It’s a Jungle In There
The other loves of my life, apart from my husband and my garden, are my seven cats. I also love to encourage wildlife into my garden. Now, cats do not have a good reputation when it comes to respecting birds and small mammals, so we had to come up with a plan. And so, the Catio was born.
Created around a wooden pergola, the 3m deep by 9m wide patio was enclosed in heavy duty steel mesh. As I insisted on creating a lush oasis for us to soak up the sun, and the cats needed a secure outside space, compromises had to be made. David erected platforms around the perimeters, at different levels so that they could watch the goings on in the garden. He also lined them with astroturf, (the only good use of this material in my opinion,) so that they could laze around in the sun without hurting their delicate little paws! And I was able to cram in as many containers as I could provided the plants were cat friendly.
The Catio has created its own micro-climate, always several degrees warmer than the garden. Being south facing, it’s like a jungle in summer. I enjoy growing exotic cannas, tree ferns and banana palms, vibrant begonias, new guinea impatiens and ipomaea. The cats love playing hide and seek amongst the pots and chasing each other at top speed up and down the shelves. We installed several hanging galvanised buckets, for me to display my hostas, slug free, allocating two such buckets for the cats to sunbathe in. In winter, the displays are paired down to an altogether more subtle array of ferns, fatsias and nandinas.
Maude, the British Shorthair with the long-haired gene, (aka Come Into the Garden Maude) went one step further. On scorching days, she finds the crowns of hostas and ferns very cooling. When we introduced our seventh kitten to our family, Ethel the Siamese was eventually found, after sending out frantic search parties, sulking amongst the begonias in one of the wall planters. Our late lamented Devon Rex Jitterbug loved nothing better than to swing in my hanging strawberry basket. As the bird feeding station is only about 2m from the Catio they spend hours skulking amongst the foliage in hunting mode, chuntering away at the birds, who appear to be none the wiser. There is never a dull moment on our Catio!
Love, Caroline x