Ah, the Simpsons. Is there anything we can’t address with a reference to that show?
As you’ve probably guessed, we have an incident involving a guilty cat and an innocent young basil plant. The cat, pictured above attempting a deceptively innocent look belied by the clearly demonic eyes. I don’t have any pictures of the basil plant at the moment, maybe later. It’s feeling very violated and declined having its injuries documented.
Though honestly I can’t say as I blame the cat all that much. Basil is decidedly yummy, and if the inside of my mouth tasted like what I can only imagine the cat’s backside tastes like… yeah, I’d be inclined to seek out ways to freshen up.
But that’s no right to brutally maim a young plant just beginning its life. I mean it’s not like it was nom or be nommed. That basil wasn’t just biding its time until the cat lowered her guard.
On the upside, the plant seems to be recovering from the ordeal well. It’s also safe – for the moment – from further attacks thanks to the lopped-off top of a 2L bottle (told ya, I’ve got tons of them) acting as a combination humidity tent / cat-proof force-field.
In other news, there’s been some great suggestions made on the upside down tomato planter post I did a little bit ago. I’ve got a cherry tomato seedling that’s nearly big enough to move into its own planter, and I’ve been waiting for that to start testing some ideas I’ve had.
Also, the guy (Tim) who writes the Gabriola Garden blog finished the upside down planter project he was working on – much larger scale than my work and looks pretty good. (In fact, if I had anything remotely sturdy enough to hang that style of planter from I’d trade up first chance I got.) He’s got a bit of a chore now with the watering, so if you can think of a really simply system to get water into those 10 buckets without a lot of trips up and down a ladder each time, pop over there and help him out.
Finally, if anyone was wondering where I’ve been the last few days, I’ve been around but simply not allowed to use my computer. I’ve got RSI that flares up from time to time and this is one of those times. So in the interest of putting off the development of full-blown Carpal Tunnel for as long as possible, whenever I’m dumb enough to push myself too hard and aggravate it I just stay away from computers until the pain goes away too.
Eye of Cat look brite and power.
Great idea, that upsidedown liter bottle! I can’t grow herbs in the house because of my girl kitty, she loves to chew greens, and coughs them up in little slimy piles for me to step in.
Thanks HydroMan!
You might want to look into a special Indoor formula cat food – it’s got more fiber in it for the indoor cats to help them digest better. We’ve got our kitty on that kind of food, it’s actually an indoor/hairball/weight control formula, Purina One iirc.
Anyway, I think cats are attracted to powerful oils in plants – the most common of course being catnip, but most herbs probably get their noses twitching as well. The 2-liter forcefield is good for younger plants, but you’ll have to stop using it before long as the plant gets too big for it.
Not sure how to cat-proof the bigger plants, we’ve just kept them outside.
Yes, I have my three kitties on the indoor formula of NutroMax, and I don’t have any problems with chewing from my two boy kitties, just my girl. They all love the dried catnip I give them..they get all high and lay around on my kitchen floor rolling in the stuff….then they get the munchies and send me out to the store for Cheetos.
[...] 24 March, 2009 Filed under: Blog — E.H. @ 11:49 pm Some of you might remember this post. Well I’ve got a bunch of seedlings in a windowsill that’s surrounded by some curtains [...]