Herman and Vermin

This photo is from the Library of Congress collection and is now in the public domain.

The photo caption reads, "Frances Benjamin Johnston's cats, Herman and Vermin, seated on brick railing of New Orleans house, Louisiana."Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) is the photographer and it was taken around 1945.

If you look closely, you can see a water garden with lily pads behind the cats and what appears to be a coneflower in the foreground.

Protecting Newly Planted Catmint from Kitties

Too much catmint photo by Teresa Stanton at Flickr.com.

My garden writer friend Larry, the LaidbackGardener, up in Quebec, Canada, recommends that you place barriers around newly planted Catmint plants until they get established as the kitties can get a bit enthusiastic and kill them with love before they get a chance to be send out their roots.

Larry writes, "You only need a temporary cat barrier,, while nepetas settle in and stop giving off their cat-enticing aroma. The problem is not with well-established plants, but freshly planted ones. During planting, some roots are inevitably broken or leaves are damaged, leading to the emission of nepetalactone and the resulting cat attraction. So, cover freshly planted nepetas with some sort of barrier (a cut-off gallon milk jug, for example) to keep the cats away. After 4 or 5 days, the aroma accidentally released during planting will have disappeared and cats will no longer be a bother. 

See his full blog post here:
https://laidbackgardener.blog/2019/06/02/protecting-nepetas-from-cats/amp/

Feeling Froggy

This charming cat was begging for affection at the plant sale today at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA. Apparently, kitty is a regular visitor to the Friends of Green Spring (FROGS) Garden Gate Plant Shop. No one on staff that I asked knows his (her?) name or any other details, but they think kitty wanders over from some nearby houses into the public garden and especially likes all the attention from the plant shop visitors.

Cat Gods

Barb Levisay said, "The cats’ names are Loki (on top) and Isis (we got her before the bad guys besmirched that name). 

"Loki is 11 and thinks he is a dog. He loves Xena, our lab mix, rubs up against her and follows her around. Once, when a deer came wandering up the driveway in the middle of the day, he chased it off single-handedly.

"Isis is 10 and knows she is the boss of all. She is a Torti, so pretty small, but isn’t the least bit intimidated by Xena or Odin (our 2 year old, 70 pound rescue mutt). With people, she is friendly and talkative. She sits on my desk while I am working and follows close behind when I am gardening. She has quite a personality.  

"That’s Isis—probably watching a skink. My husband is an avid photographer and caught this one."