Every time I try to grow catnip in the garden, the cats chow it down and kill it. This year, I got smart and grew it in a hanging pot and doled it out to them. Last week, I decided to just put it in the garden, and maybe they wouldn't notice it and it would winter over. If this comes back next year, I'll eat it myself. LOL.
My mom gave me a big clump of catmint (just what IS the difference between catmint and catnip anyway??) a few weeks ago, and I have kept it covered with the mesh cover on our copper firepit until today. I'm posting this picture of it so you can see what it looks like before five cats get to it. We'll see how long it lasts uncovered. I don't know why I think it will fare any better than the catnip, because my cats love this one, too, but I can't keep it covered forever!
I think they are closely related. Maybe this chit-chat may help...
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/msg07031650826.html
Find yourself and unused birdcage. Remove the plastic bottom and put the cage portion over the plant. Use fabric clips to peg it down. The kitties can nibble and rub all they want but they will not kill the plant only give it a grooming (pruning).
Susan
Susan, what a GREAT idea!! And darius, I'll check that thread out! Thanks!
Have you been growing it from seed or from young plants? There's an old folk rhyme something along the lines of:
"If you plant it, the cats have at it; if you sow it, the cats won't know it."
What it means is that when you set in small plants, you can't help but release some of the aromatic oils into the air which will quickly attract every cat in the area. However, if you sow it from seed, the plants are able to establish themselves without the cats even knowing it's there.
I don't know how much widespread truth to this there is, but it's worked for me!!
Young plants, except for the big clump my mom gave me. I do have some seed, so I'm going to try that. I know they need to be scarified, but their seeds are so tiny, I'm not sure how to do it.
You don't have to scarify them. Not only do my plants reseed prodigiously year after year, but even store-bought packet seed germinates almost immediately. I've also sown seed from my plants as soon as it's ripe & it's also germinated right away. Once you've got it going, you pretty much have it for good.
That said, it really isn't invasive, as stray seedlings are easy to pull up & your cats will love them. I not only use it for my cats, but the leaves make an excellent tea when you have a cold. The taste is somewhat musky, so it's best combined with something lemony along with honey.
Since mine is in bloom right now, would I be able to just sow the seed packet I've got now? Or should I wait until spring?
I'd wait until spring since the new seedlings would undoubtedly get killed off by the cold before they could really get established enough to come back next year.
That's what I thought, but I've been surprised by information I've read here about so many things, I wanted to throw that option out there anyway! LOL! Thanks!
Well, it really depends on your temps. Chances are good that a lot of seed will wait & sprout next spring. But chances are also good that some will sprout &/or die due to mold/wet/whatever. I've had my best luck with catnip with spring sowing here.
Thanks so much for your help! I'm going to wait, especially since we've just had the strangest, atypical weather here this summer and fall.
I have heard that it works as a mosquito repellant when rubbed on... Haven't tried that one yet. Two of our resident felines have the "catnip gene and I'm afraid I'd be mugged!
kbaumle, would you consider wintersowing part of your seed? NatureWalker has put together a great thread on the subject in the Propagation Forum. Here's one of the websites she lists: http://www.wintersown.org/
There is one species of catmint we have grown amongst quite a few cats that never bothered it: Nepeta siberica 'Souvenir de Andre Chaudron'. It makes a tall (3' or so) cloud of violet blue flowers on grey-green foliage for a very long time in summer. Because of its aromatic leaves, I grow it over a patch of Lilium 'Black Beauty' to "mask" the lilies from resident woodchucks and rabbits. We also employ a havahart cage. Thanks to this catmint, the cage and our neighbor's dear outdoors pussycat, we have been able to grow those lilies for a few years, now. (The lilies grow in wire cages sunk in the ground madee of 1/4" hardware wire cloth, which protects their bulbs from voles and mice.)
Long ago, we had a large brush pile in which our cats' favorite catmint - Nepeta cataria - self-sowed itself. Because the kitties couldn't get to it, it grew to a magnificent 6' x 6' shrub. Well, sbragonier's bird cage certainly sounds much more elegant, and I may persuade a neighbor with a huge, white bird cage in her garden to look into catmint, but brush piles are an essential ingredient to gardens made to be wildlife habitats - will try to find Danak's thread on the subject. So, I may make a brush pile on purpose again just to see Nepeta cataria in such a grandiose state again.
PS - one more propagating idea for Nepeta cataria - It grows wild along some of the local railroad tracks that link local trails to each other. One fall we picked a seed-laden branch and just lade it on the ground in our garden. In the following spring, little catmint seedlings appeared around the branch. Kittiecats discovered them not too much after that.
Catnip is one of the things I plan to winter sow this year. :-)
Here's that thread about certified backyard wildlife habitats - http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/518307/
Seems like this would be the ultimate in "let-er-rip" gardening ... hmmm
I finally found a way to grow catnip without problems with my cats. I planted the plants near each other and put a 4-foot high welded wire cage around them. Then I put a piece of thick shade cloth material around the cage and attached it. It worked just fine. I cut off pieces for my cats and they enjoy it without destroying the plants. BTW, growing it from seed in the past didn't work for me. They found the seedlings and the plants were no more. Propagation by cuttings is pretty easy, even for someone who's not very good with cuttings (like me).
Amazing. I was just out taking a stroll, looking the gardens over, and there was Jinx, with his nose IN THE DIRT, eating away at the catnip. Now mind you, it's not even UP yet! Guess I'd better get the cage out and over it NOW. GEESH!
Lol! Now that is one diligent cat!
Our catnip is just starting to poke up through the leftover fall leaves that cover it, but thankfully no kitties have noticed it yet... Once the rest of the garden gets going, the catnip kind of fades into the background. There are so many other scents (like rosemary and oregano) that the cats don't like so the catnip gets very few visitors during the summer.
I grew catnip last year and my three indoor furries only got to taste a little of it fresh. It fell victim to a woodchuck who apparently likes catnip too. I'll have to try a container this year.
I grew mine in a hanging basket last summer. That worked well. Jinx had it figured out pretty quickly what was 'up there.' He would sit on the picnic table near it and stare at it and then look at me, like, "If you're going to keep it up there, then you're going to have to get me some, and I'm not leaving until you do."
