This Catnip Grow Kit Provides Your Cat With a Houseplant They Can Actually Eat
If your loved ones with cats can’t keep a plant alive, this is the gift for them.
It’s hard to find a gift for a cat lover that’s neither kitschy nor expensive. Your town or city might not be like Gilmore Girls’s fictional Stars Hollow, with a store exclusively dedicated to items like cat-shaped oven mitts, but it’s safe to say if someone has a set of those, they do not need another.
If you’re looking for a creative and pet-safe gift, but don’t want to break your budget, your options are limited. That’s why I was wowed when I came across the Curious Catnip Tiny Terracotta Kitopens in a new tab. At just $13, this adorably tiny terracotta pot comes with everything you’ll need to start growing a patch of catnip (at least until your kitty noms it to pieces).
The kit arrives as a small pot, with seeds, a growing medium, a coco husk liner, and plant food, with the instructions written on the small cardboard label conveniently wrapped around the pot. Plant the seeds in the growth medium, which goes inside the husk liner, which in turn goes inside the terracotta pot — like a Russian nesting doll of catnip grow kits. With some water and a bit of included plant food, the catnip sprouts in about a week. And once your plants are big and strong, you can transplant them outdoors or into a bigger pot, and use the terracotta vessel for a new plant.
I started growing my seedlings about five weeks ago, and I already have a lovely little patch sprouting near a window. They’re low maintenance; they require just a bit of water every now and then. And with a tiny 3.5x3.5-inch footprint, they would even fit on a window sill in a small apartment.
Mine, while initially a bit wan and spindly, have been thriving since I moved them to an area with more direct sunlight. Given my terrible record as a plant dad, the fact that they’re doing this well is a minor miracle. Ironically, our cat has completely ignored the catnip in favor of chewing on other plants like succulents, but of course she would ignore the plant that she’s meant to eat.
The only area for improvement I can identify is the instructions. Because the label for the pot is small, the instructions are brief and simple, leaving a bit to be desired when it comes to detail, which would be helpful for plant novices, myself included.
However, this catnip grow kit is a fantastic little gift that I plan on giving. It’s cute, easy to grow, and cat friendly — plus, having live plants improves just about any space. The kit is great for a stocking stuffer, white elephant, house warming, or thank you gift. And even if nothing sprouts? At the very least they have a planter pot.
