As promised last week, evidence of my patheticism as a gardener. Keep in mind, there are dozens of tulip bulbs planted in this garden:
Yet, aside from these, um, beauties, only a few purple tulips and one yellow tulip bloomed this year. No scarlets at all that I can recall.
Try not to focus on the mucky gravely bits around the garden wall (I’ve cleaned up it up since taking this picture, I promise). Try to focus on the fact that I built the wall myself!
I have a theory regarding my lack of tulips this year. It’s either the fault of the freak snowstorm in April freezing my flowers as they were trying to grow, or it’s the fault of this Evil Entity:
Keisha. Born a scant year ago, the formerly precious Keisha faithfully used her litter box until this spring, whereupon she discovered my tulip garden and proceeded to commandeer it for her own nefarious purposes.
Evidence:
See the dig holes behind the tulips? The dirt scooped out of the garden? Well, it wasn’t me, I can tell you that much. No, Keisha is the guilty party, and I hereby sentence her to twenty lickings by Allie McBeagle.
Here’s my worry… When the tulips have had their day (the bulbs are now gone, but Little Pisser tells me the still-green stalks “feed” the bulbs for next year’s crop), I like to fill this garden with bedding plants. I may not be much of a gardener, but even I can’t bear to leave the dirt patch beside our kitchen door devoid of color. How do I stop the Evil Entity that is Keisha from digging up my bedding plants? Aside from throttling her, that is, because I wuv her!
Help! Any tips from gardening experts out there?
Cindy:
LOL! We have two cats and they dig all the time. But I will say they have never dug up a plant. They’re far more interested in burying than digging up. I think your bulbs will be safe. I say let the little gal dig. Then again, I am the same woman who leaves apples out for the ground hog living in my stone wall. (It’s part of a deal; he eats the apples, he doesn’t eat my marigolds)
As for the other half of your question – I can’t help you there. I’ve got an almost black thumb
Barb, you are too good! Now, this is the problem – she uses the garden as her litter box, and when I water the garden, which is right next to the kitchen door–the door that EVERYONE uses, because our front door now opens onto a sundeck–the garden stinks big time. Even though I clean it out a couple times a week. I feel sorry for the poor mailman, or anyone else who comes to my door.
I read on-line to shake black pepper on the soil. I did that (TONS of black pepper), went out, and when I came back, she’d scooped up the black pepper over at least 1/4 of the garden as if it were catnip.
Wahhh!
Hey, Cindy, you’re a better gardener than I am! I wouldn’t have even gotten ANY flowers!
Believe me, Lexi, I have a very brown thumb. My mom used to put me in charge of the house plants when she and my dad went on vacation. The plants were always dead when they returned.
The VAST majority of flowers on our property are from the old couple who lived in the house before us. I have a beautiful white puffy bush thing that I didn’t know existed until my dh cut down a hedge. Then the white puffy bush thing began blooming. I can’t remember the name of it, and my mom told me just the other day. Agh. Peony? That might be it.
We also cut down a much larger hedge in another part of the property years ago, and, lo and behold, suddenly I had tulips and daffodils and day lillies and another beautiful flower whose name I can’t remember right now coming out my ears. I couldn’t keep up with the weeding, so we dug out the bulbs and gave them away. Now we mow the weeds. 🙂
Cindy,
Too funny you’ve dug up the bulbs and are mowing the weeds. 😉
Maybe you could plant some sort of low growing juniper shrub in your garden and make believe it’s the juniper that smells catty. Good luck!
Let me know if you solve the problem. 🙂
Jeanmarie
No, no, Jeanmarie, no more shrubs! I want flowers in this garden. It’s too small for a shrub, anyway. I’ve received a couple of suggestions off-blog. One to put rose bush clippings in with the bedding plants and the other to put in dried onion bits. I’m going to try the rose bush clippings, as my mom has a lot of rose bushes and says she can spare a few stalks. If the thorns don’t deter my kitty from using this garden as her litter box, I don’t think anything will.
Not to worry, I will report my success (or lack thereof) in the next couple of weeks. I’m on a mission. 🙂
Cindy, you’re not the only non-gardener here. At least you try; that’s more than I do. I’m pretty much knows as The Kiss of Death in the plant world.
I remember years ago, my mother (who was an avid gardener) planting tulip bulbs while the dog followed her every move, except digging them up again. She was so not happy with him, lol.
Linda
LOL, Linda!
I’ve discovered I’m most prone to “box gardening,” as my sister puts it. If the garden has a little wall around it or flowers in a big pot, those I can do. I really have no choice. We had so many trees on this property when we bought it and some were very old and not well. We’ve cut down about five dead trees over the years, and I cover the stumps with pots…which then need flowers. The problem is remembering to water them. 🙂
If I ever build a new house, though, I would want only ONE small walled garden. I get bored watering. It takes FOREVER.
It’s hard to believe my mother and little sister are both avid gardeners….
You can always keep the cat in the house! 🙂 It’s safer, anyway, unless you’re out in the country with no nearby dogs or roads or other cats that can pass along horrible diseases. I’m not, so my cats are indoors, my “garden” is full of mulch, and the one tulip that bloomed every year finally gave up the ghost this spring (either that, or it got eaten by the bunnies).
Natalie, bite your tongue! I’ve never had an indoor-only cat. I guess you can tell I’ve never lived in an urban area, at least not when I’ve had a cat.
Hey Girl, I know about your gardening skills, but you have done a great job with the tulips. We have encountered a ferile cat problem at our new home in AZ. The area our subdivision is in was all farm land, a few short years ago and some of it still is. Seems a lot of large cats got left behind and they really liked our little backyard, that was full of tumbleweeds and mud until two months ago. Anyway fill a squirt bottle with water and cayenne pepper and spray the garden and then spray her when you catch her in there. I sprayed the crushed granite and the fence in all the cats favourite spots, and then took aim when they made attempts to come over the fence. This has not completely cured my problem (way to many cats), but it has decreased the deposits by the garbage bag full. The info I read on this says if you actually get two good sprays(even with just water) on the cat, that is often all it takes. As you know cats generally hate water.
Hi Pammy!
I’ve heard that the cayenne pepper can lead to cats scratching their eyes out after they wash their wittle faces with their paws. Not sure I want to do that with my own cat. I’m putting in bedding plants today, and tomorrow my mom is giving me some rose bush stalks. A friend says she cuts them into tiny pieces and scatters them in her gardens – no problem with kitties after that. The water bottle is another good idea. Thanks. 🙂 And thanks for dropping by the blog!