Make a cat happy; plant some cat grass

Our cats love fresh cat grass, not the stuff that's sold in pet stores.  (I don't know why they don't like the pet store stuff, but they don't.)  Anyway, it's so simple to plant it myself, it just makes sense. 

I start with a plastic container that would otherwise be sent off to a recyling center.  (Keep your eyes open on recycling day and grab a good sized one out of your neighbor's bin.)  Simply cut drainage holes in the bottom and fill it with potting soil.  Scatter the seeds over the top of the soil and cover them with a thin layer of soil.  Finally, put the container in a sunny spot, keeping the seeds covered until they germinate.  (The top of this lettuce container worked perfect for this.)

A couple days later, you can see the sprouts taking root through the sides of the container and the shoots start to come up.  That lid now serves as the base to catch dirt and water.

The seed package suggests keeping the grass trimmed to a certain height, but I never have to bother with that since the goats, er, um, cats keep it trimmed for me.



Dogs enjoy cat grass too.

Landscaping project part II

 With a trip to Pine Ridge Gardens in London, AR last Sunday, I am finished with the cement block planting project.  Here the planters are all lined up and full of life.

Next spring, the vines should fill out some more and I'll have some pretty blooms in red, pink, white and blue.

Mary Ann at Pine Ridge helped me pick out plants that would work well in this set-up.  Pine Ridge Gardens is a mail order nursery that specializes in native species.  She holds open houses at the garden in the fall and spring.  I highly recommend supporting Pine Ridge.

Here is what I ended up with:

Antennaria Plantaginfolia (Pussy Toes)

Decumaria Barbara (Climbing Hydrangea)

Dicentra Exima (Bleeding Heart)

Mitchella Repens (Partridgeberry)

Variegated Polemonium Reptans (Jacob's Ladder)

Polemonium Reptans (Jacob's Ladder)

Silene Virginica (Fire Pinks)

Bike tire raised garden bed

Earlier this week I got a twitter suggestion from P. Allen Smith to do a second sowing of sunflowers. I haven't grown a thing all summer other than houseplants. Anyhoo, I was inspired, but was stumped on location. Then I got an idea for an experiment.

If you ride bikes, chances are, you have a lot of old bike tires lying around like we do. I decided to use a couple to make a small, raised garden bed.

I picked a sunny spot in the backyard, south of the crape myrtle tree. I used a garden spade to loosen up the ground a bit.



I used garden staples to secure the bottom tire and used a regular stapler to connect the bottom tire to the top tire. (If I had to do it again, I would like to come up with a better way to sew the two tires together - maybe twine and an upholstery needle.)



Then I filled it with garden soil making sure to get into the edges of the tire. For the two 29'er mountain bike tires, I used between 1 and 2 cubic feet of soil.



Then I planted a dwarf species (70 days to bloom).



Although not pictured, I decided to put some landscaping rocks around the bed for support until I see what happens when it rains.



I have no idea if this will work. If it does, I'll redo in the spring or make changes and try again.