I’m in a love/hate relationship with my cats. I love the way they follow me around outside, and watching them from the kitchen, eat and play around their cat house. I love the way they catch mice and other pests. But I hate the way they dig in my kitchen boxes, like my whole garden is just their personal cat box. They could go anywhere in the great outdoors, but the fresh dirt in my carefully tended garden, that’s what they want. They dig in there, and get their paws all dirty, and then they climb on top of my car and leave little paw prints all over my windshield.

I have bulbs buried in my boxes that I don’t want them to dig up. Normally I would have parsely growing in my kitchen boxes all winter, providing some green, and discouraging my cats from digging. But I pulled up most of my parsley this summer, because it was at the end of its two year cycle, and I got caught without any parsley seeds to replace it. I really didn’t want my cats in the habit of using my boxes come springtime when I sow my seeds in there.
So yesterday I was out there with my son Ben and some wire fencing that Mr. Mims used one year to keep the geese out of his garden. We laid it almost flat over the top of the two boxes. It’s not very attractive, but I think it will do the job. Meanwhile, Loews already has new seeds for sale, so I planted some parsley seeds in my kitchen window. Now I can watch the cats and my parsley sprouts. Parsely is pretty hardy, so I plan to transfer to my boxes in the very early spring.