Indoor Cat Garden
This Spring, Paul and I planned on planting a garden, but time got away from us. So in June when I found a really great deal on an elevated garden table at Tractor Supply Company I couldn’t resist bringing it home.
The instructions on the elevated garden table said easy assembly. Well….I would say assembling the garden table was moderate, not super easy, but not difficult. It does require your own tools and takes a bit of time.
Once all assembled, we carried our garden table to the yard where it would get plenty of sunshine.
As I was getting ready to plant our tomatoes and green peppers, I thought what about the cats? This would be the perfect time to plant a cat garden.
Rye, Oat, Barley Catnip and Wheat Grass
When I picked out rosemary, basil and sage for us, I also selected rye, oat and barley, catnip, and wheat grass for the cats’ garden. Because it was already so late into the Spring, I picked out starter plants and didn’t grow the garden from seed.
I used one of our window box style planters for the indoor cat garden. I spread out the organic garden soil and placed each plant into the fresh soil, gently loosening the roots. Covered them with more soil and gave the planter a good drink of water.
Your indoor cat garden is now ready for your cats to enjoy! Our garden takes more patience, sunshine and water to be ready. But there was no reason to make Annie, Eddie and Mercy wait.
The DIY cat garden was an immediate hit with Annie and Eddie. I placed their water fountain nearby in the sun room for easy access and I kind of like the sound of water flowing too. I place ice cubes in the water a few times a day to keep the water cool and Annie entertained.
Eddie likes to nibble on the oat, rye and barley grasses.
Annie was first to try the catnip. The boys didn’t seem to care much about it.
Mercy was reserved but decided to join in the fun.
He decided that the grasses taste pretty good!
As for our garden, we still have a bit of a wait.
But our green peppers are coming along nicely.
Our cats really enjoy their DIY cat garden. Because they are indoors only cats, this is one way of bringing a bit of the outdoors in for them to enjoy.
This is a fantastic idea. I’ll have to find a place in our house to set the small garden. Our cats would love it.
My only worry is that they’ll eat it in a day or so.
My cats love their greens. We grow catnip & grass for the cats. When I go out the back door & come back to come inside, there are at least 6-8 cats waiting for me! They know what I am going to get for them! Too smart for their own cat pants!!
That is so nice of you to grow catnip and grass for your cats. Cats are very smart.
They are very smart! If I come in & don’t have grass or fresh nip, they actually “scream” at me. they are hilarious! One likes to take an entire “stalk” and run off with it all for himself. LOL
Thanks Will for sharing this information! That sounds like a great idea. We will check Todd’s Seeds out too.
Our momma tried this with us, but we were “lil stinkers”. We pulled up everything, ate some, spread some, then flung the dirt everywhere and rolled all over in it! We thought it was great fun, but momma was not very happy to have more messies to clean up. MOL 🙂 Could have been worse though, she said, we could have used it as an extra potty pan.
xoxoxo Dancer and the SDR Clan
Annie too was flinging dirt. Gracey must have been telling her to throw some dirt. She loved flinging dirt. 😉
It doesn’t take long for the grasses to sprout. We went to a natural foods store and bought rye and wheat seeds made for “sprouts” for people. I planted them in a window box like planter and once they are nicely rooted (so the cats can’t pull them out easily) would bring them inside. They loved it. The grass is now overgrown and brown, so I will pull it out and start some new. Buying seeds is much cheaper than plants from a pet store. Nip takes longer to sprout, but we grow it outside and since it reseeds itself, we always have plenty to pinch off a few leaves at a time.
That is a great idea Kerry. Yes our grass is ready to be replaced with some new. I am going to get some seeds now too.
This is great- whenever I get a catnip plant, it gets chewed down to the roots so I would set it aside. I think I’ll try this with the grasses however.
Hi Ariel, we could try to snip a bit of the catnip off and let the cats enjoy it and that would prevent them from chewing or pulling it down to the roots. I might try that with the catnip and make the next garden just grasses.
Love both of those ideas. I will have to look for these kinds of plants. Never seen these at are Petsmart.
Sue B
Hi Sue, Will posted information about Todd’s Seeds in a comment below that is a great idea to keep fresh tender greens available for the cats.
guys !!! your gardin iz AWESUM……N yea, we spotted de nip…rite off !! ???
Annie loves the nip but the boys didn’t seem too interested.
this was absolutely superb!!! Where do you ever find the time?
Thank you for your kind words. Anything for the cats!!!
you are welcome! Also, HUGE CONGRATS on being a PETTIES FINALIST!!! Woooo hoooo!!!!!!! Wishing you the BEST of luck!
Wow! What an amazzzing garden! I know the kitties love that!
They do love it. It is really very easy to make Thank you for your kind words.
I have an indoor only cat and I want to grow some greenies for him. I wonder if he would like it? I may try this, but not so fancy as yours.
Trey, nothing fancy here, honest! I used a planter we had already and picked up the Pet Greens from Pet People. You wouldn’t even need to replant the greens to see if your cat likes them. Super easy! Thanks for being a member of The Tiniest Tiger community.
I’ve never heard of Pet People. Is it a store or website?
Okay, so I did a Google search and see that the closest Pet People is Indianapolis. There are a lot in Ohio, and my youngest daughter lives in Youngstown and works in Canton, but she doesn’t have time or gas funds to come home too often. I’m thinking they may not have any left by this late date, too. I may have to resort to buying some packs of seeds on-line and start mine that way. With three cats, I know they’d love this.
Hi Linda! You can find pet greens in some supermarkets too. I used to find the wheat grass at Meijer and Whole Foods. I haven’t checked for them at PetSmart or Petco but they might have them too. I might try growing some from seeds too. I like http://petgreens.com too.
Thank you!
You can also get these kind of plants at Petsmart.
Thank you, I wondered where to get them!