Only in Newfoundland: Truly Unique Places to Stay

By Pam PardyEver want to go back in time and explore Nanâs attic around the bay? Do you dream of hearing the waves crash while chilling inside your very own lighthouse retreat? How does spending the night in a fishermanâs stage strike you, or revisiting a simpler time where vinyl and vintage rule the roost?All this and so much more is possible for anyone planning a vacation in Newfoundland and Labrador this year. Round Da Bay Inn in Plate Cove West offers uniquely decorated rooms with a theme sure to fit any vacationerâs fantasy - from a fishing lodge feel to a beach hut vibe. Owners Chris and Karen Ricketts say their design goal was, first and foremost, to have fun. The fact they were able to incorporate their passion for collecting things was just a bonus. âWe just had these items weâd found that would be perfect in a grandmotherâs attic, so we started that themed room first and then it just grew from there,â Karen explains.âWe didnât plan on standing out. We just wanted to use what we had in storage,â Chris laughingly admits.Julie Lodge, owner of Lodgeâs Landing - a vintage-styled vacation rental located in Port Union - says doing things differently in tourism, while still maintaining the high standards those who visit here expect, helps the industry as a whole. âNot everyone wants to stay in a saltbox thatâs been renovated with modern twists,â she said, adding, âThe industry benefits from all types of options.â When Julie first bought her Port Union property, it boasted shag carpet - from the stairs to the kitchen sink - and a chrome table was the centrepiece of the untouched-since-the-1950s kitchen dÃ©cor. âMy plan was to gut it,â she says, âbut the more I looked around, the more I understood what I had. My goal then became to just make what it was even more beautiful.âKristy Sweet of Catalina was inspired by what didnât exist - except in her heart. âMy dad passed away in 2020, and he had this little piece of land overlooking Green Island that he bought probably like 30 years ago, I guess, and he never put anything on it. After he passed I said, âI got to do something with it in his memory,ââ she says. Kristy explained that her dad, Roy Sweet, had always loved lighthouses. âMy great-grandmother lived out on Green Island until it was resettled, and her father was a lighthouse keeper there - and later so was her husband - so lighthouses held a special place for our family,â Kristy explains. Royâs Lighthouse Retreat has become quite a popular destination, she adds. âKids seem to really love it; itâs like a fantasy place to stay. But then couples love it, too, for a romantic getaway. The best part is sharing this piece of my dad with everyone. He would have loved this place,â she says.Brenda and Bob Lee of Mobile understand being inspired by the memory of a loved one. âMy mom became ill around Christmas of 2020, and I was planning on building a spot for her with us so she didnât have to worry about stairs or be by herself all the time,â Brenda begins. Just after they purchased the materials to start the build, her mom, Margaret Penney, died.âI didnât want to stop working on Momâs place, so we built this spot in her memory and then decided to rent it out as an Airbnb.âThe couple says the entire experience of opening up Momâs Place B&B to strangers has been so healing. âWeâve made so many nice friends, and they come back again and again. Then someone said they wanted to get married here, and I asked when and they said, âThursday?â This was Sunday. Well, we did it and it was so much fun. Mom would have loved it,â Brenda says with a laugh.Then she got to thinking. Weddings? Why not? The couple started to work on a plan to launch Momâs Little White Wedding Chapel. âWe know this couple who have been married for 34 years and they love it here, and when we said we wanted to open up a little wedding chapel - almost as a joke at first - they said theyâd book it and renew their vows,â Brenda says.âThe overall response is just awesome, but Iâm not shocked. This is just the perfect spot for love! Iâve had guests tell me they were on the verge of breaking up, and they came up here for the weekend and then theyâre all in love again,â she says proudly.In preparation for the chapelâs official opening, Brenda got her officiantâs licence so she can conduct the ceremonies. She and Bob hope to have weddings on the property by this summer. While traditional services can be accommodated, of course, the more out there and unique the better. âWe are open to anything. Iâm the least judgmental person youâre ever going to meet. I can guarantee one thing: if you want to have a time here, youâll have a time,â she says. Everything theyâve done together as B&B owners and operators continues to honour Margaret. âMom was so much fun and everyone loved her. This place is just totally dedicated to her,â Brenda says. Itâs made all the easier because Brenda and Bob - whoâve been together for 16 years - are fun-loving love birds themselves.âTeamwork makes the dream work, baby, and Bob and I make a great team,â Brenda says. âIf everyone can be as happy as we are - at least until they hit the end of the road once they leave here - then that makes us happy and thatâs all we can ask for.âEditor's Note: This article was originally incorrectly attributed in the June 2023 magazine and has been corrected online. The editorial team sincerely regrets the error.

Growing Your Own Jiggs

By Kim ThistleWhat self-respecting Newfoundlander does not love a bit of salt junk and vegetables? Firstly, the discussion should be about the difference between âcooked dinnerâ and âJiggs dinner.â Newfoundlanders are almost as passionate about this as they are about the difference between turnip and rutabaga. My understanding is that âcooked dinnerâ has some sort of roasted meat, be it beef, pork or fowl. Jiggs dinner, however, consists of vegetables and salt meat. Gawd, I hope I got that right or there will be mutiny.I cannot do much in the way of helping you grow or salt the meat, but I can certainly give guidance on growing the vegetables. First of all, you will need to decide if you can manage a garden and the cabin. If you spend more time at your âsummer homeâ during the growing season, it would probably be best to plant said garden at the cabin or cottage where you can keep an eye on it. Gardens are not a wise choice for folks who like to be travelling all the time, so think it through before you start. I have listed the vegetables most often included in a traditional Jiggs dinner, with the exception of the split peas. I have never tried to grow these and have no idea if they would be successful in our climate.GreensLook for ârapeseedâ at your local nursery. The connoisseurs tell me that rapeseed is superior to Turnip Top Green seed. I gotta be honest, I canât tell the difference. Greens have a fast turnaround time and grow well in cool weather. Broadcast them as early as you can work the soil. Donât plant them one by one, or you will go batty. Greens are harvested after about 50-55 days, so you can sow seed every two weeks (or so) to have continuous greens all summer. Word of warningâ¦ they tend to bolt (go to flower) in the heat of summer, so try to avoid that midsummer heat and concentrate on growing them in spring and early summer, or late summer and fall.SpudsBuy certified seed potatoes and plant them around the 24th of May weekend. Try to get them in the ground before you head off to the cabin (or plant them at the cabin). Potatoes will turn green if exposed to sun, so be sure to hill them up with new soil throughout the summer to protect those tubers from sunburn.CarrotsThese seeds can be planted as early as the soil can be worked. I often get mine in the ground in early May, but it depends on the sort of spring we are having. Once you plant them, you canât go to the cabin unless you have an automatic on/off drip hose. Carrot seeds do not like to dry out while germinating. Once you see those greens reaching a couple of inches high, you can get on the road again.ParsnipThese delicious roots take a long time to grow, so be sure to get your seed in the ground early. Late April or early May is best, as long as the soil is not sopping wet or covered in a layer of ice. Soil temperature should be a minimum of 2Â°C, but ideally should be about 10Â°C. Avoid using old seed. Parsnip seed does not keep well from year to year, and your germination may be poor if using leftover seed from the previous season.Turnip/Rutabaga(It really is Rutabaga), I like Laurentian the best; itâs an oldie but goody. You can direct seed once the soil is about 15Â°C, but I have had good success with starting this seed indoors and then planting outside once the seedlings have a couple of sets of true leaves on them. (The first two round leaves are not true leaves.) Turnip, parsnip and carrot all sweeten after the frost has had a chance to convert the starches to sugar, so leave them in the ground until they get a good, hard frost.CabbageNewfoundland gardeners are fussy about their cabbage type. A few of the preferred varieties are Copenhagen Market, Early Jersey Wakefield and Stonehead. I had a customer tell me to stop growing that old Savoy. ââTis nothing but dirt!â Well, I happen to love it. You are best purchasing small cabbage plants rather than direct seeding, but if you want to stagger your crops, you can direct seed for a later harvest.BeetI love freshly roasted beet, but apparently I am weird. âTheyâ tell me you have to have pickled beet to go with your Jiggs dinner, so not only do you have to grow the beet, but now you have to pickle it, too. If you are growing beet to bottle, look for Cylindra beet seed. They grow to approximately 5â long and are easy to slice. Because of their length, they have a habit of pushing up through the ground as they grow, so be sure to hill them to keep the roots tender. This variety tends to be a bit sweeter than the average red beet.DessertWell, now you have to go out berrypicking. No Jiggs dinner is complete without blueberry duff or partridgeberry pudding. The best part of this ingredient is that Mother Nature gives you a break and does the growing for you.Now go make your mudder-in-law proud!

Amelia Earhart's Hat

By Dennis FlynnThe sale of a very old cap in an online auction might not seem to be terribly exciting news. But it wasnât sold for a song, and it wasnât just any old cap. It was an identifying piece of aviation history, and its record-setting sale sent ripples of nostalgia all the way to two small towns in Newfoundland and Labrador.In an article dated March 1, 2022, the Smithsonian Magazine reported, âA brown leather cap, worn by famed aviator Amelia Earhart during her record-breaking flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928, has sold for $825,000, according to the Heritage Auctions website. The leather helmet was expected to sell at around $80,000, according to CNN, but on Saturday [February 26, 2022], an unnamed buyer purchased the cap at nearly 10 times the amount. Heritage Auctions president Chris Ivy tells CNN in a statement that one of the highlights of the item is that it is easily identifiable in images of Earhart. âThe cap has an amazing, stirring story to tell. And not only does it have outstanding provenance, but irrefutable photo matching as well.ââEarhart, sporting that very cap, drew fascinated crowds in Trepassey, NL, in June 1928, when she arrived with pilot Wilmer Stultz and mechanic Lewis Gordon aboard the Friendship. After several days in town waiting for good weather, they took off on July 17; about 21 hours later they landed in Burry Port, Wales, and Earhart became the first female passenger to fly across the Atlantic. She returned to Newfoundland almost four years later. This time she was in Harbour Grace, NL, preparing for her record-setting attempt to be the first woman to pilot her own aircraft on a solo flight across the Atlantic. She took off from the Harbour Grace airstrip on May 20, 1932, and landed triumphantly near Londonderry, Northern Ireland, almost 15 hours later.Amelia Earhartâs touchdowns and takeoffs left an indelible mark on these two communities. In Harbour Grace, a commemorative plaque on the grass airstrip reads: âOn May 20, 1932, Amelia Earhart Putnam became the worldâs first woman pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. The flight, in a Lockheed Vega, originated at the aerodrome here in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland.â There are several older monuments at the airstrip mentioning Earhart, including at least one placed by The Ninety Nines, an international non-profit organization of licensed women pilots from 44 countries with thousands of members around the globe. Founded in 1929, in Long Island, New York, Amelia Earhart was elected their first president. The organizationâs name refers to the first 99 female pilots who were charter members. At a waterfront site near the Harbour Grace tourism chalet, there is a striking bronze statue of Amelia Earhart designed by Lorne Rostotski and sculpted by Luben Boykov. In Trepassey, a corner of the restaurant in Edge of Avalon Inn is named Earhartâs Pub. Its proprietor, John Devereaux, has a direct link to the famous aviatorâs time in his hometown. âAmelia actually stayed for around 12 days at a house which is still standing in Trepassey. It belonged to my relatives, and a fun story is that my grandmother [Laura Devereaux] was a young girl at the time, and she was fascinated with a hat that Amelia wore. There is a wonderful documentary done locally about Ameliaâs time here in Trepassey called âAmelia Earhart: A Woman in Pants.â It was written and directed by Lorne Warr, and my grandmother appears in it talking about the cap. I guess my grandmother had much better taste in headgear fashion than we realized.âHats off to this collectorThe Smithsonian Magazine story of the 2022 auction goes on to say that Anthony Twiggs, a 67-year-old retired photographer in Minnesota, put the leather helmet up for auction after experts confirmed its authenticity, comparing it to the one worn by Earhart in photos taken in Trepassey. Twiggs inherited the helmet 20 years after his mother, Ellie Brookhart, died. She claimed she got it from a friend in 1929, following the first Womenâs National Air Derby in Cleveland, Ohio, in which Earhart finished third. Earhart was talking with reporters after the race when a boy, who had a crush on Brookhart, spotted the cap on the ground. He presented the leather helmet - with the name âA. Earhartâ printed inside - to Twiggsâ mother, hoping to win her over. Sadly for him that did not happen; Brookhart was far more interested in the hat than the young man. The final selling price of US$825,000 (approximately C$1.1 million) makes the hat far and away the most expensive Amelia Earhart artifact ever sold to date.

Why is June such a popular month for weddings?

By Linda BrowneâOh, they say when you marry in June youâre a bride all your life, and the bridegroom who marries in June gets a sweetheart for a wife. Winter weddings can be gay like a Christmas holiday, but the June bride hears the song of a spring that lasts all summer long.âSo goes the song in the 1954 film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Indeed, June weddings have been alluded to in many songs and stories over the years. But why is this month considered such a popular one for tying the knot? As folklorist and writer Tad Tuleja points out in his book Curious Customs, like so many things, we can thank the ancient Romans - more specifically, Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage, childbirth and fertility.âIt is because she presided over the sixth month of the Julian calendar that it was considered lucky for weddings. May, on the other hand, was considered unlucky - a bizarre superstition, since Maia was a fruition goddess, but one that sheds light on the tendency to wait until June,â Tuleja writes. He adds that âcommon sense and the desire for comfortâ might also have something to do with it. âMrs. John Sherwood, a commentator on Gilded Age propriety, allowed as how there is âsomething exquisitely poetical in the idea of a June wedding. It is the very month for the softer emotions and for the wedding journey.â The journey was and is the determining consideration,â Tuleja notes. âSince the wedding was typically followed by a honeymoon, couples naturally preferred to set the date at the beginning of warm weather, which was also the beginning of the summer vacation season. One does not look forward to Niagara Falls in December.â Fellow folklorist George Monger, in his book Discovering the Folklore and Traditions of Marriage, shares a couple of sayings that may further illuminate why people choose to wed when they do: âMarried in June, life will be one honeymoonâ and âMarry in May, and youâll rue the day.â âAgain the ancient Romans are blamed for this belief because this was the month that offerings were made to the dead and when mourning clothes were worn. The Roman writer Plutarch noted that Romans did not marry during the month of May,â he writes. However, Monger adds, looking at wedding statistics over several hundred years âsuggests that couples did not avoid May as a wedding month, and indeed there was often a slight peak of weddings in May and September, which corresponded with seasonal payments when more people would have the money to be able to get married.â In her book A History of the Wife, historian Marilyn Yalom also mentions the bad luck associated with May weddings in ancient times, writing that âweddings were generally planned for the second half of June. It was considered unlucky to marry in May or before June 15, when the temple of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, had its annual cleaning.â However, June wasnât always the most popular choice for lovebirds to take a flying leap into wedded bliss. In her book I Do! I Do! From the Veil to the Vows - How Classic Wedding Traditions Came to Be, Susan Waggoner says that January was the favoured month for marriage in ancient Greece âlargely because it was the month of Hera, Zeusâs wife, the queen of goddesses, and the special protector of womenâ (of whom Juno is the Roman counterpart). At the time of the bookâs publishing, in 2002, Waggoner mentions that August and September overtook June as the most popular time for getting married, adding that âJanuary, once the month of the goddess Hera, is now the peak of planning season for wedding consultants and caterers.â The favoured time for having a wedding might be shifting further still. According to a piece published on the wedding planning website TheKnot.com (using data from their 2022 Real Weddings Study, which consists of responses from 11,646 US couples married last year), 43 per cent of weddings took place between September and November, with October being the most popular month, accounting for 20 per cent of weddings. Summer was the second most popular season in which to wed, with 28 per cent of couples tying the knot between June and August. February takes the (wedding) cake for least popular month, accounting for just three per cent of the weddings.FYI, if youâre trying to pick a date, The Knot has pinned down September 23 as the most popular wedding date for 2023, with October being the most popular wedding month overall.

20 Questions with Jonny Harris

Get to know comedian, actor, host Jonny Harris When you get back to Newfoundland, what is something you make sure you fit in?Going for a walk down on the East Coast Trail. It passes through my momâs backyard in Pouch Cove, and I like to go for a hike down there and down through Shoe Cove. What about if you are feeling social while you are back home? Iâll go see a band that I havenât seen in a while. So The Once or Mark Bragg, or Sherman Downey maybe. Are you a cat or dog person? Oh, Iâm fond of both, but dogs mostly because I have one. One way another Newfoundlander could pick you out of a crowd.Thatâs easy. I donât show up at a bar until after midnight. I remember playing in a band in St. Johnâs in my early twenties, and if your band went on before midnight it was awful because there was nobody there yet. Everybody started piling in around midnight and by three in the morning, it was really getting going. But up here in Toronto you need to be there by 8 p.m. Do you ever find that your Newfoundland accent or a certain turn of phrase confuses those you work with either on Still Standing or Murdoch Mysteries? Sometimes Iâll ask if something ârings queer.â âDoes that ring queer to you?â And they are like. âWhat?â What I mean is, is there something wrong or off in the wording that makes what Iâm saying sound weird? Just meaning, does it need to be reworded? Makes perfect sense to me. (Laughs)Name a favourite vacation spot. I have to give you three: Trinity Bay, Costa Rica and Vancouver IslandName a food or drink you look forward to enjoying when you get back home.A can of Pineapple Crush. What do you have to do to make your mother laugh? I got to make somebody else laugh, and then sheâll laugh, too. Whatâs your favourite time killer? Iâll play guitar or a video game.Name something few people know about you.I had to do an extra year of high school. I was failing Level 3 math and I had to do the year over again to get my marks up. I redid math and I also did woodworking, and I spent my free time hanging out in the music room trying to learn to play the piano. Favourite place to perform?St. Johnâs.Why?I was in a sketch comedy troupe called The Dance Party of Newfoundland, and we toured around the country and performed in New York and Chicago - but always the favourite audience of all was the St. Johnâs crowd because they were so tuned in and they got all the jokes. Newfoundland audiences are smart, but also they like that cheeky, saucy stuff. I always found that if you could really get a St. Johnâs audience to laugh then that was the most thrilling thing. It still is really.Toughest part about being funny for a living?On the world stage, sauciness is not always appreciated. I think weâve managed to keep a pretty good balance of material on Still Standing. It can be tough, but innuendo is one of the only ways you can still kind of be saucy. There are certain areas, like with social or gender or racial issues, where you canât really be saucy. A little bit of sexual innuendo is one of the only safe ways you can be cheeky anymore.Are Newfoundlanders naturally funny?Yes! Ultimately, we are respectful, but also pretty saucy. Newfoundlanders come from a culture of sauciness. People always ask, âWhy are so many funny people from Newfoundland?â Itâs because we come from a culture of sauciness.Name someone that left you a little starstruck.Andy Jones and Mary Walsh. No question. I was just such a fan of their stuff that it left me almost without words. Name someone you worked with who made you nervous. Mark McKinney. He was in Kids in the Hall and Saturday Night Live, and I was just in awe. Greatest career lesson?That everybody, no matter how talented or famous, has some insecurities. Nobody, just because they sort of make it in the industry, suddenly relaxes into full and complete confidence.Tell us one embarrassing moment.On the set of Hatching Matching and Dispatching someone from production came around and asked my address because they had drivers to pick us up, and I was mortified and said, âMy God, no! Iâll drive myself!â I didnât realize thatâs what they did for actors, and I was like, âNo! Iâm staying at my parentsâ in Pouch Cove, thatâs too far!âWhatâs something that amazes you about your business?How many people it takes behind the scenes. At any given time, thereâs a bunch of people going around with walkie-talkies and people with ladders. What you donât see while watching something is as amazing as what you do see. Greatest pressure as a performer?To do things justice. Maybe I want to give a certain scene a bit of a subtle delivery, but how can I when 40 people have been going around rigging up lights and ladders and cameras? I almost feel the need to match the significance of it all. So much goes into each shoot. Iâm still just blown away by it all.

How to Make a Pan Pizza on the BBQ

If you havenât already, May 24 long weekend is the time to bring the BBQ out of storage and fire it up. You could even throw a backyard party to celebrate, and the following recipe could be on your menu.Grilled PizzaDough (enough for 2 x 12â pizzas):1 1/3 cups warm water1 pkg instant yeast1 tbsp sugar2 tbsp olive oil1 tsp salt3 1/2 cups flourToppings:2 tbsp pizza saucePepperoni, mushrooms, bell peppers, chicken, spinach etc. - whatever toppings you like on pizzaShredded cheesePreheat grill with burners on high. Grease the bottom and sides of a cast iron skillet, and sprinkle the bottom with a dusting of flour.In a bowl, whisk together water, yeast and sugar. Cover and let rest for five minutes. Using a wooden spoon or a mixer with a paddle attachment, mix in the olive oil, salt and flour. When fully combined, transfer dough to a lightly floured surface. Use floured hands to knead the dough a few times, just until it is soft and stretchy. Transfer dough to a greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm area for 60-90 minutes, until dough has doubled in size.Using half the dough, stretch it over the bottom of the greased cast iron skillet, and create a 1/4â lip all the way around. (Wrap the other half in plastic wrap and freeze for another time.) Thinly spread the tomato sauce over the dough. Cover with your favourite toppings. Place pan on the grill and close the lid. Pizza should be done in about 10 minutes. (Cooking time will depend on BBQ heat, and if you cook it over indirect heat it will take longer. Use a spatula to life the crust edge to test doneness - the bottom should be crispy.) When done, use a spatula to slide the pizza out of the pan and onto a board or plate. Let rest for a few minutes before slicing. Makes one 12â pizza.

Cool Iceberg Stuff

By Nicola Ryan Ice ColdQuidi Vidi Breweryâs smooth Iceberg beer is made with pure water from 20,000-year-old icebergs. The ancient compacted snow, which is completely mineral-free and filled with lots of tiny bubbles, gives the brew a clean, light taste. QuidiVidiBrewery.Bundle UpMorgaine Parnham is a textile artist based in Bonavista, NL. With chunks of ice collected on the beach, she uses the process of ice dyeing to create beautiful and unique watercolour effects on fabrics, including these cotton jersey infinity scarves. TreeLineFineCraft.comPicture PerfectLandscape photographer Michael Winsorâs incredible images are collected in this beautiful little book, Lost in Newfoundland. The nighttime shot of an iceberg in Ferryland on the cover was selected to be on an international stamp as part of Canada Postâs Far and Wide series. ShopDownhome.com Glow Up East Coast Glow creates fresh, chic, plant-based skincare products. They use pure iceberg water and wild ingredients foraged and harvested by hand near their studio in Bonavista, NL. We love their Wild River Mint and Rosemary Iceberg Infused Hand and Body Lotion. EastCoastGlow.ca On the Rocks Hard to believe, but itâs been 25 years since the hit movie Titanic had us sobbing in the theatres. Raise a toast to the most (in)famous iceberg of all time. A silicone ice cube tray like this one makes Titanic-themed ice cubes with matching ship-sinking bergs. Amazon.ca

Scram! How to Keep Cats Out of Your Garden

By Kim ThistleI love animals. Dogs and cats are some of my favourite people. Having said that, there are few things that get my ire up as much as the beasts digging in my garden.When I am heading to my garden plot on a warm, sunny morning and I see a dog or one of my cats tunnelling toward the south pole, it drives me positively wild. I am sure it provides great entertainment for my neighbours when they see me wildly waving my arms and screaming like a banshee at the offending critters.Dogs, respectfully, run from me. Cats, on the other hand, could care less. They see my newly tilled garden as a giant litter box that I have graciously provided for their enjoyment. I can yell and flail âtil I am blue in the face, but they just stare me down while nonchalantly flicking my newly planted seed over their offending feces before slowly meandering off. Cats and I have a love/hate relationship. There is no sure way of keeping dogs and cats out of your garden, but there are a few things that will deter them, at least until they get wise to your methods. Dogs are somewhat easier to keep at bay than cats. Felines make it their lifeâs mission to see what it will take to outsmart you - and if they canât do that, they will just ignore you. Here are a few things that you can try that may or may not help.Good fences make good neighbours. A sturdy fence around your garden will most often keep dogs out. They may discourage cats, but probably not. Cats will most likely see this as a new and interesting climbing post, a small hurdle to get over before leaping into the soft ground on the other side.Some smells discourage our four-legged friends. Citrus peel gives off a pungent smell that most animals will steer away from. Cut them into small pieces (the citrus, not the animal) or grind them up with coffee grounds and sprinkle around your garden. If it does not work, at least youâve added some nutritious, delicious smelling compost to your garden.Blood meal is another scent that discourages most animals, including rabbits and squirrels. Side bonus, it adds nitrogen to the soil. This is the major element for creating nice and green healthy leaves, so be sure to spread it near vegetables like lettuce. Bone meal, on the other hand, will encourage dogs, so if you have a canine pet, look for an alternative such as Glacial Rock Dust.Some plants with aromatic foliage will discourage four-legged trespassers. Try bergamot, lemon thyme, citronella, Russian sage, marigolds or calendula, or strong herbs like rosemary and lavender. These plants will attract pollinators, so at least if it does not keep the animals out, your zucchinis will be pollinated and you will get to enjoy some beautiful, fragrant flowers.There are repellent sprays that may be purchased, but I have never found them to be particularly effective. If using these, do your research. Some may be toxic to the environment.Thorny plants such as roses, teasel, hawthorn, sea holly, globe thistle, raspberries and blackberries planted around the perimeter of your garden will do the trick - but be sure to plant them far enough away from where you will be working, to keep them from grabbing at your clothes and skin. If you thought you were mad at the cats, just wait till you are hot and cranky and a blackberry cane attacks you! Some of these plants spread by suckers and may become a nuisance if left alone to spread into your garden, so be sure to keep them under control.Most animals will avoid walking on prickly surfaces, so you can spread small twigs, cones, scrunched up eggshells (which will add calcium to you soil), or even upside down carpet runners, around your plants until they get established.Try building a small, bottomless sandbox near your garden. If you keep it scooped, cats will prefer to use it over your garden. They like nice, clean facilities. Hook up a sprinkler with a motion sensor on it. Every time an animal triggers the sensor, the sprinkler will be activated and the culprit will be sprayed with water. It will scare off dogs and neighbours, but itâs only a matter of time before the cats figure out how far the water sprays and then perch themselves just past the drip line to do their damage. For this reason, be sure the sprinkler hits all sides of the garden, or keep moving it.Repel them with sound. If you are already training your dog or cat to stay on your property, you may have purchased an ultrasonic device that emits a high frequency sound that animals hate. These work extremely well, but are probably not the most economical method to use.Plant a distraction. For deterring my cats, I have had the best success planting catnip in various locations around my garden. Cats love that stuff. It is like a drug to them, and itâs as good as a concert to watch them with ear-to-ear smiles, smooshing their bodies into the plant. You will probably have to replant regularly because they destroy the plant trying to get enough of it. The point is, if they are rolling around in the catnip, they are not prancing through your garden. It is called living in harmony.You will notice that I have made little reference to dogs in this article. That is because once you yell at them a few times, they get the message. Unless they are a beagleâ¦ good luck with that. Cats, on the other hand, are your real challenge. Consider spreading a few open books or computer keyboards around your garden - they always love to lie on those - and please send me the picture!