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From: slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden)
Newsgroups: net.garden
Subject: Re: catnip
Message-ID: <336@drutx.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Jan-86 11:51:01 EST
Article-I.D.: drutx.336
Posted: Thu Jan 23 11:51:01 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Jan-86 09:03:42 EST
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
Lines: 33

>catnip:  I'm trying to grow a catnip plant in my office, so I
>can clip pieces of it for my cats.  Not a hope of growing it at home or
>in the garden, of course.  

It shouldn't be any problem to grow it in the garden (well, not right
now if you are in the north).  We had 5 cats last summer and successfully 
started catnip in the garden.  It is practically a weed--comes up every year 
(I know this because my brother grows it) and grows so fast that there 
is no way the cats can eat it all.

I would advise starting it inside, as it sprouts slowly.  (I started
some inside and some out--that from inside did a lot better.  May 
be our heavy clay soil here.)  You can cover it with a large spaghetti 
strainer to keep cats off it while it's just starting.  When it gets 
to 4 inches or so transplant to the garden.  I haven't had much luck
keeping it in the house--it sort of withers away.

Actually, when you are just starting it, the cats will ignore it
if you are careful not to bruise the leaves--that releases the
smell.   By the time they notice it, it will be too tall for them
to hurt it.  After that it just comes up each year and the cats
know where to find it.  Ours was a 5 foot hedge last year--and the
cats were looking very contented all summer.
-- 

                                     Sue Brezden
                                     ihnp4!drutx!slb

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      To search for perfection is all very well,
      But to look for heaven is to live here in hell.   
                                       --Sting
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