Cats 2, Me 0

It looks like the cats have won.  I have (sort of) learned to live with cat poo on lawns and in flower borders but I hate the thought of it in the veggie bed.  It probably doesn't do you any harm but I am conscientiously adding organic matter rather than chemical fertilisers, not bug-spraying etc,etc to be as organic as possible - otherwise there doesn't seem a lot of point in growing rather than buying.  As you will have seen I cat defend with string and netting and canes and all-sorts... Somehow one has still managed to use my manicured ground for its toilet.

This is the barrier it managed to cross.  I can only presume it is a triangular shaped cat.  As I said it wins.  I have decided to give up on the veggie bed next summer.  I'll get my other half to rip out the raised bed boxes and I'll plant up another flower border.  I think I am going to have a perfume border.  Every single plant must have a great smell.  I am trying to find a peaceful afternoon/evening to compile a list of plants.  I need a small tree (with strong perfume), a couple of roses (both the same), three shrubs maybe (same family) and some perrenials (probably only three types).  I want to try and stick to a limited range of plants and not have the spotty bits and bobs I have in the rest of the garden.  There's a challenge.  The border is East facing but it does well for the sun most of the day.  Please, please, please send me any suggestions you might have.  I'd like to get this border just right.  Oh, the other constraint is colour - must be cool colours - pinks, whites, creams, lavenders, blues.  All the reds and yellows and oranges and purples are out in the front garden.

In the last couple of weeks since I last wrote we have had some wonderful sunny days.  This was truly great, other than I managed to kill every single little seedling in my greenhouse.  No excuse, I just didn't check it in two days at one point and when I got back in they had all completely fried.  So much for doing my own hanging basket plants this year.  I managed to save about nine tomato plants and six trailing sweet peas.  Six other trays of seedlings all got chucked on the garden.


This meant a quick reccy to see what I could get cheaply for the baskets and borders.  I did well at places like B&Q, Aldi etc but I must confess to breaking down and spending twenty-five pounds on the main hanging basket from Heaton Park.  I bought one from there in 2010 but last year their stuff was awful.  They are back on form this year and I'd recommend them and the Hidden Gem little café (in one of the glass houses).

This photo is to show you how I get hanging baskets home.  It is balanced in a bucket, in a bag and in the foot-well in the back of the car with the passenger seat shoved forward.  I then sit and hang on to it all the way home.  Bit of a fiddle but it does the job and I always get everything back in one piece.  The irony here was, having done all that, its first night in situ was very windy and it snapped of bits and bobs all over as it spun against the wall.  It is recovering just fine but I cursed at the time.