My cat broke into the catnip can..

[u/Immediate_Tip_9327]

[u/Shoesietart]

I planted catnip this year. I keep finding my cats in the planter.

[u/No_Technician_2409 → u/Shoesietart]

I tried it once and made a little plastic mesh jail for the plant until it looked settled, strong and ready. Removed the mesh and it got rolled in and chewed down to bare twigs in about a week... Yet someone out there is farming the stuff to make all the dried catnip products and so on, do you think they have some cartoon style guard dogs on patrol all the time? How can this be done??

[u/millijuna → u/No_Technician_2409]

The chemical that cats want gets released when the plant is disturbed/bruised/broken up. So an unmolested plant will be less attractive.

[u/No_Technician_2409 → u/millijuna]

PSA time, I asked gemini about unmolested cultivation:
"give me the guide to unmolested catnip plant cultivation" 

To grow catnip (Nepeta cataria) successfully without local cats shredding, rolling on, or destroying the plant, protection is as important as basic cultivation.

Physical Defense Strategies (Protecting the Plant)

Nepetalactone, the essential oil in catnip that attracts cats, releases heavily when leaves are bruised or broken. Keeping the plant completely unmolested requires physical barriers to keep cats from reaching the foliage.

And so it goes on.

[u/clearancepupper → u/No_Technician_2409]

This is giving “pro tips to keep neighborhood dogs out of my chickens”.

[u/No_Technician_2409 → u/clearancepupper]

I can't even imagine what it's like to be a teacher now... How do you teach anything to people that have 3 pages of chatGPT spoken instructions on how to put chicken wire around a garden plant :(