The Mouthpiece (Meow-piece?)

This is the Sustainable Spokescat. He speaks for himself.
Haym says, "I'm a cat with a career, official spokescat for Sustainability Matters @smattersva. I birdwatch, I garden, I pose tirelessly for SM's Facebook and the local pawparazzi. My eco-commitment is real, as long as the treats keep coming.
"As a feral drifting from farm to farm, I was shot by a jerk who got off on hurting cats. It hurt so much, and the bullet's still in my leg."

"Here's me and a friend. #Amphibians are the best form of natural pest control in the garden, so I do my best to watch over them and keep them from harm. Very non-cat of me."

"So I didn't attend the @smattersva Plant Swap in purrson today, but one of my fans sent me a gift, a very special #catnip plant!! I love getting fan mail."

"Me in a jungle of stiltgrass, one of the worst #InvasiveSpecies. Now's the time to weed whack it, down to bare earth, before it goes to seed. Just don't weed whack any frogs or felines who might be lurking."

"Me, the eco-spokescat, leading the fight against #InvasivePlants. This one, mile-a-minute, grows at roughly that speed. Be careful when pulling; I stick to root chewing as the vine is barbed. It's edible, though, and potassium rich. I prefer it to bananas."

"Me starting seeds (in repurposed containers, naturally...) ;)"

"And me helping NRCS check out a hayfield that had just been converted to pollinator habitat. It was fascinating seeing all the native seeds germinating...though they didn't taste as good as they looked, sadly."

You can follow Haym, the Sustainable Spokescat at: https://twitter.com/spokescat

The Black Attendant

Our recent (Summer 2019)  Garden Book Club selection was: Onward and Upward in the Garden by Katherine S. White. I cannot say that I highly recommend this book to garden readers. The first third was dull as dirt, but it gets better as it goes along. What did strike my interest though was this photo on the very last page:

That missing chapter would likely have made the book a whole lot more readable and relatable, but alas, the lady passed before she had time to write it. The cat, referred to as a "black attendant" is clearly the focus of the photo with the garden and its human mistress as mere backdrop -- as it should be and it leads me to ask: Who then is really the attendant and who the mistress in this setting?

A Real Gem

Aliza Robin of Gaithersburg, MD, shared this kitty with her Instagram followers. She writes: 

"This is Jasper in my garden. Last year, I turned my townhouse backyard into a monarch waystation and a pollinator habitat. He loves being in the yard with me when I garden or just in general. The garden is registered under the name 'Robin's Hollow.'

The swamp sunflowers I just planted this year. The other two photos are from the first year before the garden filled in.

I don't have a blog or website but the company that put in my garden (it's all native plants and a woman-owned company) wrote a blog about it: https://www.laurensgardenservice.com/butterfly-garden-in-gaithersburg/."

 

Black Magic

Fellow garden communicator and friend Cris Blackstone is the Education Program Coordinator at NH Landscape Association.

She shared this photo and wrote: "Here is Zwartje, my kitty I got on Valentine’s Day two years ago. She was so fascinated by this basket of blossoms that were getting set up for a flower mandala photo shoot. We live on the Seacoast of New Hampshire, in the fantastic small town of Newmarket. Zwartje was about five months old when I got her as a rescue from shelters affected by hurricanes, spreading these precious kitties to New England SPCA sites. She LOVES the chance to roll around in tulsi when I bring it in to package it up!"