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kats-garden.nz
Kat 👩‍🌾
@kats-garden.nz
1.1K followers 820 following 5.4K posts
Tiny farmer in Te Hiku (Far North), Aotearoa. I grow stuff, I write about it. She/her. Pākeha. Toitū Te Tiriti.

Your cat's favourite catnip purrveyor 😻

https://www.kats-garden.nz / https://www.katsnip.nz
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kats-garden.nz
Baby Christmas tree has been a bloody marathon. Two failed attempts, and this one is taking forever, but it's finally starting to look like a Christmas tree. Each one of those leaves takes about 20 minutes.
A felted cone with green leaves. The tip is still uncovered.
November 10, 2025 at 6:22 AM
kats-garden.nz
And all done. Good luck little kūmara. I hope you grow lots more kūmara for us.
The mounds and ditches are now covered in a thick layer of grass mulch, with the kūmara tipu planted into the sides of the mounds. The frame has been completed making a cube-like structure over the bed, and over the frame, I have spread green bird net.
November 10, 2025 at 2:42 AM
kats-garden.nz
Our tipu look super promising. Well-rooted and strong baby kūmara plants.
A row of kūmara shoots with thick wads of roots in black soil.
November 10, 2025 at 2:39 AM
kats-garden.nz
Setting up the mara kūmara today. Making a custom frame for the garden bed out of invasive Taiwan cherry to keep the chooks off.
A garden bed with two long mounds of soil and three dug ditches, surrounded by four vertical sticks. One stick is propped up starting to show the shape of the frame.
November 10, 2025 at 12:51 AM
kats-garden.nz
Also this morning, a book called 'Cats With Jobs' is getting released into stores, and our cat Patu features on page 190 as a 'Purrveyor of Feline Euphorics'.

Find it at your local bookstore: bookhub.co.nz/p/cats-with-...
Pink background with a dark pink outline of a cat. In front is a copt of the book cover for 'Cats With Jobs' by Leanne McGregor. Text below reads 'Out Now'. The first page of Patu's spread in Cats With Jobs. On the right side of the page are two photographs of a tabby cat playing with three fluffy ball cat toys on a black blanket. The left page reads: "Patu the Purrveyor of Feline Euphorics. Living the dream in the Far North is laidback Patu, whose job on the production line for the Kat's Nip range involves little more than getting high on catnip whenever he feels like it. Patu is one of three former wild cats employed in the business, located on 15 idyllic hectares at Kaeo, about 20 kilometres northwest of Kerikeri. Samurai and Sabre were on staff for about a year before Patu came on board. He dabbled first in the dairy industry (the milking shed of the neighbouring farm), but soon had an eye on a move next door—casually making his way from yard to garage to couch, and finally claiming a spot on the master bed and the payroll. Credit for Patu's job title goes to the brains behind the enterprise, Kat Jenkins, who started out selling loose catnip from her garden in 2018. She was always keen to develop the product into a cat toy, but it wasn't easy finding something that ticked all the boxes: sustainable, economical to make, and able to withstand a battering from Patu, Sam and Sabre."
November 3, 2025 at 6:39 PM
kats-garden.nz
Native plant nerds: do we think this is a bush lawyer? Any idea which one? R got spiked yesterday, so I went back for a wee sample.
A growing tip of what I think is Bush Lawyer. Shows 3 three-leaved stems reminiscent of a blackberry but much smaller. The mature and new leaves are face-up. The intermediary leaf is face down. It is on top of a piece of paper with a pink ruler showing the scale in cm.
November 2, 2025 at 12:05 AM
kats-garden.nz
Over 20,000 households without power in the Far North.
Screenshot of the Top Energy Outages map showing a big chunk of the Far North out of power. Detailed information about the outage. Reported at 3.39pm. Cause: under investigation on Sub-Transmission line. Customers affected: 23,170. Last updated 31 Oct at 3.39pm.
October 31, 2025 at 2:45 AM
kats-garden.nz
Holy bananas. My daily fixed electricity charge is about to go through the blimmin roof.
Your prices are shown below (including GST): Existing From 29th November 2025 Fixed cost per day: $2.17 $4.25 Usage cost per kWh: Peak: $0.9078 Off-peak: $0.4539 Peak: $0.6192 Off-peak: $0.4644 Buyback per kWh: $0.0920 $0.1500 Peak times are between 7am-9am and 5pm-9pm on weekdays. Off-peak is between 9am-5pm and 9pm-7am on weekdays, and 12.00am - 11.59pm Saturdays and Sundays.
October 29, 2025 at 8:06 PM
kats-garden.nz
I reckon there might be a way toward banana meatballs, but urgh, so much wrong with this recipe as presented. It's neither meatloaf, nor scotch egg. Plenty of bananas left to try again though.
Looking up at an arm of small ripening bananas. Many are yellow, some are still green. It is hanging out from amongst banana leaves.
October 24, 2025 at 7:51 AM
kats-garden.nz
Hoo boy 😂 We hated it. There might be some scope to use banana in other mince recipes, but we both hated the egg. And it's missing... flavour.

Do I have to try it cold for science, or can we biff this one to the chickens?
A terribly ugly meatloaf on a blue and white patterned plate. 4 slices displaying the hard boiled eggs have been sliced off.
October 24, 2025 at 5:40 AM
kats-garden.nz
The abomination is in the oven. Aside from a bit more onion than the original recipe, I stuck more or less to the original ratios, but divided the recipe by 3.
Three boiled eggs sitting on top of a layer of mince in a loaf tin. The loaf tin filled with mince.
October 24, 2025 at 4:29 AM
kats-garden.nz
Ooh. I appreciate that input, thanks. Here's the publishing info on my copy. It could have been distributed by any Banana Board/Importer really. It doesn't specify.
First edition 1970 Second printing 1974 Second, revised edition 1976 Obtainable from the Banana Board Copyright ©️ by the Banana Board, Private Bag X243, Pretoria Published for the Banana Board By Muller & Relief (Pty.) Ltd. 239 Pretorious Street, Pretoria ; 3-9 Rose Street, Cape Town Design by Valarie Phipps-Smith Photography by Louw Pretorius in the Picad Studio Kitchen, Cape Town Lithographic positives by Photo Process (Pty.) Ltd., Cape Town Printed and bound by Printpak (Cape) Ltd., Dacres Avenue, Epping, Cape.
October 24, 2025 at 1:35 AM
kats-garden.nz
As you wish, and including the uncropped full-page spread...

Actually one of the least offensive recipes in this book 😆
Banana meat loaf 1kg mince 12,5ml chopped onion 10 ml salt 3 ml pepper 2 thick slices bread, soaked in water 375 ml mashed banana (about 5 bananas) 10 ml prepared mustard 3-4 hard-boiled eggs Mix together all the ingredients except the eggs. Place half the meat mixture in a greased loaf-tin. Shell the hard-boiled eggs and arrange lengthwise, down the centre of the dish. Add the rest of the meat and press down firmly. Bake for 1 hour at 180°c. This loaf can be eaten hot or cold and should be sliced before serving. Yields 10-15 slices. Serves 5. The meatloaf from the recipe garnished with sliced green olives and sliced lemon, on a bed of lettuce.
October 21, 2025 at 3:32 AM
kats-garden.nz
Did I just reach THAT recipe?? Or is there a worse one than this?
A banana standing like a candle with a red cherry balanced on top and a drizzle of some kind of cream-coloured sauce standing in lettuce and pineapple, next to an actual candle.
October 20, 2025 at 11:44 PM
kats-garden.nz
Found this wee gem in the "free" box at the second-hand book store.

As someone who harvests multiple dozens of bananas at a time, I absolutely need to be bold with bananas.

Wonder how many of these recipes will sound remotely appetising...
A book called "Be Bold With Bananas". The cover has four photos: a muesli, pancakes, some kind of breadcrumbs and fried dish topped with slices of olives, and some kind of fruity drink.
October 20, 2025 at 11:37 PM
kats-garden.nz
Please enjoy this pheasant.
October 17, 2025 at 1:12 AM
kats-garden.nz
This lady is my Great Aunt Fan. It was taken around 1938 and she would be about 28 in it. I recognised her immediately because she strongly resembles one of my cousins.
A sepia photo of a woman enthusiastically pushing a manual push mower with basic catcher.
October 13, 2025 at 6:18 AM
kats-garden.nz
Found these catnip toys from last October in my stash so the next 6 orders of Kat's Nip or Fluffy Balls get one for free.

katsnip.nz
Three felted eyeballs in my hand. Two have brown irises, and one has a green iris.
October 11, 2025 at 10:38 PM
kats-garden.nz
Sabre likes this bush, specifically.
October 7, 2025 at 10:30 PM
kats-garden.nz
PSA: I just killed 4 early-stage paper wasps nests by walking around plantings and buildings with a can of fly spray.

Keep your eyes open because early in the season is the best time to get on top of the problem.
An Asian paper wasp building a very early nest with 3 cells.
September 30, 2025 at 12:25 AM
kats-garden.nz
Second opinions required. Do we think these ladies are the same lady?

I know who the first lady is, but I'm unsure of the second lady, but they were both linked to the same guy, and I think they may be the same person?
A black and white photo of a woman from the 1940s-50s. It is an oval picture on a gravestone. A black and white photo of a lady from the 1950s-1960s.
September 29, 2025 at 6:57 PM
kats-garden.nz
Just a little skeet of gratitude for Papers Past. Such an incredible resource filled with all sorts of surprises if you get the search parameters right.

Did you know, before glyphosate, weeds were sprayed with arsenic? You can imagine the results if your house cow eats sprayed grass.
Text: "Arsenic poison sprayed on grass near a fence is alleged by Mr. J. L. Fulton (highlighted because that's my great-grandfather) to have caused the death of his cow and he claimed, in a letter which came before last night’s meeting of the Borough Council, compensation amounting to £12 10s. The council regretted what had happened and, without admitting any liability, decided to offer Mr. Fulton £7 10s compensation, the amount, it was stated, he had first mentioned when reporting the death of the cow.
September 26, 2025 at 8:04 PM
kats-garden.nz
Halfway through the garlic season. Weeded and mulched today. No signs of rust so far 🙏🤞🥺
Peeking through bird net at a small crop of garlic mulched with grass clippings.
September 25, 2025 at 4:03 AM
kats-garden.nz
So close to finishing the annual berryhouse maintenance, and mere months away from berry season!
Berry beds, neatly mulched. You wouldn't ever know it was a horror a few months ago.
September 25, 2025 at 2:12 AM
kats-garden.nz
Local election papers have shown up. At least this bit is easy, even if it is bullshit.
A vote to keep Māori constituencies on a local election ballot.
September 18, 2025 at 1:14 AM