Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi Everyone,

This is my 1st post so please be gentle. I have recently relocated and decided to turn part of my garden into a vegetable plot. I have built 4 small raised beds and been getting the soil just right for planting. Although I'm at a loss for what to put in each bed at the moment. (suggestions please) However, it appears now that every cat in the neighborhood is using the beds as a litter tray!

Can anyone let me know what I can do to do to stop this and also let me know if the soil I have been working on for weeks is now ruined?

Many thanks

Hi Liseishere,
Welcome to this, the best gardening forum of them all!
When you disturb soil I'm afraid it is prone to every cat in the district using it as their loo.
If it is as yet unplanted you could cover with fleece and when planted up cover with fleece. This means that the cats cannot get direct access to the soil.
JB.

My mother in law has a problem with two neighbours cats because when the people are away she has to feed the cats so they are used to coming in to the garden. Her soil is very light and once she starts to get it ready for planting the cats move in to use it as a loo.

She uses Renadine ?? Not sure if that is the way to spell it. You soak thick small sticks in the stuff, which is really smelly, then place them where the cat has been in the soil, apparently it does work.

no the soil isnt ruined, i know our cats use the veg garden, there is a theoretical risk of picking up bacteria onto the crops, bear in mind most things are cooked before you eat them so the highest risk is low growing salad crops, lettuce, spring onions, raddish etc which we often eat without washing them, but if you get too worried over cats, what do you do about birds etc... i guess its a case of be aware of the issues, do what you can to scare off the cats, remove their offerings and wash the salad stuff. and be aware that your veg is fresh,hasnt been sprayed with gallons of pesticides or preservatives, picked by someone with dubious hygene, handled by god knows who on whe supermarket shelf...etc

Grow that which you like to eat, that is otherwise expensive in the shops.
cats love the fine tilth to poo in. Cover it with something, fleece, twigs or somesuch. Or get a dog

When we had a cat, it was impossible to stop him using the veggie patch as a loo occasionally. I decided in the end it wasn't worth getting 'het up' about and just washed everything thoroughly before cooking and eating. The cat has long since died but we're still around and healthy so I guess whatever he did wasn't too toxic.

I use Renardine (which was originally formulated against foxes), too, and it works well, but it does smell quite revolting. If your raised beds are not too large or you don't have too many, you could also cover them with chicken wire. It will come in useful later when you want to protect your seedlings against birds.

Many thanks for your warm welcomes, Johnboy, Catherine, richard p, Brooklynodog, Primrose and Monika. I went straight to the garden center and now have the beds covered over with cloches. I had already dug all the borders around the garden over too but I'm not going to get to concerned about it or I would have to net over the whole garden and look like something out the Eden Project! I did look in the garden center for Renardine but the assistant didn't seem to know what I was on about. Brooklynodog thanks for your suggestion, however I already have a dog. She is 18 years old and scared of cats, (she was beaten up by one years ago), so that cunning plan is out the window.

Hi Liseishere,
Unless you live in a rural area with a local farm shop I suspect Renardine will be a little difficult to obtain. If you live in an urban surrounding I suspect that if you were to use Renardine your neighbours might have some cause for complaint as it smells really evil. Worse than cats s--t!
Be aware that Richard is trying to frighten you into growing and buying organic. Conventionally grown crops are not bathed in gallons of pesticides.
JB.

jb i was not intentionally trying to frighten anybody into growing and buying organic, i was just trying to make the point that a bit of cat poo in a veg bed is probably not a big deal when you consider what may have happened to a supermarket offering.
if id wanted to bang the Organic drum i may have added stuff produced in third world countries using pesticides that have been banned in europe. but that is a whole different argument really irrelivant to the origional question , (which i read as ,whether a bit of cat poo means veg growing should be abandoned, )
you will no doubt be delighted to know that i have this week ( first time for 20 years)used nearly a whole sqeezy bottle of knoxious stuff on the bind weed invading one of my tunnels. does this mean i can now call myself pragmatic ?

I live near the sea and find alot of washed up & discarded fishing nets of various sizes.

I've used these nets over beds in the past, the cats can't get comfortable enough to do their digging and you can grow alot of crops through it. I occasionally even use the small green garden netting, well fixed down on new beds until I plant them up.

KC

Well this problem just seem to keep getting worse!
Anyone wanting advice and help to keep cats out of your garden should consider joining this Yahoo group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CatControl

We even have some cat owners there who have seen the light!

This group is moderated so there are no stupid suggestions and anyone who says anything about hurting or killing cats will be gone forever!

But overall this problem is getting more serious!

All the other creatures in the wild have to fend for themselves.
They have to find food, water and shelter 24/7
While humans can provide help with this by putting out food
etc the majority of the time wild creatures really are fighting for
survival.

As we humans (or at least those in charge of us) rip up and
destroy the natural habitats or poison them with our rubbish.
Animals are forced into our gardens and urban green areas more and more.

In some places apart from the local grave yard the only green places are gardens.

Then as if this weren't bad enough we then nurture and release healthy unnatural predators into that small remaining Eco system!!!!

While the wild creatures fight for their survival domestic cats
live a pampered life and then are set free into the natural world.
A very unfair advantage.

This is so unfair as they have none of the problems that their prey/toy does.

Its a bit like letting some athletes take steroids and then putting them up against you and I, in other words we would have no chance.

Cats also torment their prey,
maybe because they are not starving, but it makes their actions all the worse.

There are indeed many cat owners who do
care and take action to try and stop some of the problems.
Fitting approved bells can cut kills by a third!

However the truth of the matter is, if you let your cat roam outside of your property, then it will kill creatures, it will go into your neighbours garden and leave cats mess all over the place
and it will tear up plants and seedlings to do this.

It is not fair or right.

I am getting board with hearing the excuse that cats are only doing what come natural, well maybe so but its the human element that is unnatural.

I mean taking it to extremes I could go buy a tiger and keep in next to the local school, now if it got out....
Well, its only nature isn't it?

Simple really, just use this
http://www.monrobrands.com/growingsucce ... cordset1=4

Sinece I started using this, no more cats using the garden

Parsons Jack wrote:Simple really, just use this
http://www.monrobrands.com/growingsucce ... cordset1=4

Sinece I started using this, no more cats using the garden

WOW very interesting

Please could you join my group and tell the members there about it and how you use it?

It would be a great help if you can.

Thanks

Mike

Sadly I have tried this too, and the cats just pooped on top of it!!

Parsons Jack wrote:Simple really, just use this
http://www.monrobrands.com/growingsucce ... cordset1=4

Sinece I started using this, no more cats using the garden