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Catnip, not just for CatsRead the article this discussion is about
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» LiloD - Catnip - not for cats only Traute,I have always been under the impression that catnip just didn't grow well in my area - wrong! After reading your experience with all the cats in the neighborhood wiping it out, I shall try to protect it so that it shall grow. It just always seemed to me that the cats really didn't like it, I offered them the dried, commercial stuff and they turned their noses up. Valerian, Baldrian in German, evoked found memories, my Grandfather - Opa Fischer - dispensed herbs and herbal concoction to every one in the family, and I remember Balrdian tincture on a cube of sugar. I had forgotten all about this when I purchased some tincture of Valerian in the health food store, but my childhood came back in a flash, after I took some drops on a sugar-cube! Works so well, too. -- posted by LiloD » bindweed - Katzenminze -- Catnip Traute,I never thought I could give you an assist in German! :-) Well I can ditto all you said about catnip. One of my gardens uses so much of it, I fill up two pickups yearly just deadheading it. The owners do not own a cat! Although sharing the same genus, Nepeta is Labiatae usually not as invasive as the mint family. N. hederacea, the ground ivy is the only one I know of that can develop into an invasive weed. In addition to x faasenii and mussinii there are also the species sibirica and the less well known nervosa. The later is rarely available, but if you come across it, buy it! Same with the species ynnanensis. The later is a real dazzler bearing two foot stems of rich blue flowers with a hint of lavender. A non-stop bloomer. Zone 3. I would rate most Catnip as Zone 5 or 4. Traute must mulch heavily! No idea how all of these differ regarding their cat drawing ability since I have none -- dog lover that I am. Anyhow I am such a human catnip popsickle that cats just rub against me naturally -- I don't need to drug them into affection, :-) Two notes. Valerian, Traute wrote, "my family loves the taste of valerian root." |-) Second, if your really want a soporific, try hops! Used either fresh or dried, or cooked (the tender new shoots - like fiddle heads) hops will do much to turn out your lights. Or fill an old sock with the herb, knot it and throw in your dryer with your bedding. It may well get your bed hopping. At the very least you won't awake with headaches, nor hangover either. P.S. I posted a fiddle head recipe on my site! Third note. (see I lie) Actually it is a lethargic quote of a friend of mine! "I felt I've had a cat sitting on my face all day." Herbert Senft <img src="http://www.fritech.com/skyline/images/gardenerstroll.jpg"> -- posted by bindweed » biogardener - It's about time It's about time I responded to these messages. I have no excuse for it taking 8 months.When you garden in zone 2, you don't worry about a mint being invasive. You consider yourself lucky that you have found a herb which overwinters at all. The only overwintering mints here are several varieties of spearmint and peppermint, and catnip. Their roots do not grow deep enough to cause a problem. I let them grow wherever they like, and when I want the spot for something else, I simply pull them up by the roots and plant them somewhere else. If I had truckloads of catnip, I would sell it as tea to a healthfood company or to a company which makes cat toys. Catnip plants get bigger over the years, but my established ones all were lost in the 1998 demolition. What I have now has sprung up from seed on their own. Those plants produce barely enough to fill one pillowcase in the autumn. And I have tried hops. The trouble is that my family really likes the taste of valerian root. It is like candy to us, in fact, in Germany, we used to get a couple of drops of valerian root extract on a sugar cube. I did not drink the tea until I came to Winnipeg where the dried root was sold in bulk. About the quote of a cat sitting on someone's face all day. Cats do sit on various body parts which need healing. My cats always sleep on my chest and that helps me to breathe. On a family member who suffers from migraines, the same cats will wrap themselves around his head, and on the one with a smashed wrist, they will lie on that wrist. Who tells them where their healing power is needed? So maybe your friend needs a face job, LOL. Mind you, cats only do it for people they love. -- posted by biogardener
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