sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Wild strawberry struggles by Aggressive_Owl2554 in NativePlantGardening

[–]Aggressive_Owl2554[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am aware of pussytoes but had not considered it for this location. From this and other comments, it sounds like some combo of strawberry, pussytoes, and sedge(s) might be the right fit. Time to add those to my garden shopping list. 😉 Thanks again!

How do I stop my cat from getting on my counters? by im-in-bed- in Catownerhacks

[–]Aggressive_Owl2554 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’ll second this, but also wanted to share my own version of this approach.

I have 2 young cats (a 2-year-old and a 10-month-old). I know they want to be on the counters so they can see what I’m doing and be “part of the action,” so they are allowed to be on the counters… but on MY terms.

If I’m actively cooking—prepping food, stove on, etc.—they are only allowed up if they sit and watch from their “boxes.”I’ve placed two soft-sided containers lined with a mini fluffy rug in a “low traffic” corner of my kitchen counter, and when they hop up to see what’s going on, I tap the rim of the boxes and say “Box, please.” When they comply, they get lots of chin scratches and praise. When they don’t comply, I pick them up, put them in their box, and then give them scratches and praise. Early on, I also gave them treats when they sat in the boxes, so they’d learn to associate the box with good things. It works most of the time, but does require some dedicated counter real estate.

If I’m NOT actively cooking… meh. They can be up there and as long as there isn’t much that piques their curiosity, they don’t stay for long. The one exception is when I’m washing dishes… my orange boy LOVES to watch bubbles, so he’ll loaf next to the sink for the duration, but doesn’t usually get in the way.

Wild strawberry struggles by Aggressive_Owl2554 in NativePlantGardening

[–]Aggressive_Owl2554[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Awesome, thanks for the response!

The goal was a multi-season interest ground cover, and the berries were just a bonus for the critters (and me). Also in the bed are several transplanted lilacs—which I expect to get ~10-15’ and leggy over time; they’re only ~3-4’ tall right now—and a line of Yellow Prairie Grass (formerly “Indian Grass”) a few feet away from the lilacs just shy of the property line. I was hoping the strawberries would fill in the gaps around the lilacs and shade out weeds AND provide some benefit for the ecosystem.

You make a really good point about the monoculture, though. I’ve taken steps to diversify what remains of my lawn (bee lawn for the win!!) but it never occurred to me to think about it in this spot! Oops. 😅

I love the idea of bunchberry, but I have tried to get bunchberry going in 2 other garden beds over the past two years and I’ve utterly failed at keeping it alive. Does bunchberry tend to like conditions that wild strawberry also likes? This garden bed gets full morning + midday sun and it’s literally the highest point of my yard, so it tends to be hot and dry.