Welcome To Gardening with Cats Revisited! How To Create Fun Flower Displays & Top Planting Tips **PLUS** The New Raised Beds - An Update

Happy Monday Pawesome Pals

And welcome to Gardening with Cats revisited; this was another really popular post from 2018. But before we jump into that, here's a little update on the new raised beds at BBHQ. We shared a little of this project a couple of weeks ago when the P.A. finally got around to doing something with the hideous back corner of the garden, check out the post here.

As this corner of the garden was a bit of a rubbish tip, there's not a lot mew can do with it so raised beds seemed like the best idea. We placed some very heavy-duty plastic on the ground as weeds are prolific in this area and we don't use weed killers at BBHQ, so this is the best solution to combat that issue. Although we did add drainage holes to the plastic, especially inside the raised beds.

Next, all the sleepers were cut to size, and then they were placed on the plastic. Once they were in the right spot, dad used some large 'L' shaped brackets and long wood screws to join them together.

They still need a little bit of levelling as the ground is very uneven, though so far so good and it's such an improvement, and we'll show mew more of this project on our next gardening post.

Today, we're not growing anything from scratch like last time. Instead, we're going to do a little planting with some flowers that the P.A. got from the local wholesale nursery.

We must add that as the spring (2018) was so miserable and seemed to last fureffur she didn't get to the nursery until late May. When she arrived, she discovered that there weren't many flowers left - yep it was true, due to the weather warming up, a lot of peeps had been and cleared the place out, so she was left with a completely random selection that nopurrdy wanted.  And they were in tiny, little pots too, so would take some catching up. But not to be a defeatist, she took effurything she could fit in the car.

Anyhoo, if mew're a long-time reader, mew may remember way, way, way back in 2015 that we'd been purrusing garden idea's on Pinterest. We came across a really neat idea to transform an old ladder into a really nice garden feature, and luckily we came across a ladder that was purrfect for a make-offur in the shed.

So what has all this got to do with today's post, we hear mew ask?

Well, that same ladder we gave a make-offur all those eons ago is the subject of today's post, as we think mew can never have enough flowers. Though in our original post we grew herbs in it, and yes funnily enough he P.A. bought basil & parsley to plant! 

Let's show mew what we did with it.

Purretty Flower Ladder

What Mew Will Need:

A suitable ladder -  we painted ours white

Plant pots that can be attached to steps

Organic compost

A completely random selection of plants [MOL]

Optional - gloves for handling compost 

Optional cat for snoopervision ~ Today Fudge was on-paw to offur much-needed guidance and to take us through the step-by-step destructions.

A quick re-cap on what the ladder looked like before and aftur its original make-offur under the careful snoopervision of Angel Snowie.

The ladder turned our really well, and is still going strong at BBHQ in 2022

>^.^<

"Come on!" Fudge said. "We don't have all day!"

"Excuse me?" replied the P.A.

"I'm a furry busy cat, I have oodles of fan mail to reply to, and then Basil has got me doing extra weapons training with Parsley, and then I'm off for another driving lesson in the Unimog," he answered testily. "And we're burning daylight right now!"

"Alrighty... OK... keep your fur on dude!" retorted the P.A. "I'll go and load up the compost on the trolley and bring a selection of flowers to the ladder and meet you there in 5 minutes."

A short while later, the P.A. appeared dragging the trolley laden with compost and flowers.

"Mew took your time!" Fudge chastised as he tapped his iWatch screen and tutted.

"Give me a break would you," the P.A. said. "The least you could have done was give me a paw with the trolley!"

"PFFFFFFFFTTTT!" Fudge replied. "Mew're the muscles around here, so that's your job."

At this point, I thought I'd better intervene.

"Children, no squabbling in the garden! Fudge behave yourself and help the P.A. mew have all the time in the wurld to do your itinerary today," I quipped, then added. "Now play nicely and get that ladder planted!"

"Mew heard Basil," Fudge said with a smirk. "Get that ladder planted!"

A few moments later, the P.A. had placed several plants on the ground for a closer inspection.

**Top Tip**

Before planting, make sure mew thoroughly water the plants 

Aftur his careful inspection of the flowers, Fudge jumped into the trolley. Relishing the feel of the moist compost under his paws, he said. "Wow, this compost feels fantastic under one's paws!"

Then dad appeared under the carport, and Fudge said. "Dad, can mew make me my own little compost area?"

WHAT THE FLUFF!!!???

And no, I don't want to know why Fudge wants his own compost area--EEEEEEWWWWWW!

But enough of that here's what happened next under the effur watchful eye of Fudge. 

The P.A. filled the metal pots half full with fresh compost, and then she placed the flowers (still in their plastic pots) on the ladder to see how it would look. Aftur a bit of juggling we finally, sort of made it wurk with the random flowers we had, and so the P.A. carefully removed them from the plastic pots and planted them in the metal ones using more compost and then gently firming them in.

With the flowers now in situ for the summer and autumn, we gave them a really good watering, but it'll take a while for them to get purroperly established as they were so small. We think they'll look their best towards the end of the month, so we'll post another photo to show mew how they're getting on.

**Top Tip**

To get the best show, don't furget to give them a little boost weekly/fortnightly with a specialized plant feed. We also have some slow-release fertilizer pellets, which we mixed in the compost at the time of planting to assist with growth.

>^.^<

 Cute Flower Crate

Also, earlier this year the P.A. bought 3 old wooden crates. She did plan on using them in the catservatory but then changed her mind and did this instead with some of the remaining random flower selection; furst, she painted the crates white and lined them with heavy-duty black plastic. Making sure there were plenty of drainage holes in the bottom, she also used some stone in the bottom to help with drainage, then she filled them with more compost and added the flowers.

And they'll only get better with time and care.

We love flowers (not cut flowers though) and think that no matter how crappy your day is or what's going off in your life, to see a colour explosion greeting mew when mew get home from wurk or walk out the back door makes effurything better, and if flowers don't do it for mew, go hug a tree! MOL

Well, that sadly brings us to the end of another Gardening with Cats. We do hope mew enjoyed it. Also if mew're worried about what flowers and plants are dangerous to kitties, check out our Top Tips page. 

We'll be back on Friday day with our regular Fluffers post, so do stop by to see who makes the front page this week. And we'll be back on Wednesday with Parsley's 10th Birthday rave and giveaway so do come and join in the fun.

Until then

Epic purrs

Basil & The B Team

Disclaimer:

We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable fur any injuries to person/s and/or cat/s, gardening addictions, compost on cats, misplaced tools and gloves, cats stealing your string, broken plants, or your project not turning out as planned.  By using this information you hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless BionicBasil and staff from and against any and all claims for personal injuries or damages of any kind arising from the use of any Gardening With Cats posts we may share.

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