{"id":14867,"date":"2013-05-04T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2013-05-04T14:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/?p=14867"},"modified":"2013-05-01T19:13:26","modified_gmt":"2013-05-02T01:13:26","slug":"how-to-keep-cats-from-sleeping-on-new-seedlings-in-garden-beds-and-pots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/how-to-keep-cats-from-sleeping-on-new-seedlings-in-garden-beds-and-pots\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Keep Cats from Sleeping on New Seedlings in Garden Beds and Pots"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"dahlias<\/a>
dahlias being started in pots spend days in the open cold frame<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When my<\/strong> daughter came in and told me how cute the cat looked all curled up in the ceramic pot in the cold frame, I was not happy. \u00a0It was not my daughter’s fault. \u00a0The cats often sleep in empty pots. \u00a0This time, however, there were NO empty pots in the cold frame. \u00a0There were pots full of dahlia bulbs sprouting<\/a> fresh, tender growth. \u00a0Now, one of them had less growth than it had that morning.<\/p>\n

\"offending<\/a>
offending cat gets some couch time<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fortunately<\/strong>, there was one stronger sprout that was not broken by the cat’s weight. \u00a0The cat was gently removed, because she is an aged and beloved pet, but she would obviously gravitate back to this spot. \u00a0Why cats would ever like to sleep on cool, damp soil in early spring, I don’t know. \u00a0I will take it as a sign that my pots were staying pretty warm there, which was what I wanted.<\/p>\n

The solution\u00a0<\/strong>was plastic picnic forks. \u00a0Four of them were placed with tines poking up, without piercing the dahlia bulbs with the handles in the soil, but close enough not to leave lounging space. \u00a0The cat has not been back. \u00a0The other pots were not big enough and the dahlias had grown quite a bit larger. \u00a0The one in the ceramic pot had been one of the last to show growth.<\/p>\n

\"plastic<\/a>
plastic forks deter cats from sleeping on tender plants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is also<\/strong> a simple, non-poisonous, low-tech, reusable way to protect new seedlings from cats in the outdoor garden beds. \u00a0If you have an acre, like I do, you probably can’t put them everywhere. \u00a0But, then neither do I have enough cats or new plants to need them everywhere. \u00a0It is easy enough to remove the forks one day when there is weeding going on and you can see that the plants are now large enough to survive on their own. \u00a0For me, the cats are worth the mouse and squirrel catching that they do. \u00a0I’m willing to work with their idiosyncrasies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When my daughter came in and told me how cute the cat looked all curled up in the ceramic pot in the cold frame, I was not happy. \u00a0It was not my daughter’s fault. \u00a0The cats often sleep in empty pots. \u00a0This time, however, there were NO empty pots in the cold frame. \u00a0There were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19],"tags":[49],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}