My cat destroyed my garden

Well, after a few weeks of tender loving care and keeping a vigilant eye on the health of my plants, my cat, Ichi, decided it’d be fun to just dig his teeth into the leaves of almost every single plant.

The lot of the basil and thyme have been destroyed. Some of the Rosemary and Mint are dead, as well, but were mostly buried. Almost as if Ichi was trying to send a message that he doesn’t like those flavors.

So how did this happen?

I’m well aware my cat, Ichi, has a nastey habit of getting into plants. He’s always been that way. We can’t really leave flowers on our dining table, because he’ll just hop up and start eating them. So I knew I had to be extremely careful to not allow him near these herbs.

To foil his plans, I’d typically place the herbs in an elevated area - like on a dresser or shelf - and would place something in front of that shelf so Ichi wouldn’t be able to see the plants or try to jump up to investigate.

More recently, I’d decided to start giving the plants some natural sunlight on my windowsill. This is a place Ichi loves to sit, so I wanted to make sure whenever I did this, my door was closed.

Except for last week, when I REALLY had to pee.

I got up, went to the bathroom, came back, and what do I see? I silhouette of a cat making chomping noises behind the curtain. I quickly move him off the windowsill and assess the damage.

While most of the plants looked a bit messed up, some were still standing and had undamaged stems. Others were weakened, and the rest, dead or dying.

Luckily, with some immediate attention, pruning, and TLC, I managed to ‘heal’ some of the herbs with bitten stems by balancing them upward toward the light. Others responded naturally and began to stand on their own over the course of a few days.

So now, I’m starting over

I’m going to continue caring for the plants I started here; those that survive will continue to grow. Given all the trauma it’s pretty unpredictable what kind of yield I’ll be getting from this first batch, but, I’m not letting that discourage me.

Ichi, you may have won this battle, but I’m going to win the war. For you see, I’ve put together a multi-tiered grow station, complete with full spectrum lighting and aeration. Oh, and cat spikes on each shelf so you don’t jump up and destroy my crops.

Bastard.

While this first gardening adventure essentially comes to a close, check back soon -- I’ll be sharing all the details of my new setup in my NEW indoor gardening series.