I am kind of a haphazard gardener, to be honest. I just plant what appeals to the butterflies, bees, moths, and other beneficials. Of course, along with all of those we do get the ones that are not so beneficial as well. Mother Nature has a way of balancing things out, though. In planting things that attracted all of these "pets", I attracted many others that I didn't plan on, but were welcome anyway, like the beautiful sphinx moths, and the hummingbirds. I never had put a hummer feeder out until the hummers began to show up to nectar on many of the same flowers and shrubs that attract the butterflies, like the passion flowers, Verbena bonariensis, Pentas, Lantana, Cypress Vine, Mexican Sunflowers, and many that are considered tropical here and only grow one season in pots. A couple of years ago I began to get interested in growing natives, because they attract a lot of birds, butterflies, bees, and other beneficials, and many are host plants for butterflies (they lay eggs on specific plants). Monarchs will only use milkweeds, Black Swallowtails only use parsley, fennel, Rue, and other apiaceae family members. Our native passion vine is host to the Gulf Fritillary, as well as a few other passion vines. Aristolochias (pipevines) that are natives are utilized by the Pipevine Swallowtail. Three of these are native to Oklahoma. Native asters host Pearl Crescents. Native sennas host Cloudless Sulphurs and Sleepy Oranges. Native False Nettle hosts the Red Admirals and Question Marks (so does stinging nettle, but False Nettle does not have the stinging hairs). Wild Indigo (Baptisias) host the Wild Indigo Duskywing. Plantago hosts Buckeyes. Verbesina encelioides (Golden Crownbeard) hosts Bordered Patches. Coneflowers (Echinaceas) host Silvery Checkerspots. Goatweed (Crotons - native not the decorative houseplant) host the Goatweed Leafwings; Tulip Trees host Tiger Swallowtails along with a host of other trees, including Wild Black Cherry. Sassafras and Spicebush host the Spicebush Swallowtail. Wild violets and Passiflora incarnata (natives) host the Variegated Fritillary (not a true frit, but rather a longwing). Daturas (the native and others) host the Tobacco and Tomato hornworms. Virginia Creeper host many, many moths like the beautiful 8-spotted forester and lots of sphinx. Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) hosts the beautiful silk moth, Cecropia. Native honeysuckle and viburnum host the Snowberry Clearwing sphinx moth (resembles a large bumblebee). Hackberry and Elm trees host Question Marks and Hackberry hosts the Hackberry and Tawny Emperors. Willow hosts Red Spotted Purples and Mourning Cloaks. So you can see the list is endless almost. I get lots of ladybugs, green lacewings, and praying mantids. This is all good, but they do eat their share of butterfly/moth eggs and caterpillars. Such is life in the garden, tho. I find lots of insect activity on all the plants I mentioned. Most natives are loaded with nectar because it hasn't been bred out of the plant in the breeding process. For instance, you might find some activity on the old species roses, but you don't on cultivars. They just don't produce nectar. So the more hybrids that have been made up the line, the less nectar the flowers produce. Natives are wonderful. They have proven they can survive almost any adverse condition or event. Some are quite beautiful, too, but their purpose is often a bit more esoteric than appealing to the eye. Also, butterflies generally like flat top or single flowers because they provide a better landing pad for them. All of those new doubles cultivars make it almost impossible to obtain nectar so I try to stick to these. Kenna has survived the scars of being traumatized by the pit bull exceptionally well. She still loves dogs, cats, and, of course, butterflies, and hasn't displayed any inordinative fear of them. It probably helped that both her grandfather and I both love animals and have them at home. In fact, her GF has 3 Rottweilers that are watch dogs. They have grown up with her, though, and she doesn't hesitate to interact with them at all. I, on the other hand, am a bit more cautious cuz I am not around them much. Susan

Yes the vinegar will kill anything or at least damamge it. There isn't a weed killer that will kill only the weeds and not kill/poison your food. I wish!! The only other thing I can suggest is to put down layers of wet newspaper around your plantings. 10-12 layers will be sufficient to smother the weeds. Then you'll need to mulch with something. Bark mulch, straw whatever you like. Soak the newspaper in water 1st so it doesn't blow away. The newspaper will break down over time. If you don't have access to newspaper, you can usually find it in your towns recycle center. Don't use the glossy pages. Large brown grocery bags will also work as will cardboard. When I use a weedkiller around my plants, I utilize a large plastic nursery pot to protect the plant. I cut out the bottom of the pot and then cut it up the side. I then wrap it around the plant to protect it from the spray.

I buy Merrick 96% meat canned food to add to the dried food my dogs eat, so seeing your need for a mostly meat food for cats caught my eye. I pay $2 a can for 13 oz or so at our bargain-basement independent pet food store. It is 9 % crude protein, 7 % crude fat, 1.2 % crude fiber, 78% moisture. It does not have the added taurine that cats need, though their cat food does have it. I have no idea what the cat food costs. You might want to look into it, though. I see it does have Guar and carrageenan, though. Merrick Before Grain Salmon Canned Cat Food Ingredients Salmon, Water for Processing, Whitefish, Dried Egg, Yeast Extract, Glycine, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Guar, Choline Chloride, Taurine, Carageenan, Mixed Tocopherols, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Iron Amino Acid Complex, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Copper Amino Acid Complex, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Acetate, Niacin, Lecithin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide, Cobalt Glucoheptanate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Sodium Selenite Guaranteed Analysis Crude Protein (min.) 10.00% Crude Fat (min.) 4.50% Crude Fiber (max.) 1.40% Moisture (max.) 78.00% Here is a link that might be useful: Merrick

Continuing to beat the dead horse. Whack! Whack! I'm sorry about this, if the realities of the house structure means this layout simply isn't possible then just ignore me. It is just that I think there is the possibility of a kitchen that is far more functional than the current plan. If you're going to live with this kitchen for many years, the $600 cost of replacing the refrigerator (appx price for 30'' wide Frigidaire left-hinge top-freezer) or the $2,000 (?) cost of modifying the basement stairs (assuming a basic rough carpentry stair run, not a finacy finished stairwell) seems money well spent, in order to double the useful workspace and get well-defined, separate work zones. The wash zone is to the left of the sink, where a full-size dishwasher lives. Dish storage can be across the aisle, if the lower and upper cabinets are deep enough. Dirty dishes go immediately to the wash zone, without even passing through the rest of the kitchen. The dishwasher door might block traffic, if so you could consider dish drawers which still stick out but are easy to slide in and out. The prep zone is to the right of the sink, something like 80 inches of unbroken counter. Room for a trash pull-out, drawer storage for prep tools and supplies, and then some drawer storage for food staples. If the upper cabinets are used for food too, that lower-right corner functions as a sort of pantry. If the refrigerator sticks out, a sort of blind-corner cabinet arrangement may be needed. The refrigerator is adjacent to the prep zone, so that the prepping cook has everything in reach. Some people like to have the microwave in the prep zone. The cook zone is across the aisle. One person can be cooking and two others washing and prepping, without crowding each other. Plenty of landing space on either side of the range. The lower-left corner could be small appliance storage, home for a microwave or toaster oven, maybe a baking center since the counter can be decently deep. I think the kitchen will also ''feel'' more spacious since you won't have a big refrigerator looming right in the center of it, cutting apart one counter and blocking the sightline.