Grow Your Own Magazine

So a couple of weeks ago I put a load of netting over the vegetable patch, to stop the cats digging up the carrot seeds.

They've only gone and pooed on top of the net! It was not pleasant cleaning it up.

I think I need to raise the net off the ground more.

Perhaps a few twigs of holly around your seedlings may work? Not nice to "perform" on, if you get my meaning! Bernie aka Dexterdog

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

My friendly neighbourhood cat dug up some of my recently planted onion set to leave his own little deposit...

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An onion can make people cry but there's never been a vegetable that can make people laugh.
Will Rogers

Pieces of thorny branches is the only answer. I have two cats that were pushed upon me when my grandsons cat had a litter of kittens. Tearfully coaxing me to take two as his mam was going to give them away. Four years on I still have them and have learned the hard way that only thorny branches do the trick.

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And when you're back stops aching,
And you're hands begin to harden.
You will find yourself a partner,
In the glory of the garden.

Rudyard Kipling.

Egg shells "might" deter cats ( it wont do any harm)at least it's worh a try?
or a 12 bore(it works with rabbits)

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I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
W. C. Fields

Only thing I've gound works properly is raised netting. When the plants get established they tend to be OK but a nicely raked seed bed must be toilet luxury to the average moggy. A couple of years ago I rigged up a semi permanent structure over various of the beds by using some offcuts of 10mm (ish) tubular steel, some plastic connection blocks (thanks you B&Q) and a load of netting. Doesn't look very pretty but saves the seedlings by keeping the cats off.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

I use netting over canes/hoops over my veg. bed, the only thing is you have to remember to peg it down well or the little devils will wriggle under to get in!

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

The only thing that works permanently with cats is a 12 bore. However I restrict myself to a water sprayer and trying to cover the beds so the little b****rs can't actually find room to park their bums. Hanging basket frames (upside down) work well for small patches. Orange peel, mirrors, proprietary granules and pepper don't work at all. If you have a large area, netting supported by hoops or canes and pegged down well at the sides will do the trick. (Or buy a Rottweiller and leave it loose)

Sombody told me that the zoo sold lion dung/pee and if a moggy smells this sprinkled on your garden it will run a mile!!! Or is this just one of those urban myths?

Don't know about that but it might scare any loose Zebra off.

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I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
W. C. Fields

I was told that if you urinate in each corner of the garden it keeps them away. The person who told be could have been taking the p*** though!

I have lost count of the cats in our area but putting down cuttings from my pyracantha and spreading them around the bed keeps them all off.

Are we talking about a lottie or a garden here?

If it's on the lottie, maybe lion poo might work, but I still stand by my prefered method for the garden. You stand some chance of it working if you are around when they come calling.

Giant supersoaker and growl/banshee scream as you run down the path squirting it.

This method a) frightens the sh1t out of them, b) let's them know whose boss and c) won't take more than 2 goes, I promise especially on a cold day if you manage to hit them.

Practice your growling outside first, it helps stress and might even work on it's own!

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Regards, Jane
What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy? The creative adult is the child who has survived.
Ursula LeGuin
http://www.etribes.com/madderbat

Works to get rid of foxes too. But I would suggest that 7am and pj's is not a good thing if you want the neighbous to be polite!

hi, just gone through years of collected seed packets plant labels all tied up on a rope, and discovered years ago i got this plant called Coleus Canina thats supposed to keep cats off.... how many you need to plant i dont know, but i got so fed up with the cats, i got a dog to keep them away, he pees everywhere and chase them for fun too. Good worker!

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Best Wishes
Happy Growing
blue-and-green

http://blue-and-green.blogspot.com/

Place kabab sticks around new plants, points outover. i have 4 cats that now " perform " elsewhere.
All the best to all,
fred p

Mr Flum has a superpowered pump action water pistol kept full and primed outside the back door. You can nearly turn a cat inside out with a judicious squirt of water! (Apologies - but only small ones - to cat lovers!)

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 17th - The Big Dig

I still maintain the best way to limit the number of cats that 'use' your garden is to *have* one!

I like my cats.....

Even when they 'inspect' my freshly dug beds........

I do.......

Honest!

Doesn't that keep you off too or do you garden in welding gloves steel soled boots!

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Advertising is the rattling of a stick in a swill bucket. George Orwell
Paul

Hi there I'm new to the site and have to say I have found all your tips really useful, on a variety of topics. My method for putting off cats is a mixture of flour,white pepper and cayenne pepper all mixed together and sprinkled liberally all over the soil. It works really well but only in dry weather, you have to re apply after rain. For small areas I use holly trimmings. I have 3 cats of my own and they detest the stuff.

No I have smallish beds planted and if I need to weed etc I just move them out of the way and then put them back

I had spent a great deal of time preparing my onion bed last month....
Every dry day I was digging and raking until I had beautiful soil.
Perfect for onions but also it seems as a portaloo for my neighbours cat..
Woke up this morning to find a small hill and a few onion sets dug up..
I brushed the heap flat and picked up what I thought was a rotten onion set.
I was wrong
Rest of the day spent with my hand in dettol.

I'm normally a cat lover but my love was pushed today!

If any other animal behaved like cats do, it'd either get an ASBO, be shot on sight, or have loonies in pink jackets chasing it over the countryside

Vermin. (I didn't say that out loud did I?)

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi