catnip

by

Catnip Tomfoolery

Slinky Malinki has impaired hearing and her overall senses are dulled, but her sense of smell is superb. How else to explain her catnip tomfoolery?

A domestic cat’s sense of smell is about fourteen times as strong as human’s. Cats have twice as many receptors in the olfactory epithelium (i.e. smell-sensitive cells in their noses) as people do, meaning that cats have a more acute sense of smell than humans. Cats also have a scent organ in the roof of their mouths called the vomeronasal (or Jacobson’s) organ. When a cat wrinkles its muzzle, lowers its chin, and lets its tongue hang a bit, it is opening the passage to the vomeronasal.- Source: Wikipedia

Working in the garden at dusk, I looked up to see Slinky crossing the patio with determination. She headed toward a small mulch-covered patch of earth. Mouse the Cat looked on with interest, but kept a respectable distance. Slinky is a cranky, aging cat, and not one to be trifled with. He (generally) knows his place.

slinky finds some catnip

Mouse the Cat keeps his distance, hiding behind the love-in-a-mist

As I watched, she bowed her head, twisted it to one side and dove in. What odd behavior.

I crawled towards her since I was down at her level anyway pulling weeds, to see what she’d discovered. Sure enough she’d found a tiny sprig of catnip (Nepeta cataria) growing near the edge of the patio.

slinky finds some catnip

Slinky enjoys a catnip moment

slinky smelling catnip

Mmmmm, this catnip smells yummy

I planted catnip several years ago and it thrived.  Last year it died off, another causality of the drought. This year, thanks to the recent rains, volunteers are sprouting everywhere.  There are many things I didn’t set out to grow, happily filling patches of bare earth. Nepeta is one of them. It’s nice to see this perennial come back, and even nicer to see Slinky enjoying it. The plant is small and partially crushed after her romp, but it looks like it will recover.

slinky guards the catnip

This is my catnip. Don’t make any false moves

I suspect that once Slinky is slumbering on her cushions nearby, Mouse will help himself to. Lindy is quite a fan as well.

I too enjoy the subtle, herbal scent when you crush the leaves. The herb is also sold as a tea. It’s easy to understand why the kitties enjoy it so much.

I guess I better get in line.

by

The Color Purple

It’s everywhere. Purple that is.

Love in the mist

Love-in-the-Mist gathers morning dew

Growing up, my sister claimed purple as her favorite color. To this day it remains unchanged. I’ve always loved green, with blue and purple a close second.  In the garden, I like them all.

When our oldest son was old enough to express an opinion, he declared orange as his favorite. My husband loves blue and my good friend, Kristi, loves red, so he assumed only one person could have the same favorite color. He declared that his yet-to-be-born younger brother would favor yellow.

We watched closely as the little one developed his own taste, secretly hoping it might be yellow. That would be a fun story for the family archives.  Alas, the color blue won the day, though the story still makes me smile.

What’s your favorite color?

bachelor button

Bachelor Button

catnip flower

Catnip

garden rainbow

Garden Rainbow: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet

2014-06-25

by

Kitty Bouquet: Catnip on a String

It’s always nice to bring your hostess a bunch of flowers from your garden, but what about the resident cat?  Since kitty usually calls the shots in feline-centric households, it only seems fair.  I propose catnip on a string.

Not all cats are susceptible to the intoxicating oils of the catnip or cat-mint plant.  When presented with a fragrant bunch of greens, about half of all cats will respond.  Be sure to offer your gift in an appropriate setting.  If kitty drools green catnip all over your hostesses white couch, you probably won’t be invited back.

Catnip with Bow

Hostess Gift
Catnip with a Bow

Cat inspecting the catnip

I hope this is organic

Cat with catnip

Shall I go ahead and give it a try?

Tasting the catnip

Tasty!

Catnip Bouquet Tutorial

  1. Turn at least 70% of your growing space into a catnip garden.
  2. Pinch a few leaves from the plant once it’s fully grown.
  3. Tie a bow around the bunch (six inches or less, please so kitty doesn’t get tangled).
  4. Deliver to your feline host.

If you follow these instructions carefully, you’ll be invited back again and again.  Enjoy!

by

Floral Friday

Photographer Tamara Pruessner curates a feature on Google+ called Floral Friday. Fellow photographers and nature lovers post individual photos with the tag #FloralFriday, and as each one posts, they appear in a running thread. I’m amazed at the flow of creativity.

I’m not a professional photographer, but I do enjoy snapping pics in my garden, so I’ve joined in a time or two.

Cosmos

Cosmos

Bee in the Catnip

Bee Pollinating Catnip

If you have a Google + account, be sure to check it out. I think you’ll enjoy the sense of community, the beautiful flowers, and the effort to bring something positive in to this sometimes-dark and confusing world.

by

Blooming Thursday: Flowering Catnip and the Demise of a Rose

Flowering Catnip

Here….kitty, kitty, kitty!

The catnip flowered this week, sending up delicate purple flowers, tiny in proportion to the plant.  The cats prefer the leaves anyway and we have plenty of those so the felines will be set for awhile.

Intermingled with the catnip, also known as cat mint, are peppermint plants. I inherited the mint from my friend Karen when she moved back to the east coast in the mid-nineties. She also entrusted me with her miniature pink rose, an anniversary gift from her husband. The peppermint survived three city moves, along with the rose. I’ve joked that I needed to keep that rose alive for the sake of her marriage. Truth be told, her marriage is solid and so was the rose until two summers ago when it failed to survive the final transplant. What a let down after all those years of tender care.  I console myself with the fact that her marriage thrives along with the peppermint, and further, remind myself not to take my garden failures personally.

What’s blooming in your garden today?

Flowering Catnip

Spiderweb Basket of Morning Dew

Did you hear? She’s growing this catnip for us!

Peppermint and Catnip Intertwined

by

Catnip Corner: The Purrfect Spot

How to Grow the Perfect Catnip

I’ve been scouting for the perfect spot to plant our catnip which needs full sun and easy feline access.  I had pretty much resigned myself to planting in a low pot, when I noticed this bare patch of earth near the lawn next to the other mint. Kismet! er…catnip!

We have a pair of seed-embedded cards from a Petco fundraiser we’ve been saving to plant this spring. I’ll plant one now, keeping the second as a back up just in case this first batch fails to deliver. It seems a bit of a shame to cover these clever cards with dirt, but I’ll save a fortune on catnip.

Here’s a bit about catnip also know as cat mint from catworld.com. This powerful herb has many human uses and attributes, beyond a feline-high:

Catnip tends to have a sedative effect on humans. It is most often drunk as a tea.

It is also useful for settling an upset stomach. It has also been used to treat headaches, scarlet fever, coughing, insomnia & smallpox.

Catnip can also be used for cuts, studies show it has a natural healing quality. Crush fresh catnip leaves, damp them & apply to your cut. **

Pregnant women should avoid catnip.

It can also be used as an aromatic herb in cooking & salads.

The Perfect Spot

=^..^=

by

Catnip: Intoxicating Perennial

Catnip Seeds

Not all cats like catnip. (Not everyone likes chocolate either, to my dismay). In my own personal experience, however the vast majority of  felines take some pleasure from this fragrant herb.  My cat Estare literally drooled the first time I introduced it.  He rubbed his little chin through the crushed leaves, over and over again.   His brother liked it okay, but for Estare it was an experience.  Our current passel of kitties also enjoy it.  We have a few handmade cat toys, sewn by our local vet and  I buy loose-leaf nip as well. It seems to relax, intoxicate or invigorate, depending on the mood.

I planted catnip several years ago and  enjoyed watching it grow into a magnificent plant.  I didn’t know it would produce such pretty little flowers or that it would grow so large.  It filled most of the space below the lemon tree, supplying us with fresh leaves for a year.  Unfortunately the lemon tree split in two during a storm.  When we removed the damaged tree, the catnip went along with it.  I never got around to planting it again.

Earlier this year Unleashed by Petco passed out a catnip-embedded card as a thank you for supporting one of their programs.  Perhaps one of the cats slipped them a fiver to remind me to get back on track.  Catnip here we come!

Freebie from Unleashed by Petco