Friends have helped me check websites and most of them lists lemongrass (serai) as one of the plants that deter snakes. However, this may not be applicable to our Malaysian species because another friend told me that snakes were found coiled around her serai plants.
In any case, I have always failed to plant lemongrass on the ground. While it grows like a weed elsewhere, all of mine have died so far, probably because the male cats spray on them too.
Ever since my latest reptilian encounter, we have botakkan our garden and it is as Zen as it comes now.
Safety comes before beauty. We might get a tree planted near Stargate2 to provide some shade for the cats’ platforms, but it would be a tree without any bushy undergrowth. Pretty much like the existing guava tree you can see in the photo above.
It’s been twelve days since the incident and I still don’t dare to go out to the garden after nightfall.
Meanwhile, I was chatting with a very senior vet some days back and he totally believes in the healing properties of plant-based antioxidants for cats despite the fact that cats are obligate carnivores. He said cats in the wild also chew on grass occasionally.
I know our cats love serai and Pogonatherum (aka Heidi’s grass). So this is our portable serai plant now. We move it from the front compound (to get enough sunshine), to the Catio and to Bunny’s Place for the cats.
Minnie and Ginger, the very best of friends.
As slim as Robin is, he’s so good at balancing on his hind legs.
No more attempting to plant any bushy plants from the ground up.
Malaysia will always have hot seasons, that’s when the reptiles come out to search for cooler places.
But please beware of flower pots too, they can slide under flower pots to hide. I had a friend who had worked in a Sekinchan school before and he told me that’s where they hid. I’ll tell you this related story one day.
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