How to Design a Kitty-Safe Herb Garden for a Cat

Designing a cat garden with plants for cats to eat and explore, can be an exciting project, but does require some attention to detail to keep the cats safe. Some plants can be poisonous to cats, so check to make sure whether the plant is safe for cats to play with before putting it in your cat garden.

When choosing plants for an indoor or outdoor cat plant garden, it is important to choose not only plants that please the cats, but garden with plants that please you. Make sure you are not allergic to anything you plant in the cat garden, lest it rub off on you after the cats frolic in their specially designed herb garden.

It is important when keeping a cat garden designed for your cat to eat that you do not let fungal infections get to the roots. If a plant starts to get root rot, this can mean that it has a fungus that can get your cat sick. If a plant gets sick and begins to die, throw it out to keep it from infecting the rest of your garden and potentially your cat.

One potentially overlooked point when designing a cat garden is to make sure plants grow well together. This means making sure that they have similar soil, fertilization and watering requirements so you can maintain a good environment for the roots of all plants. This is an issue when combining plants in single pots indoors, but it becomes a major issue when planting cat plants together in an outdoor bed because once they are planted, they become much more difficult to move.

Catnip

Catnip is a great addition to most cats' dream gardens. For most but not all cats, catnip yields a playful and euphoric feeling that coasts to a halt in a warm kitty nap. Catnip is super easy to grow and can sometimes even grow too fast and need a trim. With well-drained soil and a basic fertilizer when its growth slows, catnip can easily thrive in a window herb garden or pot in a sunny place. It may be a good idea to plant the catnip in something you can move in case the cats go too wild and go overboard attacking the catnip. There is also a similar plant you can put in the garden, called catmint, which gives cats a similar experience to catnip.

Wheat or Barley Grass

Commonly sold as "Cat Grass" for inflated prices at the pet boutique, you can actually sprout these grasses from whole raw seeds. It can be easier to grow the edible human-grade wheat grass you can find at the supermarket, and produce wheatgrasses are often cheaper and higher quality than those found in pet stores. Wheatgrass requires regular trimming, and it is best to trim the wheat grass by no more than half of its height at a time. Its soil should be well drained with some moss. Outdoors, wheat grass is easy to keep going and requires occasional reseeding to keep it full. Indoors, small patches of wheat grass can be some trouble to maintain, and it can be easier to simply replace fading wheat grass plants with new ones.

References and Resources:

Non-Poisonous Plants for Dogs and Cats
A Garden for Cats