Ahira's Hangar

Autumn in Oz is a very nice time. The days are still warm enough for tshirt and shorts, then the sun goes down and you quickly get the cold moving in (though it never drops below about 10 degrees).
My carrots have just started showing above the soil, now all i have to do is keep the cats away from them for the next two months!

My cats go after anything in the garden which I plant. I put all the catnip plants at one end to attract them but they don't touch those plants, just my veggies as soon as they come up!

I cleverly staked the places where my tomatoes would come up, so as not to disturb the young plants by having to stake later, but Bullwinkle and Jojo, our two moggies, had huge fun using the stakes as scratching posts, so that was a no no.

Brasidas, have you used the tomato cages instead? I can't imagine they would be used for scratching posts.

The problem with my garden is not so much my cats (we have to keep the boys inside at this house, as we front a main road) as it is with the local wild deer and other varmint populations. For example, no one in this neighborhood can grow roses, as that seems to be gourmet food for the deer. They like to eat the green onions, of all things, right out of our garden. And I have to plant about a hundred flower bulbs- especially tulips - to get twenty to grow, because of the squirrels.

Those tomato cages look like a distinct possibility. Thanks Menolly. I actually used chicken wire to fence the tomatoes off, but Bully is 9kilos of muscle and I swear he was actually giggling as he uprooted the whole thing.

We're growing our tomatos upside down this year--called "Topsy Tursy" got them though Plow and Hearth catalog.

I've seen those, but haven't ever tried them.
How are they doing, danlo?

Yeah, Bully was a rescue cat, been in the shelter for 18 months because he never presented well, he could be a bit grumpy and was never going to win kitty of the year competition. The staff at the centre said they'd found him hanging around the shelter when he was about 6 months old, and they reckon he was maybe semi-feral, which accounts for his size. At least I know the cats are eating healthy stuff anyway!

We're about to plant the topsy turvies so I'll let you know how it goes. Pity, though, I just heard the company went out of business.

Well, I think I now know why they went out of biz-three of our plants died quickly. If you receive a package with the little red box that says, "as seen on TV" you'll most likely get scammed-unless you're into Chia Pets.

Bummer.

I am sorry, danlo. The concept sure is intriguing.

One of my favorite late spring/early summer events has started happening the last couple of evenings - the fireflies have started coming out.