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Catnip

September 27th, 2016

If you have cats, you should have a catnip plant in your garden. They can be a little thuggish, seeding down everywhere if you don’t get them cut in time, but they’re still worthwhile to have around. The pollinators love them, and of course, so do the cats. While I was cleaning out the main vegetable garden I decided to cut back the catnip plant to dry for the cats. I threw the herbs on the porch and came inside to look up string to hang it with. When I got back to the porch Dexter has already settled in on the fragrant herbs.
catnip-dexter
Such a silly cat, but this is exactly why I dry it. Most of my cats will eat both the fresh and the dried herbs. I figure it must have all sorts of healthy vitamins & minerals in it for them. Cutting it back also keeps it from taking over the garden, overall, it’s a win/win!

Do you grow catnip or catmint for your cats?

Rest assured more lovely gardens from our trip to Sweden are in the works, I’ve been a bit busy getting the garden ready to fall and haven’t had time to go through all the photos yet.

3 Comments to “Catnip”
  1. PennyAshevilleNC on September 27, 2016 at 8:23 am

    “Thuggish”, love it! I don’t have cats anymore, but the neighborhood does. I can’t attract them because of our Lab. Are there any plants like that dos like? He hasn’t seemed into anything in particular. PS could we get a Tara update sometime? I would love to learn more about her jobs there.

    Reply to PennyAshevilleNC's comment

  2. Nebraska Dave on September 27, 2016 at 9:07 am

    Susy, I agree with Penny. We haven’t heard much about Tara this year. I hope she is dutifully protecting the homestead.

    No cats in my life except the ones that roam the neighborhood from other houses. They seem to love my trashcan. I would be in favor of a repellent rather than an attractant. I really don’t like to dance with plants that like to get out of control so I’ll probably not grow catnip.

    I have cleaned up another bed and now have five more to go. I was a bit on the wet side but I just can’t wait. Old Jack frost is on the way in a couple weeks and the rest of the tomato plants will be put in the compost heap or mountain as it is this year.

    Have a great day in the garden.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  3. Charlie@Seattle Trekker on September 29, 2016 at 11:08 am

    I do grow catnip in the garden and I find it draws most of the cats in the neighborhood, it is not unusual to find one or two sleeping in the sun on the front porch.

    Reply to Charlie@Seattle Trekker's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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