Cats in the Garden

My cats, all five or six of them that I've had through the years, have always been drawn to my gardens. Ozzie was the best at digging up my plants. Scooter had a deformed paw, so wasn't a good digger. Thunked the moles on the head, that was all. The other cats from my past, Jude and Cloud didn't seem to be as much of a problem at digging up plants as Ozzie was. Ozzie would scratch up the tiny carrot plants, the teensy beets, and new leaves of broccoli or cabbage plants. After I replanted and replanted again, I finally got smart, coming up with my own method of protecting the plants: inserting sticks along the row, just bits of alder branches or other brush from clearing, usually ocean spray or salmon berry, wild plants of the PNW.

Now I have an indoor cat, Sid, who only digs up the bags I keep in the closet and a hat that's fallen from the shelf, he can pick at it beneath the door of the closet. He's a nut for hats and gloves and socks, anything he can pull at with his teeth; I really think he thinks he's finding a small animal to rip apart. He's a house cat who tries to climb the walls, kills small animals in the form of gloves, and chases mice (my toes) that make their way beneath the covers. Once I foiled Ozzie with the sticks stuck along the rows, I finally got my garden started. It was a good solution; I pulled out the sticks when the plants were large enough to stand up for themselves.

As far as gardening goes, this is the time of year to turn things under and plant a cover crop. I may plant a cover crop, but probably I won't. It's not that I'm lazy, it's just that I'm trying to find my way through this divorce grief. It's overwhelming to think about trying to do much other than make my way through each day. When they say "one day at a time," they really do mean it. Today, I wrote and treated a client (I do CranioSacral therapy for a real job, that and teaching writing) and I do the other things I love, making art and gardening just for the heck of it. Well, more than that really, if I wasn't for doing these things, I'd go stir-crazy, climbing the walls like my cat.

Tomorrow I will weed, the final weeding for the year, perhaps. Brenda will help me and the grandbaby too. We'll make some headway, I hope, if it isn't raining that is. It rained hard earlier today, hailed even. It was crazy. It is early for fall. Snow in the pass already.

Okay then, happy day.

Ciao, Flower

Slug it Out

Yes they are back. And this friendly rain we're having that folks are saying we need, that feels good, so gentle, so refreshing, cleaning the air, etc., is making the critters appear by the hundreds from seemingly nowhere. I once stepped on a banana slug in Spokane. That's my only experience of slugs in Spokane. Too dry. Here you can find a slug trail up the utility room door, across the wall and over a chair—yes I mean inside the house. They are everywhere. Where do they come from? Cat's fur, the tiny ones the size of a button cling when the cat brushes past, on your feet, boots, shoes, flip-flops, etc. And how do you get rid of them? Beer, boards, slug-patrol in the dark with a flashlight, slug bait, and iron. Now I don't want to mess with them eating the pansies or the lettuce, so I sprinkle around the iron pellets. I have always had cats as pets and when they were outdoor cats, I didn't want to use any poison in the yard. Still no poison—organic or bust. And when living sclose to the water, poisons of any sort join the watershed immediately and end up in the sound. So organic it is. Iron. Or beer, if you into going out every day and emptying a saucer of beer and slugs. Arugh!

Today is my day to drive south and begin the cleaning out process. I am tying up a 22 year marriage. Five years ago I knew I had to do something. It has taken me five years to complete the transition. I've read some books on divorce. Long term divorces are harder to unravel and do take time. Couples have money and houses and businesses and children together. Fortunately this marriage doesn't have children. We do have cats, and I left one behind. He is a Maine Coon with a crippled paw. He wouldn't have been a good cat to move, and the ex loves him. So it's okay. My new cat Sid is playful and protective. He's a good cat.

Okay, I'll end it here and get on the road. Yes it is raining, but my prediction is that we'll have more summer. So don't despair and do look out for slugs and if you have some light plastic, cover your tomatoes to keep them dry. My neighbor hooked an umbrella to the poles supporting his tomatoes. It was a perfect solution—just open the umbrella when it rained. Save the plump juicy fruit from blight.

Peace,

Flower

Cats and Cows

I've been a cat owner since I just out of high school. My first cat found me, a stray, sick kitten named Jude. She was a calico, with her colors muted and somewhat blended. Very beautiful, a great hunter—once brought home from the woods at Priest Lake a rabbit her size—and a good friend to me. She died when she was 18. Then along came Ozzie—also a great hunter. Now Ozzie loved the garden and when I'd turn over the soil in the spring, he'd grow excited. Once the new little shoots were an inch high, he trek out there and scratch in the soil—a wondrous potty box-- and scratch up all the plants. No matter how much I shooed him away, it happened.

So I'm passing on this invention to you—and it works—for cats at least. After you cultivate, plant your rows of lettuce or bock choi or whatever, and then break up a mess of sticks, just branches from pruning works, or they could be those little bamboo poles from the garden store, and push them into the ground every few inches along each row. I used the sticks from the pruning because there was no cost involved and I had an abundance of brush, since the wild vegetation grows like gangbusters around here. Now that the sticks are inserted, the garden looks a bit like a pincushion with 8" pins covering it and it works. Ozzie would just sit there looking at it, a disappointed look on his face. Once the plants are 3-5 inches tall you can remove the pins.

Now, cows in the garden isn't an ongoing problem, but if your neighbor grazes cattle right next to your yard, a whole herd can break down the fence and end up munching away in your bountiful garden of tomatoes and cabbage and lettuce and Jerusalem artichokes, and carrots. It happened to me and there they were and when I clapped my hands, they dashed this way and that, their weight just making huge holes in the garden, breaking down the plants, and not heading back to Woody's field. I had a friend who cut cattle and she said, you don't understand, you can't go straight at a cow. It's the way their eyes are, more on the sides of their heads than ours. She hurried over as they continued to romp through the garden, spooking as I waved my arms. I stopped, realizing that shortly they'd be stampeding. So she arrived and walked the perimeter calmly, coming in slowly from the back side. The cows shuffled and mooed and began to meander, walking the fence line toward the driveway and the road. It worked and Woody had them corralled in the field in no time. That was Yakima.

Here in Bellingham, I've only seen one cat in the community garden and it just ran off when I said hello. And the deer, I haven't caught red-handed yet.

Happy Gardening,
Flower