**NATIONAL CRAFTS FOR YOUR SHELTERS DAY** Crafting with Cats ~ How We Made Cute Pots For Our Cat Grass **SEE OUR EPICALLY FUNKY CAT GRASS POTS**

Happy Wednesday Fluffies

NATIONAL CRAFTS FOR YOUR SHELTERS DAY

Today is National Crafting for Your Shelters Day, and we thought we'd do something a bit different.

Yes, we are crafting, but mew don't have to make what we're making, mew can also just use the idea to offer a nommable treat to kitties in shelters.

As we love to upcycle, recycle and re-purpose items here at BBHQ, today's project can be made purretty much without having to buy anything in.

SO LET'S CRAFT ON

Are mew bored silly with horrendously dull and uninspiring pots to grow your cat grass in? Us too, so we decided to funk things up a bit, and this is what we came up with.

What We Used:

Plastic tubs

Jazzy paper

Laminator + pockets

Flower embellishments

Glue non-toxic
 

Scissors or craft knife**

>^.^<

**purrlease be super careful if mew're using a craft knife or cutting tool, take your time and always cut away from yourself, and we always recommend that you wear some special cut resistant gloves like this: Cut Resistant Gloves for Safety. These are just an example we found on Amazon and this is not an affiliate link. 

*    *    *

Let's Begin

1.  We recycled/repurrposed two plastic tubs, these were ideal, the P.A. said the chocolates were purretty nommable too! MOL  And the lids make purrfect plant pot trays/dishes too.

2.  Next, we put some holes in the bottom - we used a bradawl tool, a small craft hammer and placed the tub bottom-down on a piece of flat wood to protect the table before punching the holes through.

3.  This is our holographic jazzy paper, we chose pink and red.

 

4. & 5.  Place jazzy paper in laminating pouches and laminate. This step isn't necessary but we found when watering the pots can get wet, and the laminated paper is more robust.

6.  We measured the depth and circumference of the tub and cut laminated paper to size. 

7.  Glue the laminated paper to the tubs.

8.  Get oodles of fun embellishments.

9.  Decorate the tub.

And now we have some epically funky grass pots! MOL

Growing Some Nibbles

What We Used:

Organic compost

Gravel

Cat grass seeds

A sunny windowsill or warm location

1. Put some stones/gravel in the bottom, this will assist drainage, and the extra weight will help prevent the pot from tipping over during effervescent grass nomming sessions.

2. Add organic compost and fill to 2/3 full.

3. Sprinkle in cat grass seeds.

4. Top up with more compost. Don't fill it right to the top, leave space for watering.

5.  Water and place in a warm spot. A sunny windowsill is ideal, mew can also cover with clingfilm to speed up germination. As it's the summer we just leave ours in the potting shed where it's nice and toasty.

6.  Keep watering or spritzing with a spray bottle daily; a few days later, it should look like this.

7. The red pot was a little slower growing than the pink one, but it soon caught up.

8. Ready to NOM!

9. We use all kinds of little plastic tubs to grow cat grass in at BBHQ; small ice cream tubs, ready meal containers, yoghurt pots etc... just give them a good clean furst. 

What's this got to do with Crafting For Your Shelters Day we hear mew ask? 

Well, fluffy furiends mew could grow several little pots of cat grass to take to your local shelter, and we're sure the kitties there would love some fresh noms. And mew could use plain tubs or plastic pots, no need to decorate.

To see a more in-depth tutorial on growing cat grass, visit our Gardening with Cats post.

Watch the video

See what Melvyn and Fudge thought...

...or watch direct on YouTube.

We think that was a hit, and such a stylish way to NOM your greens! MOL



And that furiends furry sadly brings us to the end of today's post, though we'll be back on the morrow with how to make the mini cardboard scratcher, so we do hope you can join us, until then...

Keep calm and craft on

Epically crafty purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team

If mew missed any of our previous crafting posts, visit our dedicated crafting page: 

Crafting with Cats

Disclaimer:

We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable fur any injuries to person/s and/or cat/s, crafting addictions, glue on cats, paper cuts, misplaced pins and needles, cats stealing your supplies, broken scissors, cat fur stuck on your projects, or your project not turning out as planned. Be super careful if you're using cutting tools, take your time and always cut away from yourself and we do recommend that you wear some special cut-resistant gloves like this: Cut Resistant Gloves for Safety. these are just an example we found on Amazon and this is not an affiliate link. This project is not suitable for younger readers without parental/adult help. 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 Crafting With Cats posts we may share.  

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Welcome To Gardening with Cats! And What Could Be More Fun Than Growing Your Own Greens aka Cat Grass?

Welcome to

Happy Wednesday Pawesome Pals

Today we're revisiting a rather popular post from 2018.

As mew know we really love our garden and do spend rather a lot of time outside, weather purrmitting and a lot of that time is spent snoopervising the P.A. as she completes the tick list/job sheet we purrpare for her! MOL  Yes it's true, she'd be absolutely lost without our expert gardening guidance, if it was left to her we'd just have a totally jungly wilderness.

Though she is rather good at carrying out the weekly tasks, and Amber has a couple of shelves just for gardening books in the library, so she's our onsite knowledge base, if mew have a gardening purroblem, Amber can solve it for sure!

So what is Gardening with Cats? we hear mew ask.

Well, we're going to show mew how to grow things from scratch, how to take care of your plants and generally have some fun. And it doesn't matter if mew live on a 100-acre farm or in an apartment in the city with no garden whatsoeffur; what we do here, mew can do at home too, that's what Gardening with Cats is all about, if we can do it, so can mew.

And today we're going to show mew how to grow your own greens, it's furry simple and within a week to 10 days mew too could have some delectable nibbles to help aid your digestion and help with those pesky furballs too.

How to Grow Your Greens aka Cat Grass

What Mew Will Need:

Seeds
Organic Compost
Suitable Plant Pots + A Dish
Clingfilm
and
A Sunny Window Sill

Optional - gloves for handling compost





We bought our seeds from our local garden centre, and they cost about £1.49 for a packet

Take your chosen pots - we used some of the P.A.'s old Bonsai pots which have a flat dish to sit on, purrfect for when mew're watering.

So furstly fill your pots with the compost and firm.

Sprinkle some seeds on the top.

Cover the seeds with another thin layer of compost and firm again.

Water well, and we find the best way to water at this stage so mew don't disturb the seeds is with a squirt bottle on the mist setting.

See, it doesn't disturb the soil or the seeds.

Once thoroughly wet like below...

...wrap the clingfilm offur the pots.


Then place in a sunny windowsill. Use your squirt bottle to water daily; lift the clingfilm, spray with water and then replace to keep the warmth and moisture in so the seeds germinate.

On about day 3 to 4, mew should start to see the seedlings appearing, leave the clingfilm in place until the shoots are touching it, and then remove. Below is what it looks like on day 6.  

TOP TIP 

Try to keep the soil moist at all times.

This is what it looks like on day 7, as mew can see it grows so quickly, oh and don't furget to turn your pots around otherwise your cat grass will lean towards to light instead of growing straight up.

 

Day 9 and we're good to nom!

Or mew could just watch the video...



Fudge loves cat grass as does Amber, though Fudge only likes to eat the tips, ah must be the best part! MOL



As mew can see it's supurr duper easy to grow your own greens, no skills at all are required, the only thing is: just remember to water! MOL

We have about 4 pots in various stages of growing/growth so we have a constant supply of fresh greens.

Don't furget to water your cat grass daily and if it becomes too leggy and lacklustre just give it a quick trim with some scissors to encourage new growth.

If mew set a new pot every seven days, then mew'll constantly have a supurr, fresh supply of healthy greens year-round.



Well, that sadly brings us to the end of our latest edition of Gardening with Cats, we do hope mew enjoyed it and do let us know if mew decide to grow your own.  And next time we're going to show mew how to pot up some flowers for a really purretty summer display.

We'll be back on Friday with another Fluffers post, so do join us then and if mew haven't already - do stop by The Nip Nirvana Lounge on Level 11 of the bunker as Fudge's 6th Birthday Rave is still going strong, in fact we think the pawty will last all week! MOL  

Until Friyay

Epicgreen-pawed purrs

Wing Commander 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 use of any Gardening With Cats posts we may share.

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com

In The Spotlight ~ Product Review ~ WHAT'S IN THE BOX? My Cat Grass ~ Ready Grown, Organic Cat Grass Pots ~ The Benefits of Cat Grass

Welcome to

Wunderpurr greetings fabulous furiends

Today we're sharing one of our *sponsored posts with mew from the pawesome peeps at..

image copyright www.mycatgrass.co.uk

...who asked us if we'd like to try their ready grown, organic cat grass a couple of weeks ago, of course we would, as that means we don't have to grow our own for a few weeks! MOL

So let's show mew what was in the box.

We got 4 ready grown grass pots delivered to BBHQ. They came very well packaged in a tough box and carefully wrapped in cellophane. As mew can see Melvyn couldn't wait for them to get unwrapped! MOL

Let's Look At All That Green Goodness: 

Mew also get a little surprise gift with your box of 4 x grass pots, ours was a yummy bag of Whiskas Dentabites [nom nom nom! MOL #pawesome!]

Also in the box is a leaflet on how to care for your grass pots, as they are 3/4 grown upon arrival so mew'll get a good 2 to 3 weeks worth if mew follow the instructions for optimal care. 

 Ours are 9 days old [yesterday] and are growing very well; thick, lush, green and juicy, see below how well they look on day 9 - loads of munching left!

We potted ours on the same day they arrived and have followed all the care instructions to the letter.

Watch the video:



If it doesn't play here, click the link to watch direct on YouTube ~ Don't furget to subscribe to our channel. Fudge was a little camera shy today, not like him at all but then he might have just been letting Melvyn take the lead for a change! MOL

Benefits of Cat Grass

We're huge fans of cat grass and like to partake in it daily, and if mew don't know about the benefits, here's just a few: 

It aids digestion, helps prevent/reduce furballs, aids hydration, helps prevent constipation and it's a good source of insoluble fibre, and most cats love it.

And it's suitable for:

Indoor cats, outdoor cats, free-roaming cats, kittens, catio cats, garden cats... in fact all cats should really have access to some cat grass in our humble opinion.

Our closing thoughts:

We absolutely loved it; the idea is genius and the execution is even better!  

If mew can't grow your own organic cat grass [aka your hooman staff has a severe case of black-thumb aka can't grow anything! MOL] or mew just don't want to, this is a brilliant way to get some juicy greens delivered directly to your home.

We've been growing our own here at BBHQ for years, though we can honestly say last winter was horrendous for growing and although we persevered our crops weren't great, this Autumn/Fall we will be subscribing to My Cat Grass and get ours delivered ready grown and ready to be munched on straight out of the box! MOL

They also supply: 

Grow Your Own Kits in wheat, barley or oat grasses - YUM!

Premium Seed Pouches in the above varieties

and

a really nifty grass-feeding station which fits all four pots in, ameowzing! 

Plus accessories to help mew keep your cat grass healthy for as long as pawsible.

Why We Love it

My Cat Grass uses only 100% organic certified seeds from British farmers. The soil used is approved by the Soil Association, and My Cat Grass is the UK's only Pet Food Grade producer of Cat Grass licensed by the Food Standards Agency, how epic, epically epic! 

They offer a subscription service so mew never run out, but not a subscription where mew're tied into a contract; mew can pause or cancel at any time. 

So if mew're looking for cat grass, grass seeds or grow your own kits, we think My Cat Grass is definitely the best place in the UK to go to get all your green needs met.

We give them 10 out of 10!

Top Cat Grass Supplier ~ Way To Go Guys!

We would like to say a special thanks to the pawesome peeps at My Cat Grass fur giving us the oppurrtunity to try their amazing ready grown greens ~ THANK MEW FURRY MUCH!

Visit My Cat Grass online:

www.mycatgrass.co.uk

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Twitter

Instagram

Many thanks fur joining us today and don't furget to stop by tomorrow when we will be here with our usual Sunday Selfies post, in the meantime...

Happy Caturday

Wing Commander Basil & Co xox

*FYI: Even though we were given this item/s free of charge for a review, our review is completely honest and reflects our own experience with the product/s

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