Whenever I want to take pictures of my garden, for my journal, to keep an eye on progress, my cats come running towards me so they're in the pictures. Guess they're vain?










why drink clean, fresh water indoors when you got green yukked up water outdoors? Makes total sense to me!
There's a frog in there, happened to see it this afternoon :D




I did it, a picture without cat!



If you got some nice or funny pictures as well, in and around your home, feel free to share here.

Cats!

lol I've been on the internet all day searching for a stone pagoda for my garden :)

Beautiful Garden!

Thank you, still lots of work to be done, too much for me on my own to be honest. A year ago it was lawn, and had been for some 30 years, so trying to get rid of this friggin grass without using poison is an ordeal!

This helped a lot, but unfortunately it's growing back, fast!


And the plants still have to grow a lot, they're only just a year old, so it'll take some time. And patience, lots and lots of patience hihi.

I like my spiral of Archimedes :)


And my Venus




@ Dodo, you can NOT have my cats!!! Even though Bramble is a git, but I still love him, lol


@ luvmeforlife, I'm working on a Yin Yang symbol
It's 1.80 M across

Crystal, how do you keep your cats from tearing up your plants? My cats destroyed my flower bed! So I gave up on it...

I have a solution to cats.

RCB, my cats like to roll in sand when it's dry. So when plants are just surfacing, I have to protect them. I usually put sticks in between till the plants got a tad bigger,then they won't roll over them anymore, although Bramble is thick as two planks in that sense :/
I also have put pieces of bramble branches in between young plants, sort of like barbed wire
I got bramble growing in my hedge, impossible to get rid of, and I realized it's actually quite handy: no one in his right mind will try to get through the hedge to enter my garden They'll rip themselves apart! Natural barbed wire, so I leave it in there. (I have no neighbours next to me, just some small park like thingy, lots of grass and some flowerbeds)

If soil is dry and easy to dig in, they will do that, and possibly use it for a litter. It could help if you allocate a place for them to do this?

Here's some things you could try:
- cocoa shell mulch (doesn't feel nice)
- coffee grounds, although it should be damp/wet (sticks to their paws which they don't like)
- if they use it as a litter, put a litter somewhere outdoors and put them on it till they actually use it.
- make sure there's something to scratch (mine scratch on several places, varying from a treetrunk to a wooden pool of the fencing)
- plant Ruta graveola, they do NOT like that, it's a cat repellent
- Plant cat grass somewhere --> Nepeta cataria, so they have their own place to nibble, roll in etc. Cats LOVE it, cat nip I believe is the proper English word.
Is also a great solution if they nibble your plants indoors. Give them their own plant, lol.
- and what I do: put sticks in the ground, preferably at an angle. Not sharp ones, as you don't want your cat to hurt himself. If plants are somewhat larger/leafier, you will barely notice the sticks (they needn't be all that high, some 5-6" will stop them from rolling, digging etc.) Does work well for me and it doesn't cost a thing (I got plenty of branches and sticks from bushes I've pruned. I always keep a bunch to support other plants if need be, now also use them as cat "fencing" lol

If all that feels, use C4 or ... invite David over

Very nice pixys((((((Crystal))))))

I see your pagoda! lol and the symbol looks awesome. I have a tiny area and no rain gutters so it's been washing away the mulch and driving me crazy. Yesterday I threw some river rocks there and it seems to be helping. I'm still on the hunt for a pagoda. Planting elephant ears and Hydrangea for the first time this year. They are finally coming out and makes me happy!

http://instagram.com/p/oBn9xXOl0i/#

next on the list is elfin thyme to keep the erosion at bay

Thank you 2 Kids!



@ Luvmeforlife, those elephant ears are huge (had to look them up, didn't know that plant). Nice that they're coming out, but aren't they close together, for four plants that size??

Your so welcome(((Crystal)))

thank you, Crystal. I have an 11 pound orange tabby and calico bobtail they both loved destroying my flower bed! I found my fat cat laying in my window flower box when I came home from work today.

Hahaha, sorry, but I got this image in my mind of what that must've looked like.

My Bramble is a nutter too. He likes to suddenly run towards my bamboo and jump right in the middle of it, forcing it out in all directions. I'm not amused when I see him do that! I guess it's the leaves moving in the wind? I swear he has only got the 2 braincells, he's either very dim or he's fooling me and is extremely intelligent.
Yesterday he jumped in my bulrush. So suddenly there's a cat in the middle of all those stems. He just seems to love jumping in grassy plants? And he knows he ain't supposed to do that, the git. He's real good at having this quasi innocent look "Wot? Wot I do now?? I ain't done nothing wrong!!"

But still, I'm glad that's the worst that has happened so far (knock on wood).

I am so proud of myself! I made a Buddha table/shelf thingy :D
I was gonna chill, as the weather is gorgeous, so put on nice clothes, shorts, but yeah ... me and doing nothing ... :/ Just don't work.
So I ended up in old rags, drilling, sawing. And dang, do I excel in sawing straight, not!
But not to worry, it has to sit on gravel, so I just kick the gravel up or down. Any carpenter would and should be jealous of my crafts-womanship!!

This is the result, gonna paint it later.



This is my fire-pit patio.