Indoor Herb Garden

I recently purchased a indoor windowsill herb garden and Panther will just not leave the thing alone! I have plastic wrap over it to help the seedlings grow and she still is tearing the thing up and digging at the plants. So my questions are:
1. Any ideas on how to keep her away from it?

2. Are cats attracted to Herbs? Maybe she wont like the smell when they start growing?

3. Are any of these dangerous should she eat them? Sweet Basil, Chives, and Parsley?
Thanks

Also I should add that there isn't anywhere in my house she doesn't/can't go, so if she wants the plants she will get them wherever they are.

Sweet Basil, Chives, and Parsley?

I think those are alright, my cat has a similar problem with digging up plants so I've wondered the same thing and went to look it up, there's obviously alot of certain plants they shouldn't be around/or eat, but those three are ok

My only suggestion is to resign yourself to having no herbs at all, or try growing wheat/oat grass and catnip inside just for her.

Growing catnip inside? ..oh my oh my ..yes that'll solve your problems...said cat might go nuts and be completely hyper. It'd be a be thing to see especially if it's just sitting there growing innocently at the hands of ones cat...eh well you won't have to worry about the other plants, so I suppose that would be sense ^_^

Originally Posted by Arlyn

My only suggestion is to resign yourself to having no herbs at all, or try growing wheat/oat grass and catnip inside just for her.

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I do have some houseplants that I keep on the entertainment center out of kitty reach but Frankie eats everything she can reach so I'm currently sprouting some grass for her.

Get some hardware cloth (this is actually a wire mesh) and make a sort of cage to go around the plants. Make sure there's plenty of room for them to grow.

Buy Bitter Apple spray at the pet store (sometimes it's in the dog aisle, but it's for both cats and dogs) and spray it on your plants. It's non-toxic and you can wash it off when it comes time to harvest your herbs, but cats hate it. I've had great success with this... I sprayed my houseplants once, and my cat (a great greenery eater) stopped bothering them, period. I only need to reapply the spray maybe every 6 or 12 months, and sometimes only when the plants have new growth.

A good complement to this strategy is to always have cat grass available for her. This will satisfy her need for vegetable matter.

Jasper adores chives and will eat them in preference to the cat grass and cat nip I planted (which are now growing like wildfire through lack of use). He comes back in with onion breath purring like crazy. He also likes to lie in the mint and the lavender (which is cool cause he smells great afterwards...much better than his normal smelly self). He never touches the basil or the parsley though.

Originally Posted by Tigger_2801

Jasper adores chives and will eat them in preference to the cat grass and cat nip I planted (which are now growing like wildfire through lack of use). He comes back in with onion breath purring like crazy. He also likes to lie in the mint and the lavender (which is cool cause he smells great afterwards...much better than his normal smelly self). He never touches the basil or the parsley though.

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Chives are part of the lily and onion family and are on the list of bad plants for cats to ingest.

^That's what I was thinking. Again, if outside put a cage around them. A very simple solution that should solve that problem.


Also, start drying that catnip! I've never had cats be that interested in fresh catnip but dried is always loved.