Cats in the Rose Garden

Cats in the Garden: Why They Matter

Buddy stands guard in front of Honorine de Brabant, a Bourbon rose

Independent spirit aside, a domestic cat can be a great asset in the garden. It isn't every day we consider America's most popular household pet as a tool, but they are as useful as a rake, shovel, or hose.

One can't judge their effectiveness, however, based on their ability to get human tasks done. That's unfair. They don't have thumbs. The claws and jaws can hold onto a wide range of items that attract and hold their attention, but don't expect much in the fetch department. It's not their thing, even though they love a good chase after a tossed rose hip.

Freddy shows me where to pull more weeds.

They are natural-born hunters, even the laziest and clumsiest in the species. They will often prove their prowess by depositing a dead critter at your doorstep just to reassure you they can get their prey.

Andy suggests I remove this tree root before I plant a rose bush.

Here's what they are best at and why all gardeners should have one or more by their side.

1. They are always ready to entertain you, turning routine chores into much more bearable tasks. Yes, it was only yesterday when you weeded the entire garden, but a lot can happen over just a week, and it's soon time to do it again. With a cat next to you chasing the end of a particularly long blade of grass, you will forget about the drudgery. When your mind has wandered off as you trudge onward into the second or third hour of digging, pulling, and discarding weeds and grass, and a white paw emerges from the undergrowth to smack your glove, it is a gesture to bring you to reality. It's proven to lower your blood pressure, too, and has produced barrel laughs from me as I sat alone in the garden.

A dusty Andy Boy telling me this rose with one straggly cane isn't worth saving.

2. Cats have an extraordinary ability to investigate most things they deem as new or unusual. That will make you think, is the hole too big? Is it too shallow? Did you prune enough of the bush so they can complete a cheek rub and, thereby, leave a strong scent-marking telling other cats to get lost?

Andy Boy reassures me that leaves will make a comfortable ground cover.

3. By their very presence, cats can deter a wide variety of animals such as moles, voles, and gophers. They will persist in routing them out and causing them to go elsewhere, as long as the invasion doesn't outnumber one poor feline. Admittedly, my yard is in the center of a vast neighborhood of single-family homes, far from any park, natural area, stream bed, or open space, and I've been rodent-free for years. Yep, no rats or mice ever make it from the yard to the house. Unless, of course, they are gifts from a proud hunter.

Andy Boy is tangled up in Crépascule, a hybrid musk.

4. If they cry for you to help them out of a climbing rose they get stuck in, perhaps it's time to thin it out a bit. Cats love to climb and get to places you can't reach without a ladder, but again, don't expect much help from up there.

5. Having a patch of dry, loose soil in a corner of your garden is an attractive location for your cat to relieve itself, thus reducing the drudgery of cleaning out the litter box every day.

Bruce is watching over the garden in winter.

My life continues to be enriched in many ways by growing roses and by tending to a series of feline companions since 2002. I mourn their loss when it's time for them to pass under Eternity's rose arbor and have given their remains safe resting places well below the roots of a new rose bush.