Ben is famous for his love of catnip & the strength of the fresh stuff that is grown in the Magic Garden. He has a patch of it in the corner under where the massive jasmine grew until Storm Arwen brought it and the fence down. I suspect that most of the catnip there will no longer be there come summer. Fortunately for Ben, I grow it each year from seed. I also have a couple of ‘posh’ versions that I have bought as plants .

Catnip or catmint is Nepeta cataria which is attractive to butterflies as well as cats. The other property of the plant is not particularly relevant to the Magic Garden, especially with the new high fences, is that it is repellant to deer.

Ben has been known to destroy the plants by ‘loving’ them too much so when they are still at the seedling & young plants I cover them with wire hoops to try and stop him from squashing them. This year I am going to try growing silver vine as the other plant type that cats are supposed to respond too - Ben doesn’t seem too impressed with the silvervine toy I bought him but we will see whether ‘fresh’ has more effect