Our cat, Butter, hated our plants. Or she loved them, my husband and I could never tell which. All we knew was: We kept coming home to our plants on the floor here and Butter over there, wearing a smug expression that said, You can’t prove it.
So we bought more plants and they ended up on the floor and we bought more plants and they ended up on the floor. (Apparently, we aren’t the only ones with this problem.) Then we swore off plants forever and bought plastic succulents at Target (don’t @me).
A few months later, my best friend sent me a birthday present: a hanging planter.
In other words, a planter that’s mounted on the wall or ceiling—above the counters and tables and shelves, so out of reach that even Butter looked at it once and gave up. Which means you can have your pet and keep your plants, too.
Beyond that, it makes my otherwise minimalist apartment look a lot more deliberate and put-together. Think of it like a statement planter, just like a statement wall (a big, bold paint color surrounded by something neutral, like white). It serves the same function as any planter, but does so in a take-notice way.
I don’t know if Butter loves it quite as much as she loves destroying plants when we’re not home, but anyone who comes over is sure to compliment it.
Cat owners: How do you keep your furry friends away from the plants? Share your best tricks in the comments below!
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Written by: Emma Laperruque
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5 Comments
Rule 2: get plants with big, round leaves. My cats have always seemed to prefer wispy, grassy-looking leaves.
Rule 3: anything small enough for them to knock over or push off the surface gets stuck down with museum wax.
Rule 4: cluster plants together so that there's no room on the surface for the cat.
The one that seems to make the biggest difference is avoiding grassy things, or things that will dangle enticingly. Bud, my plant eater, can reach the ficus lyrata, the stromanthe and even the fish-tail-ish palm, but it's not that wonderful tempting shape, so he doesn't bother. Clyde would push things over if he could but it's all either too big for him to move or stuck down, muahahahaha!
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