Picture Day

Every day is picture day in my garden. At least once a day I wander around with my camera in hand. Mostly the dogs ignore my efforts, sometimes they find their way into the background of my garden pictures. I usually keep my eye out for that in an attempt to avoid butt and bathroom shots.

The other day, Judy's little lime hosta caught my eye while I had camera in hand. I didn't notice until I was looking at the images on my computer that it caught Maggie's attention to. Usually, if they are the close when I am taking pictures, the dogs are trying to knock me over. Apparently, she just wanted to see what was so interesting.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

 

Next up, MoeMoe and Nazareth, our Egyptian Mau pair. MoeMoe came to us a few years ago. She had a big wild streak and was really nervous, all the time. She calmed down over time and fit right in. A few months ago, her daughter, Nazareth made her way to us. Mom is the little one in the forefront and baby is the huge one in the background. Nazareth was less wild but still nervous around all of the dogs. She took less time to settle in and quickly became Queen of the castle. She rules all the other cats... except for Francis, of course. A favourite passtime for both is dog watching.

One Brave Soul

 

My garden is a cat death trap at this time of year. Everyday, I have to go out and knock down the icicles from the roof edge. I never do that in the dark. I wait until the sun is up and I am less likely to land one in my eye! So every morning Hannah takes a chance.

 

She is the first one up and always wants to go out very shortly after she wakes.

Protecting your Garden

I have often posted about the adventures of my pets in my garden. Although there is some work involved in having so many dogs and cats AND a large garden, it has been well worth it for me. One of the big benefits of all my cats and dogs is that wildlife, generally speaking, stays out of the yard. We get the odd gopher or two and Hannah brings me mice that are no longer alive but we are not overrun with anything in the rodent family. This year I am starting my new kitchen garden and it will have an 8 foot fence around it because I need to keep my animals out of it as well. Digging in my flowers is one thing, digging in my food is quite another!

If you have wildlife bothering your garden, Organic Gardening magazine has a good article here on protecting it from wild things.

Cats in My Garden

I often mention the challenges of gardening with dogs. Particularly when I am newly planting things. Rarely do I mention the challenges of gardening with so many cats. We have 6 and all of them freely wander in and out all spring, summer and fall. In the winter, their usual door (an open dining room window) is closed. A couple of them will continue to go outside through winter, using the doors when they are opened to let dogs in and out. Most of them stay inside in the winter. They are less of a challenge for my garden than the dogs are because the cats never dig plants. They do like to roll in mulch and dry dirt so I am often kicking mulch flat and covering up bare spots but it really becomes part of how I walk through the garden and doesn't feel like too much of a bother. When we first moved here, our cat that came with the house, Hannah, was using two of the garden beds for an outdoor litter box.

I remedied that immediately with cayenne pepper and she is now using somewhere in the acres of bush that I do not go into because I try and avoid wood tics. Dogs or cats makes no difference. My rule is always... when you are gardening an unfenced bed and you have outdoor pets - you better wear gloves when you work! Scooping up is probably the least exciting chore that comes with pet ownership but I have been mostly lucky on that with my garden beds. Once I am able to convince them an area is part of my garden now, they rarely give me trouble.

We are all waiting...

It is only December but we are all waiting for the snow to melt and the temperature to rise. We have had an extaordinarily warm fall and start to winter but January is yet to come!

Foolproof

I have narrow strip of ground through my Goutweed border that Goutweed will not grow in. My neighbour has been trying to get rid of Goutweed for years with no luck. My foolproof method? With 11 dogs and 6 cats, this happens a hundred times a day!