Digging in potted plant soil - making a mess scattering dirt

[nbrazil]

Well now, my first cat (kitten) was good and ignored my very few rare potted plants, but when I got him a playmate, their nightly olympics knocked them over - so I moved them to work where they are barely surviving (just not the right lighting, temperature).

Now that they have grown and their olympics are not so enthusiastic, I tried bringing one plant home and putting it in an out of the way place (not ideal, just to get them used to it). And now the playmate cannot resist jumping up to it (a difficult jump) and pawing out the soil.

This does not bode well, because the ideal location is low and accessible and, for the life of me, after all my reading up on cat behavior, I cannot think of anything to stop her from digging out the soil. Is there hope I can have my rare plants back?

 

[vball91]

Have you tried putting decorative rocks on top of the topsoil? Something heavy enough so she can't dig past them?

 

[mservant]

Have you tried putting decorative rocks on top of the topsoil? Something heavy enough so she can't dig past them?

I was thinking the same thing.  Or some kind of cloth cover you could fit round?  Guess it depends on the size and type of plant.

 

[nbrazil]

That's the only practical and easy to implement idea that I've had, too. Gotta go looking for that, then.

Plants are in bad shape after a winter at the office. But they are tough, too.