suppose I was kind of asking for it.

Fortunately, whatever it was wasn't deadly.

Judging by how the bites looked later on in the day, it was probably fire ants. Hubby and I disturbed a few today while out doing yard work.

It's kind of interesting living in a region that has so much biodiversity. I just wish I knew more about what parts of it are dangerous, and where to find them.

Anyway, keep your feet and hands protected, especially if you are working around thick foliage, or disturbing dirt and leaf litter. And keep your eyes peeled.

Which reminds me, always check any shoes or gloves kept outside or in garages before putting them on. You never know who might be living in there.

Are you sick of fire ants?

Maybe we can return the favor:

LUBBOCK, Texas -- The battle against red fire ants has plagued farmers, ranchers and regular folks for decades. Now it seems the reviled pests could be in for some sickness of their own. Researchers have pinpointed a naturally occurring virus that kills fire ants, which arrived in the U.S. in the 1930s and now cause $6 billion in damage annually nationwide, including about $1.2 billion in Texas. The virus caught the attention of U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers in Florida in 2002. The agency is now seeking commercial partners to develop the virus into a pesticide to control fire ants.

Complete story.

Of course, this is assuming this virus won't ultimately create more problems than it solves.

The upside to fire ants (yes, there appears to be one), is that they help to control those little white grubs the june bugs leave behind. At least, that's what I have heard.

If you are interested in organic fire ant control, one of my local nurseries recommends this.

Relevant Posts from my Main Blog:

Petite beauty: Humility means Longevity for roses.

Cardinals in my Garden

Making Friends with the Natives: The Green Anole

Real June Bugs--in March!

The American Alligator (Not something you'll probably see on your property, unless it backs up to a natural water source. Interesting just the same)