The neighborhood cats risk death to get at my lemongrass.

NOooo! :( are any common culinary herbs like parsley, thyme, etc bad for cats too?

~cathy

Our cat goes nuts every time he smells mint or valerian. He got into my dried valerian one time, and the stuff seems to act like catnip. I suspect anything in the mint family would be a cat-attractant.

my catmint gets their attention sometimes. I think it is nepeta mussinii or somesuch.

My cat also loves the lemon grass, even over catnip.

Greetings!
You could also try planting a tray of 'grass' for your cats... I have a clean (unused for it's original purpose) litter tray I plant regular grass seed in and place a layer of chicken wire over it so it's not used as a 'potty'.... My cats enjoy it and it gives them fresh 'greens' to distract them from my plants (my cats are total housecats).
I've also seen small packages of seed sold as 'catgrass' just for this purpose....

~Michele~

lol askldjahsk i just realised i read ur post wrong drasaid =\ nevermind..
can i plant catmint as an ordinary lawn?

No plants are safe from my totally housecat. Except catnip!!She won't touch this!! She does love the cat grass and I try to keep some for her if I'll be out of the house all day.
If she is allowed on the patio where there are HUNDREDS of potted, plants I have to keep an eye on her at all times. She even ate my Poinsettias and they didn't even make her sick.
She has literally destroyed my ivy and bromeliads that were in the house. But I love her.
Dunk

You can plant some oats for cat grass. I always get a catnip plant each year. But if allowed they'd love it to death, so I have to put it in a cage and pick leaves for them. All the cats love it. I have one cat who used to love thyme, oregano and stuff like that. He'd rub himself on it and roll around on top of it. Don't know why he stopped that after about five years of it. I've since learned that certain herbs rubbed on the cats will repel fleas. I don't remember all the herbs that have that quality, but I'm pretty sure oregano and thyme did.

You could get one or two big pots, plant a variety of the things people have suggested here, and turn your balcony into kitty paradise! Seriously, since no two cats agree on what they like, a mix of things is your best chance of getting and keeping kitty's attention where you want it.

I once had lemon grass on a high shelf on an apartment patio, and the upstairs neighbors' cats would hang down over the edge of their balcony to get at it. I had to move it because I was afraid they'd fall off!

We used to pick "salads" for our indoor kitties, usually just weeds from outside. One cat adored young dandelion leaves, while another preferred clover. You might get odd looks planting those in pots, but if you have a weedy area without pesticides you can pick some and bring it in to her.

I have a cat that will not leave my flower arrangement alone. She's after the baby's breath and will not be deterred. Anyone know if this is bad for her?

My two house-only cats love green beans. In winter, I grow a couple of pots of bush beans. (They flower and produce if they have enough light.) My cats discovered that the lower leaves were good for munching, and eventually my beans gave up producing because they didn't have enough leaves. Next winter, I'm going to grow pole beans--I'll put up a string trellis in front of the window--and the cats can have the lower leaves and I'll still have my beans.

My cat likes chives and onion seedlings. Won't touch catnip.

I have seven cats and most of them go absolutely nuts over my "Six Hills Giant" catmint. Depending on how large your balcony is, you may want to try one in a large pot. Mine are in the garden and reach about 3' x 3'. It is a beautiful plant which can tolerate quite a bit of nibbling once established. Mine came from High Country Gardens.

Here is a link that might be useful: High Country Gardens

BTW: Tomato plants are toxic to cats. I'd stay away from those.

phyledendron (sp.) is also posionous. I thnk things like mustard sprouts, arugula, pepper grass may offer some interesting reactions from a cat.

My cat loves lemongrass as well. She almost ate the whole transplant before I could get it in the ground!!

from my Bull Terriers, but now they come in the yard for the other stuff. Mints, grasses, raspberry leaves, they seem to nibble it all.
So do the Bull Terriers (One broke a pot trying to consume an entire Micro Mini rose, Baby Austin, and ate an entire scented geranium.)
If it is there, count on your animal trying to eat it. Just avoid anything poisonous.

:) bought a little cat nip plant, and stuck it out on my porch-roof-top garden with the oleander and the morning glories and the indian hemp plants...

one day, the 'alleged cat' (who was 14 at the time, and slept 26 hours a day) came in the window. well- kind of 'oozed' through the open window. her face, chest, and paws were BLACK. she flopped onto the rug, said 'meowel?' and after trying to stand three times, she failed, and pushed herself into the kitchen using her hind legs. ate everyting in the food bowl, drank the water bowl dry, then rolled over onto her back, and proceeded to make the most rediculous noises...I'd never heard a cat giggle before.

poisoned?! no- she's not in any kind of distress, from the look of her...oh, heck!

looked out the window to find that she had eaten the entire plant, to the point of digging up the rootball and chewing on it (hence the black all over her)

my cat- was higher than a satelite!

I learned to keep cat drugs in cages, where they can only eat what's stocking out of the cage- old bird cages, and wire milk crates work really well for this.

I wouldn't necessarily focus just on plants that they like to "eat". While that's nice, cat's also appreciate having their own little forest where they can hide, relax, feel safe, and sleep.

Cat friendly plants:

+ Barley Grass

+ Any type of "catgrass" from the pet store

+ Carex elata 'Bolwes Golden' but put it in some shade

+ Catmint
Nepeta mussini
cultivars (Simply put, Catmints are Catnips without any culinary or feline use. In any case, they are, however, phenomenal, long flowering, hardy perennials that belong in every fairie or flower garden.)

+ Catnip
Nepeta cataria
(in your own yard) The oils of which also work as a mosquito repellent that works 10 times better than Deet! Catmint is the common name for all varieties of Nepeta. Catnip is the common name for the specific variety of Nepeta called
nepeta cataria
, which is the variety that cats are most attracted to.

+ Cat Thyme (Teucrium marum)

+ Flax

+ Oat Grass

+ Jacob's Ladder

+ Lemon Grass

+ Loose soil and mulch like small bark mulch

+ Mints

+ Purple Fountain Grass so the cat lays in the long leaves all day. Maybe put something in that the cats really like and - you know cats won't winky were they like to hang out.

+ Sandy area

+ Silver vine (Actinidia polygama)

+ Striped Ribbon Grass (can be invasive)

+ Sweet grass

+ Trificum aestivum (type of cat grass)

+ Various Varieties of Cat Mints (Catnips)

+ Wheat Grass

+ Wheat Berries

+ Valerian

violet, that's a reat point.

we have one cat who was literally 'trapped' in our house (got between the siding and the plaster walls through a crawl space I didn't know went anywhere... we lured her out with food, slammed the basement door, and voila- cat, behind emeny lines!) and so had an invisible feral who we didn't SEE for the first two months---until one day, I was walking through the dining room, and the spiderplant in the window box rustled- and there were two wide golden eyes!

outside from compacting the dirt in the box, she was actually very gentle with her plant - and now, a year later, if we're very still, and the lights are down, she will sneak up onto the couch with us :)

anyone heard of cats liking celery and carrots? my cat also hates mint

My cats don't like catnip but love my lemon grass. I thought this was because of it's shape, but now with everyone's responses, I know it's because of it's lemony smell.

Equally my cats love my umbrella (papyrus) plant. Again it's that blade thing.

I knew someone whose cat loved alfalfa sprouts. The cat would purr whenever she got some.

I had a cat who loved dried nori (seaweed).

I have two cats and only one of them likes catnip. The other one gets a very "mommy, why is he acting weird?" look on his face when the other has been given some catnip.

I haven't grown lemon grass, but I've been debating it for my tea garden so now I shall!

The non-catnip cat used to chew on the carpet and that started me thinking that perhaps he'd like his own grass. I picked up a (really cheap and mostly dead looking) pot of catgrass (wheatgrass), brought it home, and semi-revived it. He has mowed that down to nothing. So I got some seed (yay bulk bin at the organic food store!) and planted him complete flat of wheatgrass. He seems to still be gnawing on the original plant though.

I've heard good things about valerian. Someone said that if catnip is kitty pot, then valerian is kitty crack.

I have several cat-toxic plants in my house that used to be kept behind a closed door to keep them away from the cats, however cats being cats they got in and started to lie amongst them (tomatoes, snake plant, aloe) and never once have I seen them try to eat the plants. Maybe their instincts haven't been entirely bred out of them.

I really appreciate the tip on using cages. I'll be sure to put my lemon grass in one when I grow it. I'm sure I can scare up an old birdcage from somewhere.

i've got three cats and of course all of them have different tastes but they all like eating my wood sorrel..nearly to the point of death but it always comes back. in fact i think it likes it. it's kind of a dormancy, which it needs.

My Abysinnian loves to eat fresh laurel leaves.(Laurel Nobilis) .He chews them up, and then trows up a handful of hair.
Is that OK ?

Our cats like to have a treat of grass just pulled from the yard. They also enjoy catnip, cat grass, and oats.

The strangest thing occurs while I am cooking. They love vegetables. At the sound of the can opener they come running for any kind of beans and corn. They eat other veggies in small abounts. They also like watermelon, muskmelon, strawberries, blueberries, and sometimes grapes. At times I wonder just who I am preparing food for.

I have a large balcony with a 3'high railing that I would like to put plants on for my cats. Can I let my cats on the balcony or will they jump over? It is 3 stories high but you can't see through the railing.
Thank you.

I had a cat for twelve years who loved canned english peas! She would practically knock the can out of your hand to get to them.

wondering ... of all the things Voilet mentioned, what can be grown indoors? (and would I have to order the seeds online, I suppose?) They love the cat grass, but it doesn't get enough sun inside so it only lasts for a week or so. I am going to try rotating it, but it is winter here, and I'd like to not have to do that. If there's something similar that can be grown indoors (does get a fair amount of sun, but not full all-day sun), I'd be willing to give it a try.

Not sure if your cat would actually EAT this, but mine love to hide and play in my Philodendron 'Xanadu's. The plants grow 1m x 1m so your cat can feel like a fierce tiger crouched in the jungle... They also love to lick water off the leaves when I spray the plants with the hose.
As for eating, everyone's said so many good ones, I won't repeat them here.

Bunks

Not sure if your cat would actually EAT this, but mine love to hide and play in my Philodendron 'Xanadu's. The plants grow 1m x 1m so your cat can feel like a fierce tiger crouched in the jungle... They also love to lick water off the leaves when I spray the plants with the hose.
As for eating, everyone's said so many good ones, I won't repeat them here.

Bunks

Mine loooove grass more than anything. One will weed my garden for me, wandering through the iceplant eating stray blades of grass. I've also found her chewing on star rush. They seem to love those long blades.

I planted catnip, not realizing quite how quickly it grows. It turned into a weedy-looking forest within a few months. They cats will sniff at it occasionally, but aren't as interested as I'd expected. I have to pull leaves off and crush them up for them.

One loves to crouch under bushes. I have a confederate jasmine in the corner and it's her special lurking spot.

re cats on a balcony: I've had cats in several places with balconies, and they're very good at not falling off. Even as kittens. You might want to give them something to climb up on at first to investigate so that they don't leap onto the railing without realizing there's a drop on the other side and get a fright.

The cats did fall off occasionally at one place. It was only on the second floor so they didn't get hurt. I think it was because they'd try to sneak around the barrier at the end of the railing to visit the neighbors.

mine dosen't seem to go for fresh catnip, only dry.
i'll have to try him on fresh valerian, there's still some at my parent's house that i planted when i was a kid.

Wonder if he'll like it fresh o if its going to be like the catnip, only likes it dry.

I also have a bay laurel, but he hasn't bothered that... he did nibble the tip of a leaf off my cardamom plant once, but hasn't bugged again since that first taste test.

My cats graze my shamrock to the ground. Works out okay, since I set it dormant in the basement for the winter--they clean it up before its long sleep.

I used to have a cat that loved tomato sauce and another that hated it.

The cat that did not like it would always try to cover it up like a turd while the other cat was eating it. Too funny!

Valerian is number one around my house, then catnip. Valerian is harder to grow in pots. My cat rolls on top of these two in the garden, comes back home very dusty. She eats grass (young grain shoots), but only to throw up hairballs.

She also likes staring at and sitting around a bird feeder, just an idea...

This is a nice post. My cat is not impressed by catnip, but loves Skullcap. He had a little medicine bag with that in it which he wore for months voluntarily. Eventually he got his foot caught in it and broke the string. I should probably fix it for him, because he could easily get it off but never seemed to want to. I'm just kind of worried that he may strangle himself with the string,
Cats eat a variety of weeds, some only when they need them. They seem to recognize medicinal herbs when they are ill.
My cat (the one that owns me) also likes celery leaves. So don't throw these away -- the cat will roll in them if you allow it, and eat some if he feels like it.

I planted nepeta cateria lemon for my cat, and he really doesn't care for it. I don´t think he has even noticed it.

I have two types of mint and he doesn´t care for those either.

On the other hand, I have a horribly looking spider plant because my cat has eaten all the leaves.

Here's some strange tastes. I have two kitties who absolutely die to get at prepared green olives when I open the jar, and one of the two also eats at my brugmansia until it almost killed it. I know brugs are poisonous to humans, but it does nothing to the cat!

Old thread... found this while searching for something else.

My neighbors cat loved my cilantro plants I tried to grow last year. Tried... meaning I couldn't keep it to eat for myself.

It took me about a week to figure out how it kept coming up missing and parts eaten etc... until 1 day when I walked outside to walk my dog the cat was near my patio and it waited for us to walk away and I caught it red handed running to my patio and then immediately indulged in my plants!!!!!! It waited every time for us to leave because my dog caught it all the other times scaring him away. Now I know why he hung out here so often.

I looked it up online and cilantro is safe for cats to eat.