Although cats are remarkably clean, well-groomed animals, I've always been a firm believer in regular brushing, combing, and bathing. I currently have two dominant calico Persians, Princess Peony, and Empress Tang, and one greenhouse cat, Blackie - they are all very special to me and are such wonderful companions. Every afternoon, their faces and ears are cleaned, their coats are checked, and they're given a good, thorough brushing.
Enjoy these latest photos.
This is my dear Empress Tang getting ready for her afternoon brushing. She is lying on a hydraulic grooming table in the basement of my Winter house where all the dogs and cats are groomed. It has a durable rubber surface, so the animals don’t slip.
First, Enma checks to see if any of Tang’s nails need trimming.
Pet nails grow quickly, so it is important to check them often and trim whenever needed. And only cut the white part of the nail – never the pink part, which is called the quick – this is where the nerve and blood vessels are located.
Tang has been getting brushed and combed all her life, so she is very used to this routine. It’s always good to look for and remove any matted fur. This is important because collected mats can cause irritation and hairballs.
We use a variety of combs and pin brushes to gently and carefully remove any knots or tangles. Always be sure to introduce the cat to new tools before using them, so they never shy away from grooming time.
Tang enjoys being brushed and stays still for much of her grooming session. Here she is on her back while her stomach is combed.
Enma cleans Tang’s face with a slightly damp cotton pad – especially in between the creases. This helps to prevent possible tear staining.
Because this is done regularly, there is little dirt, but it is also good practice, so the cats are comfortable being handled. Tang loves all the attention.
This is my Princess Peony, who often naps while being groomed.
Peony likes all the attention also, so it isn’t hard to keep her from jumping off the table. Almost instantly, Peony starts to fall asleep.
Enma dampens another cosmetic cloth to wipe Peony’s entire face.
She also cleans Tang’s ears using another disposable cloth and a bit of solution specially formulated for pet ear cleaning. This is done about once a week.
Peony’s ears are spotless.
Enma also runs the comb through her back and tail before releasing her.
Peony runs up the stairs to the front hall before stopping for a quick photo. Peony and Tang are very healthy and happy. Peony is the one with orange markings on the front of her head.
Then she walked over to her kitty buffet for a snack. Cats are true carnivores, meaning they need to eat meat. My cats are fed both wet and dry food, which they absolutely love. A variety of food is left out for my cats every day at the kitty buffet. Each bowl has something different, and all the food is refreshed daily.
And here’s Tang not far behind – already looking for a comfy spot to rest after her grooming.
My cats definitely like their routines – they like to eat and go out at the same times, and they like to sleep and lounge in the same places.
Tang chose this chair in the hallway, so she could still watch all the activity around the house – we’re all decorating for the holidays. I always cover the pets’ favorite resting spots with towels. Doing this keeps these areas extra clean, and extra cozy.
Blackie is next – he’s my greenhouse cat. Blackie loves people and is always ready for a rub or some playtime.
Blackie also likes his grooming routines, but on this day, he seems more interested in napping in a cardboard box. How often do you groom your cats? Share your comments in the section below. I love reading your cat stories.
Fresh, organic produce will soon be growing in my vegetable greenhouse.
As my outdoor grounds crew continues with fall chores around the farm, attention is directed toward planting my vegetable greenhouse. I love this greenhouse - its construction several years ago was inspired by Eliot Coleman, an expert in four-season farming. It uses minimal artificial heat - in fact, most of its energy comes directly from the sun, and it successfully grows a variety of cold-hardy crops. In late summer, we solarized all the raised garden beds, then fertilized them a few weeks later. This week, the first seeds of the season were planted.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Soil solarization is an environmentally friendly method of using the sun’s power to control bacteria, insects, and weeds in the soil. Last August, we covered the raised beds with large tarps to trap the solar energy. Soil solarization works best on heavy soils containing clay, loam, or mixtures of them.
The tarps are removed several weeks later. This photo was taken in mid-October after some of my tropical plants were moved indoors for the winter.
Before planting, it’s important to feed the soil. I always say, if you eat, so should your plants. For these beds, we use Garden-Tone – a natural and organic fertilizer for both cool and warm-season vegetables such as lettuce, kale, tomatoes, beets, and turnips, plus herbs such as basil, chives, sage, rosemary, parsley, and oregano.
This fertilizer is long-lasting and provides slow-release feeding with bio-tone microbes.
Ryan sprinkles the fertilizer generously over each bed. Always do this prior to planting.
Ryan finishes with a good spray of water.
This week, we were ready to plant our first seeds. We always plan for kale, swiss chard, chervil, spinach, lettuce, carrots, beets, and many others. I share my vegetables with my daughter and grandchildren, but I also like to grow them for my delicious green juice.
Seeds are available online and at garden centers. Many of my seeds come from Johnny’s Selected Seeds – I’ve been using them for years. https://www.johnnyseeds.com/
Ryan and I work together to decide where everything will be planted. We also plant in succession, meaning we stagger the plantings, so there is always something growing and something to harvest.
Ryan labels wooden markers for the different crop varieties. I am so fortunate to have the room to plant many different vegetables indoors during winter.
Ryan uses this bed preparation rake from Johnny’s Selected Seeds to create furrows in the soil. Hard plastic red tubes slide onto selected teeth of the rake to mark the rows.
It’s a cleverly designed tool for making multiple straight rows in one pass. The depth of the furrows depends on the amount of pressure placed on the rake as it moves through the soil. Ryan goes over several beds.
Larger markers are also made to identify what bed contains what vegetables.
The markers are placed at the ends of the assigned beds, so they can be seen from the footpaths.
Ryan sprinkles the seeds in the furrows. These raised beds were designed for easy reach from all sides.
The seeds are very small – it’s hard to believe these tiny seeds produce such beautiful vegetables within weeks. These are kale seeds. The ‘Toscano’ variety is an Italian heirloom, also known as “dinosaur” kale. It has extra-dark green, non-curled but heavily blistered leaves that are rich and tender.
Ryan places the smaller markers at the end of each row indicating the plant variety.
Ryan also plants cutting celery, Apium graveolens var. secalinum. This leaf celery has a bold celery flavor. It is also easier to grow than standard celery. It makes a versatile ingredient for salads, soups, stews, and vegetable medleys.
And this is chervil ‘Vertissimo’. This is a winter-type herb with dark green leaves. It has a mild, sweet anise flavor and is popular for salads, micro-greens, and garnishing.
The furrows don’t have to be deep. In general, seeds should be planted at a depth of two times the width, or diameter, of the seed. A seed that’s about 1/16-of-an-inch thick should be planted an eighth-of-an-inch deep.
These are carrot seeds. ‘Sugarsnax 54’ yield long, slender roots. The dark orange carrots develop quickly and are sweet, tender, and smooth. Carrots are high in beta-carotene, an antioxidant and an important source of vitamin-A.
Working in an assembly line process, Ryan fills all the beds with seeds before backfilling.
Turnips also have very small seeds. ‘Hakurei F1’ produces smooth flat-round, white turnips that mature early and are best harvested young – when they are up to two inches in diameter. The flavor is sweet and fruity, and the texture is crisp and tender.
This is a tine weeding rake, also from Johnny’s Seeds. It has multiple uses, which vary depending on the amount of downward pressure put on the handle. This model is for working in tight areas such as greenhouses or raised beds. Ryan carefully backfills all the filled furrows with soil.
Most of the energy in the greenhouse comes from the sun through the big windows, which can be programmed to open for ventilation or cooling, when needed. In several weeks, we’ll have gorgeous, nutritious vegetables to eat, share and enjoy – I can’t wait.
I toured the Naples Botanical Garden with Chad Washburn, Vice President of Conservation. Here we are standing in front of a 1991 Untitled Mosaic Mural by the late Brazilian landscape architect, Roberto Burle Marx. (Photo by Mary Dominguez)
This photo shows the Brazilian Garden which includes a rich biological assortment of beautiful plants and landscape designs.
There are several types of water lilies in the Brazilian Garden pond, including this Victoria cruziana, or Santa Cruz water lily – a tropical species of flowering plant native to South America, primarily Argentina and Paraguay.
This is Couroupita guianensis, the cannonball tree. It is a soft-wooded, deciduous tropical tree of the Brazil nut family that typically grows up to 50 to 75-feet tall.
The Couroupita guianensis tree is often planted as an ornamental for its showy, scented flowers.
This eye-catching Aechmea ‘Blue Tango’ bromeliad is a relatively new hybrid. This plant produces an electric inflorescence of hot pink and bright blue. The flower stalk stands high above the foliage and bears hot pink branches of small, blue bracts.
We also saw this cohune palm, Attalea sp., in the Brazilian Garden. This palm is native to Mexico and parts of Central America. The cohune palm has long been used to make oil from its nuts, especially by the Maya.
Here is a closer look at the cohune palm and its nuts. The Maya would crack the nuts and then boil them to extract the oil. Today, the nuts are cracked and the soft contents are used raw.
This is the trunk of a Ceiba erianthos hybrid. Ceiba is a genus of trees in the family Malvaceae, native to tropical and subtropical areas of the Americas and tropical West Africa. Some species can grow more than 200-feet tall or more. (Photo by Mary Dominguez)
Also known as a silk floss tree hybrid, this Ceiba trunk is filled with thick conical thorns.
Nymphaea ‘Avalanche’ is a large growing water lily with green pads and maroon mottling.
Do you recognize this tropical? It is a broad-leaf papaya – a frost-tender, succulent, broadleaf evergreen tree that bears papaya fruits throughout the year.
The fruits are large and elongated. I have papaya trees growing in my Bedford, New York greenhouse – the melon-like fruits are so sweet and delicious.
This Thunbergia grandiflora, or Blue Sky Vine, is located in the Caribbean Garden. It is a woody-stemmed, evergreen, tropical, twining climber that grows to 15 to 30-feet long.
Thunbergia grandiflora is native to India and has elliptic to heart-shaped dark green leaves and trumpet shaped flowers that are lavender blue with yellow throats.
This is Roystonea regia, or Royal Palm, in the River of Grass. A large and attractive palm, it has been planted throughout the tropics and subtropics as an ornamental tree.
This is an Adansonia or Baobab tree decorated with lights for the holiday season. The baobab is the national tree of Madagascar. There are nine species of Baobab. Six species live in the drier parts of Madagascar, two in mainland Africa, one in Australia and three in India. For most of the year, the tree is leafless, and looks as if its roots are sticking up in the air.
The Labyrinth in the South Grove of the Naples Botanical Garden was created for quiet meditation.
Gardenia taitensis ‘Double’, also known as Double Tahitian gardenia, is a rare form of gardenia with large, fragrant, double flowers and deep green tropical foliage. It is a vigorous grower and prolific bloomer with a little more cold tolerance than other gardenias.
This is Gardenia tubifera, or Golden gardenia. It has rich deep green glossy foliage and golden yellow flowers on a vigorous growing evergreen shrub.
Here I am holding a fragrant gardenia flower. (Photo by Mary Dominguez)
This is a Burle Marx philodendron with glossy, long heart-shaped leaves. This variety tolerates more sun than other philodendrons, and once established, also tolerates mild drought. (Photo by Mary Dominguez)
Plumeria stenopetala is a rare and extremely fragrant species that produces large hanging clusters of weeping, white, thin and curly petaled blossoms with a very strong jasmine-carnation perfume. (Photo by Mary Dominguez)
And here I am with my sister-in-law, Rita Christiansen, her son Kirk, and his girlfriend, Jen Norman. Although brief, we had a lovely time walking through the Naples Botanical Garden – I encourage you to visit if you’re ever in this area. (Photo by Mary Dominguez)
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