Mama Bear wrote in
:

I thought it would be fun to grow some catnip and watch the
cats play with it, so I planted a couple of small plants
across from the front door. I understand the stuff can grow
to 3-4' tall.

yup, it can.

The problem is that the cats won't let it. One of them was
pounded into the ground, it looked like some cat had been
rolling around on it. The other was messed up but not as
badly. And we have cats walking back and forth across the
yard all day now, and we don't even own one.

you don't have enough plants. i have 5 cats currently, 2 of
which are the barn cats & stay outside (let's not start that
outside cat thing again, ok? i have a farm & they're very good
mousers). all my cats are catnip addicts, although some prefer
dried to fresh. i have catnip all over the place. it reseeds
with abandon, plus it's perennial.

So I put a wire screen around the plants to see if they
could grow some. But it looks like one of them is still
getting reached by the cats, right through the wire. The
wire has about 2x4" holes, but I thought I circled it far
enough from the plants so cats couldn't reach them.

you'd be amazed what they'll do for thier catnip 'fix'
try chicken wire or hardware cloth & make a box to cover the
plant with about 2' around in all dimentions. a small cat like
my Fianna could squeeze through 2" x 4" wire (but Fianna
prefers her catnip dried. her brother, Rudh, is a fresh catnip
fan. best place to nap, you know)

How do you grow catnip without the cats stopping it before
it grows to a decent size like that?

seriously, there's a lot of truth to the old wive's tale
about sowing catnip seed if you want to actually grow it,
because the cats *do* tend to decimate transplants (unless
you're willing to put in quite a number of them). catnip from
seed just quietly grows. transplanting releases the oils in
the leaves & every cat for miles will know what you did.
lee Rudh loves when i mow over catnip
--
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freedom is slavery
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1984-George Orwell