DG's newest member searching for catnip info

Meet Nitwit the Terrible, my DG buddy!

He's pretty. What do you want to know about catnip?

oh, I'd like to plant some outside but I'm afraid every stray in the neighborhood would use my flowerbeds as a potty box. Is catmint the same thing as catnip?

Pretty much. Actually they probably won't use it as a potty, but to rub around in it. It will get the high and help their digestion. Just remember if you plant it, put the seeds between sandpaper and rub them in it first. This way the germinate with no problem.

If I remember correctly the mint will not get kitty the buzz that nip will. My mother had some of this and the local felines never made a habit of using the other beds as a potty, but we always had a few stoned cats wandering around the yard, including our seal point siamese. Does yours like to sit in a dark room and howl, ours did when she got older. You would have thought we were raising wolves sometimes.

he did up until about a month ago when he went to the vet to get fixed :) now he's into the internet lol....and sleeping all the time.

Typical guy, nothing he needs with the ladies now so off to the net to see what he was missing while he was interested in the feminine felines. Go figure!

I planted catnip (from seed) for my cat. I didn't have any problems with cats in the garden but I have only seen one cat around here (besides mine) in over three years. Considering I never fertilized it and the last time I watered it was June 2007, and we only get about 8-10" of rainfall here annually, and it's in a horrible spot under a gigantic tree where it gets almost no direct sun, and it had a bag of sawdust and miscellaneous junk piled on top of it for weeks and months at a time AND it's still alive I think it's safe to say it's fairly easy to grow. There's a parsley plant right next to it. No idea how either of them have survived.

This message was edited May 19, 2009 5:27 AM

It is easy to grow. I planted some several years ago. After it started spreading I decided to do away with it about 2-3 years ago. Lo and behold I have some growing back this year. It's in a good spot this time so I'm letting it go but little did I know it would be so hardy. I originally started it from seed.

I bought a catnip in a 6" pot. It wasn't a tiny plant, but my cat finished it off before I got a chance to put it in the garden. It was fun to watch him chewing the last 2" of the stalk :-) I planted another one and put a wire hanging basket over it so that the could only eat what was growing through the basket. That worked, although I did catch my cat a couple of times with the basket stuck around his neck. LOL! Now the plant is big and it comes back every spring. No basket is needed.

Our neighbor feeds the local strays and at any given time has 6-10 under her back porch. I'm afraid if I plant it I'll become the neighborhood feline rave/kitty crack club. Haha.

I read this on the net a few weeks ago concerning catnip:

If you set it, they will get it!
If you sow it, they won't know it!

We have a few cheeseburger fiends around here and they LOVE their nip! For the most part, some of them just look at it like it's a bowl of Chinese made kibble!
The trick is not breaking the plant and releasing the oils. In the past I've seen them walk right past a growing plant and not even throw it a glance. However, two days later after a neighborhood dog ran through the yard, chasing a sky rat, and went right through the plant it was toast! It reminded me of "vampire feeding-frenzy" scenes from the movies! It was all I could do to grab a few sprigs to try to root. And this all happened in mid June - a long way from a mature, flowering plant. The plant attempted to regenerate from the roots but they knew it was there and it didn't stand a chance at that point! Yes! I can confirm that "cat-boarding" is indeed torture and can kill! ;-)

I noticed that no one suggested growing it in a hanging pot. That's what we've done for the last couple of years and it works well. It will get tall and it really isn't a very "pretty" plant. But at least the kitties get a fat sack of weed for the coming winter! I guess it's a perennial, if the kitties don't find it, but seed is so prolific when it matures we just treat it as an annual and start a new pot next season. we've had plants at 4ft in hanging baskets!! I've never thought about planting the root ball in the garden after it's gone dormant, but we've had it come back in the pots the following spring.

BTW - Beautiful kitty you have there. Over the years we've had them all - Seal, Chocolate, Lilac and Blue points. But the seals are our favorites. Someone mentioned the howling - we have two male lilac's - The Ghost & The Darkness - and they beat the neighborhood hounds in the howling department HAND'S DOWN!