How to make an indoor cat garden

There are certain universal truths about cats…

1. They will knock sh*t off any flat surface
2. They will judge you
3. They will eat just about everything green

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It is these three truths that make this post necessary. My cats Miss Kitty and Lion-o, have never met a plant they didn’t like to eat, especially Lion-o. So this means it’s up to me to keep the wee beasties safe. Namely making sure any plants in my home are safe for them to take a chomp out of. This is why I decided to make this indoor cat garden. My cats are Sphynx cats, which means three things:

1. Other people think they look weird
2. They are into and on top of EVERYTHING
3. Someone will (eventually) make the inside out cat joke from Friends…

If you’re curious about them then check out my post on the 13 things you need to know about Sphynx cats. It’s not hard to find cat-safe plants but you may be surprised how many everyday plants are not good for your kitty’s belly! Now you may be thinking, “Gasp…not my cats they are angels they don’t eat my plants”. But do you really want to take a chance in case one day they get curious? Like these two…sigh…

Let’s take a look at some of the most common offenders that may be in your home.

Unsafe houseplants for cats

1. Aloe
2. Lilies (Easter Lily, calla lily, amaryllis, peace lily)
3. Ivy
4. Mother in laws tongue (snake plant)
5. Yucca
6. Any kind of citrus

Those can mean anything from upset tummies to potentially fatal. It is definitely not worth the risk of having them anywhere in the house. But fret not! There are some wonderful replacements, that are also great at cleaning the air and generally looking pretty are as follows.

Safe houseplants for cats

1. Spider plants
2. Ferns (Boston, Button)
3. Palms (Areca, Feather, Parlour)
4. Bromeliads
5. Bamboo
6. African violets
7. Baby’s tears
8. Christmas cactus

Another great alternative is to make an indoor cat garden. Any container will do but I had a hankering for a shallow, low-sided and wide dish. I chose this style so that I would have enough room to fit all the plants and (hopefully) prevent the cats from knocking the whole thing over! I’m loving the simplicity of this white ceramic dish. It is 8″ across which is just the right size as I plan to leave it on the coffee table, so I didn’t want it too big.

All you need is a pot, some soil, some plants and maybe some seeds. Just make sure you do your research tomato sure anything you include is 100% safe for cats. I was able to get a few herbs to include by taking cuttings from my yard. I snagged some thyme, rosemary and mint (the mint went over well with the cats).

Plants in include in your cat garden

Below is a list of plants I had intended to include. I couldn’t get my hands on any oats or barley but everything else went into the cat garden. By far their favourite is the spider plant…which was a bit of a surprise, but they were over the moon.

1. Wheatgrass (Cat grass)
2. Catnip
3. Mint
4. Spider plant
5. Thyme
6. Barley
7. Oat
8. Rosemary

Getting started

So with a shallow dish/pot, soil, cuttings, seeds and one dog I began to assemble the indoor cat garden.

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You want to put the soil pretty much to the rim, as we are using a shallow dish you want to make sure that you are giving the roots of the plants enough space to get the nutrients that they need. This really is a super easy DIY….just arrange the plants in a way you like, I kept the spider plant to the edge as it was the biggest. The mint was tall so it went in the centre and I know the cat/wheat grass grows like crazy, so I left a 1/2 of the space just for that.

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I then added some more dirt to cover the cat/wheatgrass and catnip seeds and just like that my indoor cat garden was compltee! I set it aside for 2 weeks, watering it often to give everything time to get established. In order to give it a great start so I set it under my grow light until the wheatgrass was tall enough (which doesn’t take long at all). I didn’t want to give it to the cats right away or they could have just pulled out all the cuttings. The roots will need a wee bit of time to spread out through the bowl so the plants are nicely anchored in the pot.

Once the time was up I proudly presented my creation to Miss Kitty and Lion-o and they went nuts! Funny enough they. didn’t seem too interested in the cat/wheat grass which I expected to be eaten right away. But they seemed pleased enough with the results so that’s a win in my books!

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What breeds of cats do you have? Do they eat plants in your house?