When I was a kid you could buy the seeds in any garden centre. Sighs! All this 'just say no' crap is not fair on cats.
Tip: grow it under a cloche until the plant is big enough to stand being rolled on by big, pampered pusscats. (Once established it is amazing how quickly it perks up from being flattened by amorous moggies to looking like a plant again and not roadkill.) Chicken wire bent over is NOT strong enough. Pig wire is better but I don't know if you can get that in the big city - ooo arr! What Mum used was a sort of steel reinforcing lattice - very light weight but tough, won't kink if you bend it unless you use pliers. That's the best as you don't have to worry about extra nurturing but the plant is still safe from squashage.
I only remember seeing seeds for sale in specialist centres, although I might be able to find a plant somewhere, I suppose. But our local garden centre is very tiny.
Now I think of it pigwire will only work on the larger sized cat (due to larger sized holes). If you have junkie kittens and adolescents in the neighbourhood you might need something with smaller holes.
Bows to your superior ingenuity. Still, if one was making a new purchase of wire for this exercise, getting wire that is both strong and has smaller holes would halve the amount of wire snipping - always my least favourite part of the process.
To grow from cuttings, keep them in a clear glass of water on a sunny window sill. You need to strip most, but not all of the leaves from the part of the stem that is submerged (the rotting off process helps the formation of roots for some reason but too much kills it). Keep topping the water up daily but don't change it. If a stem is persistantly drooping/dying, remove it. All going well, after about three weeks you should have enough roots to plant. Note - these need molly-coddling for about three months in 'perfect' conditions before you can even think about planting them outside.
My solution to the whole 'love to death' cat issue was I had an enormous pot (the sort they grow indoor trees in, complete with castors). I grew the mint around the edge so it would fall over, and then had other plants in the pots (and a lot of sticks stuck in the earth so the cats wouldn't sit in it). The cats would lean against the mint, crushing it against the pot a bit, then walk or sit between the mint and the pot. They manage to crush out plenty of scent without breaking major stems or crushing it to death.
Icon - er, I'm not sure. I copied it from one of my friends, but I can't remember who! It still makes me giggle everytime I look at it properly.
I have an idea for an icon, but I'm not sure my cartooning skills are up to it - a dog holding down a cat's head in a bowl of milk and the tag-line "curiosity was framed".
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purpletigron) wrote2005-12-09 04:33 pm
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Tip: grow it under a cloche until the plant is big enough to stand being rolled on by big, pampered pusscats. (Once established it is amazing how quickly it perks up from being flattened by amorous moggies to looking like a plant again and not roadkill.) Chicken wire bent over is NOT strong enough. Pig wire is better but I don't know if you can get that in the big city - ooo arr! What Mum used was a sort of steel reinforcing lattice - very light weight but tough, won't kink if you bend it unless you use pliers. That's the best as you don't have to worry about extra nurturing but the plant is still safe from squashage.
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Pig wire! OK, that's a good idea!
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My solution to the whole 'love to death' cat issue was I had an enormous pot (the sort they grow indoor trees in, complete with castors). I grew the mint around the edge so it would fall over, and then had other plants in the pots (and a lot of sticks stuck in the earth so the cats wouldn't sit in it). The cats would lean against the mint, crushing it against the pot a bit, then walk or sit between the mint and the pot. They manage to crush out plenty of scent without breaking major stems or crushing it to death.
Good luck....
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Thanks for the awesome instructions!
BTW, who created that lovely icon?
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Icon - er, I'm not sure. I copied it from one of my friends, but I can't remember who! It still makes me giggle everytime I look at it properly.
I have an idea for an icon, but I'm not sure my cartooning skills are up to it - a dog holding down a cat's head in a bowl of milk and the tag-line "curiosity was framed".