Saturday, September 28, 2013

Stardust Memories

 
 
This week's kitty was sent in from Eileen Daniel. She has a total of four kitties and all love the herbs and flowers in her garden.

"This is Ziggy, from Pensacola,  Florida. Ziggy was rescued two years ago by his human mama, after some crack heads had abandoned him at a rental house. Ziggy is believed to be Siamese & possibly Maine Coon."

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Mark of the Cat


This week's cat was submitted by Lynn Title of Lanham, MD.
Lynn writes, "Tilde (named for the diacritical mark, because she has one on each shoulder) is a nine-year-old former feral kitten (from the D'Arcy Street PG County Animal Shelter, where all three of my cats come from) who is now a thoroughly-domesticated "sucky cat".  She is an indoor-outdoor cat, and keeps the local mole and vole population down.  Last week she presented me with a newly-killed rabbit nearly as big as herself!
"The photos were taken in my back yard, in late afternoon, atop a stacked-stone wall I built myself using free stone I brought home from highway and construction sites near a friend's house in Brunswick, MD; for years every time I went up there I came home with all the fallen stone my poor Corolla wagon would hold, enough to build another couple more feet of wall.  The plant behind Tilde is a Scotch broom.  They want alkaline soil and sharp drainage, so there is chicken-grit mixed into the soil, and it is mounded above the rest of the bed. In front is a variegated liriope."

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Alles Gute zum Katzentag!




This is "Katze" -- cat in German. See lots more of Katze here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tillwe/7870838/in/set-196466/.

These photos are by Till Westermayer aka Tillwe of Freiburg, Germany. You can find his blog at http://blog.till-westermayer.de/ and his Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tillwe/.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Cats Supplies Make Great Garden Tools

As a two-cat household, we go through a lot of litter and as a bonus to that, I get to re-use the litter containers in my garden. I wonder if the kitty litter manufacturers know of this direct connection between cat loves and die-hard/thrifty gardeners or is it just a happy, natural coincidence?
Here is a picture of the kitty litter containers I've been using for watering my home garden and community garden plot. This is Aldi's store brand and the plastic label slips right off and I put it in the recycling bin along with my plastic grocery bags. (Tidy Cat has much the same model.) It is the perfect size for watering and mixing in liquid organic fertilizer. It stores well and does not tip easily. I line up several in a row as a wall for my Faerie Garden when they are not in use. Their squared-off shape makes them much better than many round watering cans. I especially like that they have a big opening for filling up easily at a hose spigot.
I like the large, square, lidded kitty litter buckets as well for storing compost and potting soils. The only drawback I notice is that they can crack down the side and the lids break occasionally. I don't buy my litter in such large quantities though, so I post an occasional note on my neighborhood yahoo list and ask if anyone has extras and always have good luck getting several.

What cat-related supplies do you use in your garden?

UPDATE:
Here is a great DIY Project for making your own self-watering containers using kitty litter buckets:
http://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2015/08/diy-selfiwatering-kitty-litter.html