Sick of having your indoor garden destroyed by curious felines? Give these solutions a try.
Fall weather is here, and most green-thumbed gardeners want to bring their plants inside to protect them from the cold. Starting a garden indoors for the spring can also be difficult. Unfortunately, many pet parents have seen their indoor gardens destroyed by curious felines. I, myself, have seen firsthand the leveling of several potted plants and even cat grass (I’m looking at you, Misha).
(This post contains affiliate links. The owner of this blog makes a small commission if you purchase from these links, but there is no extra cost to you. Thank you for your help in supporting this blog.)
Keeping An Indoor Garden When You Have Cats
Yes, it is possible. You just have to get creative! We’ve got a few ideas for you to try out and see what works best for you – or, you can just use them all!
Wall Planters
Wall planters are a great way to protect your plants, and they’re so simple to use! Your indoor garden can thrive, and there will be no furry paws digging up any roots and spreading dirt all over.
You can even get wall planters that hang on curtain rods — no drilling holes in walls required.
Check out more styles of wall planters below. You can also try these cool DIY wall planters.
Wall Shelves
Much like wall planters, these shelves keep plants out of your cat’s reach. Keeping an indoor garden when you have a cat is easy with the right materials, and wall shelves give you more room than standard planters.
Window shelves are my favorite variation on wall shelf indoor gardens because they are in a sunny location. Your plants can soak up that Vitamin D to grow big and strong!
Hanging Mason Jar Planters
As far as cat-proof indoor gardens go, this idea is ingenious. It’s super easy to do and requires only two materials: a mason jar and wire.
Check out the full instructions for these DIY Hanging Mason Jar Planters from Domestically Speaking.
Indoor Greenhouse/Terranium
If hanging or wall-mounted planters aren’t your style, you could always try a greenhouse. IKEA makes this awesome indoor greenhouse that fits on your kitchen counter.
This propagator extends the time you can have your seedlings indoors thanks to height extenders, allowing younger plants to get a boost before being transplanted into your spring garden.
Trying to grow succulents or smaller plants indoors? Give this adorable glass terrarium a go.
Tips For Making The Best Of Your Indoor Garden
Fans and plant grow lights.
Those two items will do more for your indoor garden than any fertilizer or premium potting soil. Fans help mimic the natural breeze outdoor plants usually get, and the plant light is essential for dreary fall and winter weather.
Herbs like basil, cilantro and rosemary need 16 hours of light in order to grow up healthy and strong. Depending on how many indoor plants you have in your garden, you can choose from a variety of grow lights.
There’s also this amazing planter with grow lights from AeroGarden that doesn’t even need soil — just grow plants in water!
And, as always, make sure all you only grow plants that are safe for cats in case the little buggers do manage to get into your indoor garden.
Those are some cool ideas. Our kitties don’t bother our plants except by accident, so it is usually not an issue.
Yael from Playing In Catnip
I wish my cats were like that! Misha takes every opportunity to dig in the dirt, so we have to keep plants far away from her. 😛
Put cayenne pepper on the dirt. Misha will stop!
That’s a very clever solution! Unfortunately, I can’t risk her accidentally ingesting it because she has IBS (we had a VERY costly hospital bill from this), but I can see this being an excellent solution for other cat parents. 🙂
Great ideas! There are so many people who have issues keeping their cats out of their plants. I love the look of the planters hanging on the wall. If I didn’t have such a brown thumb, I would give that a try.
A lot of indoor plants are very easy to grow. As far as herbs go, cilantro and basil are super easy!
Super cool! I have 4 cats and I can not have a little bit because they eat it !! These ideas in addition to being refreshing will make the house have a modern and cool look. Thank you!!
You’re welcome! I too love the look of these planters. I’d buy them all if I could!
Great ideas! At the moment I have only cacti or arid plants because my cat won’t chew them. I would also add that it’s important to check on the potential toxicity if you have an indoor garden since there are some very toxic plants to animals like lilies.. which is a bummer because they’re so beautiful! Thank you for these great ideas.
Heather | http://www.heatherleguilloux.ca
These are great ideas!
Great suggestions.
Thanks! I hope they help. 🙂
Thanks for the tips! I moved where it’s much hotter and drier so my outdoor garden didn’t do well last year. I was thinking of trying some plants indoors.
Sounds great! Let me know how it goes!
All our plants are in the dining room which is closed off to the cats. These are great ideas.
The trouble comes in when cats sneak into the closed off room. It happened once to me, but it only took that one time for Misha to get lily poisoning. That was a trip to the emergency vet that I’ll never forget. If you do have plants in the house, make sure they’re not toxic or poisonous to cats. 🙂
I wrapped aluminum foil around my pots and they are on a dresser for now and just have snake plants. I need to repot the plants as they are getting too big and have a tiny house so I dont know what to do. I dont want them to be enclosed as they wont clean the air that way. Was going to put on shelves but they are too big.