Raised Beds - Might as well be called Cat Litter Tray. HELP

[Dynamite]

Thanks everyone but it’s not looking good for us. Netting and fencing everything looks like the best solution but that’s not going to happen due to cost as with other options like buying pepper as we would have to spend a gallon of pepper a week as well as applying every time it rains.

It’s absolutely disgusting stuff and we seem to be overrun with it now and the missus particularly doesn’t even want to go into the garden it’s that bad, let alone eat stuff growing in it.

So sad about it as we really enjoyed it.

Kind Regards.............Rob

[self-contained]

It is disgusting to have to deal with it. There are lots of cat visitors to my garden. They dig a bit in my containers (grr) and use them as a step to jump up onto the wall, but I've not had big problems (touch wood) with them pooing in them. There's a pile of composting material behind my shed that they seem to like to use (thankfully not deliberately placed or carefully tended compost of I would be crosser about it). I've also got a pile of emptied out old container compost on a yard area and that seems to be their new spot. I've had a few unwelcome surprises while mixing up stuff for my new containers.

So, maybe you could offer them a dedicated area of loose earth where they can poo to their heart's (bowel's?) content. Combine that with making the other areas undesirable for a while (big bags of chilli powder are cheap from Asian food shops or the Asian section of your supermarket) and the cats may learn to stick to their spot.

[veggiechicken]

Rob, what size garden are you concerned about?
Old net curtains can be picked up cheaply or off cuts of debris netting. Both can be draped over beds as a deterrent.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

I’m having the same problem. I’ve decided to go with prickle strips from Amazon, I just need to get some pegs to hold them down. They can be cut to size which means I cut them into square feet for my square foot garden and remove them individually as needed.

I may still consider one of those ultra sonic things as they also use my ground level fruit beds too but I will try sticks sticking up first.

[Philthy]

Is it possible to prevent cats gaining access into the garden in the first place?
We used to have similar issues in our garden, though the frequency has been greatly reduced in recent times by actively making the garden as unfriendly and difficult to access as possible. Most of my GYO activity takes place inside my GH which is obviously a solid physical barrier, so that aspect not really an issue for me, but finding regular deposits while weeding the borders and the prevailing smell still spoilt the garden ambience.
Spend a while watching the garden and make note of the cats' various points of entry, then set about making those access points as awkward / hazardous as you can to hopefully deter them altogether. For example move pots, bins, garden furniture away from fences / walls / shed, anything that's being used as a ladder to get down or back up.
Not a quick fix but we've got a wild rose thats been growing for some years up one of the boundary walls; it's high enough now that it fills the space on top of the wall totally preventing passage along it.
Any gates with gaps underneath attach some chicken wire to them that stretches to ground level.
We roofed our alleyway using skip sourced old windows screwed together, looks okay, lets the light through, for a box of screws and some moderate DIY skills the passage is now totally inaccessible to anything trying to get front to back.
Sonic cat scarers are quite effective.
Dense planting - again not a quick solution or possibly a viable one in the quick turnover of veg beds - but it does make a difference when they find there's no obvious spaces to 'get comfy'.
And as mentioned spiny clippings of things like hawthorn, rose, holly laid amongst plants can be effective, or just scattered on the floor across their favoured routes.

Of course it depends entirely on the layout of your property, though we've greatly reduced the numbers getting in to ours

[WeeGarden]

You have my sympathy - this is one of the things that really stress me out too. I hear cat owners saying they're really good, they'll bury their poo, but I get them on my lawn where my children crawl around. And the smell! I lost newly planted asparagus crown last season. When I came to tidy up asparagus bed this spring, I dug up a whole carrier bag full of cat poo and lost 7 of my crowns.

Some things I found effective so far:

Ultrasonic cat deterrent

Motion activated cat sprayer that you attach to a hose. Although one bastard cat poo right in front of me just outside reach of the spray.

These are relatively expensive to buy and the batteries need replacing which can mount up. I've started using rechargeables and my husband has bought a few solar powered ones to help.

On actual raised beds I've used a rigid plastic mesh cut to size and weighted down with bricks, which I keep in place until the bed is more established and filled out. Where I can't put mesh, I stick twigs in regular intervals so that they don't have anywhere to squat to do their business. It has to be rigid mesh because I used a net once and they even just pooed on top of that!!! I hate having to do this as my tiny kitchen garden was supposed to be beautiful and ornamental and most times it's just covered over with net with bricks strewn around

Good luck, I hope you continue with your gardening and if you do have to spend some money maybe look on it in terms of investment in a hobby for your wellbeing. I know I resent the cost of anti cat things and having to clear up after other people's pets. I never used to mind cats until I started gardening. It never used to be as much of a problem - have people stopped providing litter trays?

Gosh, that's put my heart rate right up!

[1Bee]

Ugh, I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this. It's awful.

Cards on the table: I'm a cat lover and I own cats (sadly only one just now) and am happy to see the cats that visit me on the plot. This does NOT mean I'm a cat poo lover or think it's okay you have to deal with cat poo! Our biggest problem was one weird and freaky tom who used to poop on the grass paths of the plot, which meant I had to practically keep the kids restrained until I could clear it up when I take them to the plot.

I don't get bothered much by poop on the plot, but I think that's partly because I'm used to cats. If I see nice, bare earth, I think, "hmmm, cat toilet." Well, I don't actually think that exactly, but I'm aware. They don't seem to like our clay soil when it's dry because it's rock-like, and when it's wet it's too muddy. Anything with MPC in it without an established plant growing either gets netted (which helpfully keeps the carrot root fly and flea beetle at bay) or has handfuls of sticks thrown down on it. I store my canes over winter lying across a raised bed. I use Ikea net curtains and water pipe for nets. Another trick for perennials to protect them when emerging is to pop an upside down hanging basket (the wire mesh type) over them. The plant grows through and nothing can squish the crown.

We've been trying to re-sow the small lawn in our backyard but unfortunately the farm cats loved all the new topsoil.... We netted it, but just laid the net on the ground which I should have known would not be enough. Now the net is spread taut at about 3" off the ground, just high enough to make walking through difficult, squatting unlikely and scraping with one's paw impossible.

I have also resorted to water pistols... ;-)

Anything that makes 'somewhere else' more attractive than where you want to grow will work. And once they move on, they generally won't come back in such a determined manner.

(For the record, we provide two 2 foot by 1 foot, 10 inch deep cat litter trays. Our cat loves to go outside... and comes in to the trays at a run with her legs crossed when she needs to go....)

[Penellype]

My next door neighbour has a cat, which can quite happily jump up onto the 6 foot high wooden fence that divides their garden from mine. It then walks along the fence and jumps off where it pleases. Its actually an ok cat, in that it has learned not to poo in my garden because wherever it does so it finds prickly things or nets next time.

However, it does like to sunbathe - favourite places are on top of the hotbin and under the wiegela bush which is mulched with strulch. Yesterday I found it sunbathing on top of my onions (also mulched with strulch), even though I had put prickly strips between the rows of plants. The cat was asleep on top on one of the prickly strips. The onion bed is now covered with a net over the frame of the plastic cloche, which I had left there after removing the plastic in case of this sort of thing.

[burnie]

These are my raised beds, I hammered in some galvanised headed roofing felt nails part way in and the chicken wire hooks onto them.

Keeps cats and birds and everything else out until the crops get going, this wire stays on all winter too. I replace it with soft netting later to keep out the white butterflies.

[bikermike]

what everyone else has said - but all of it - one of the things no animal likes, especially when going to the toilet, is uncertainty.

So do lots of things and mix them up, and move eg scarers around. None of these things work for all cats, but the mix, and the risk that something new might crop up helps. I've got an ultra-sonic gun - that's really handy, as they'd learned to stay in the garden until the back door opened - this changed their view on that.

The other thing is chase them. Cats are territorial animals - if they think they are something else's territory, that's going to make them think twice.

My main weapons are rose/bramble prunings laid criss-cross over soil, and a couple of noise machines. And chasing them.

Block up easy ways in (but leave a space for hedeghogs) - They used to come in under our back gate, so we have a plank in the way. I'm not sure it's so much the way in, as the realisation that when I come out chasing, they have to jump over a 6' fence to get out.

also, although it's not pleasant, bury their mess somewhere and scrub any markings.

If you are a chap, try marking over their markings (maybe by means of a watering can).

lion poo can be bought - never used it.

don't be sociable to the cats anywhere else - you don't want your scent to be associated with friendly (cats view on friendly often elides into "push-over")

[SarrissUK]

I am a cat lover too of massive proportions (I have seven), but I do feel for anyone suffering with cat poo in amongst their vegetables. I suffer it too, both from my own and from other cats. I get rid of whatever I find when I'm gardening. In fact, since I have two dogs too, my time in the garden always start with getting rid of all the stuff I can find.
I have heard that any large cat poo or wee will scare them away - have you got a zoo nearby?
I totally agree with making your garden inaccessible if possible. Sonic things never worked against my cats - quite the contrary, I've seen them dodge them, almost as if they're a challenge.
Water work against my visitors - big spray bottle that has a good reach, or even the hose, and a good aim

[Dynamite]

Rob, what size garden are you concerned about?
Old net curtains can be picked up cheaply or off cuts of debris netting. Both can be draped over beds as a deterrent.

15 mts by 8 mts appx

[veggiechicken]

That's a big raised bed!!

[bobbin]

Yes my problem too for years. why don't people use litter trays for their pets. ( think I've answered my own Q there as it's easier/cheaper to let it go poop in someone else's plot) In warm weather it's even more smelly and disgusting. I've lost so much emerging produce and tried everything I can think of. It gets expensive and it's incredibly time consuming. I even smeared cheap joint liniment on the edges of my raised bed wood.it works but gets expensive.curry powder works but again gets costly. The only real answer is netting or a 12-14" surround of that plastic lattice stuff you use to grow stuff up positioned and secured around bed edge. Don't bother with that scardy cat plant. A cat actually cr****d almost in the centre of one I planted. It's my worst problem on the allotment,far worse than any insect. How sad to have to give up gardening for it.

[mothhawk]

Thanks everyone but it’s not looking good for us. Netting and fencing everything looks like the best solution but that’s not going to happen due to cost as with other options like buying pepper as we would have to spend a gallon of pepper a week as well as applying every time it rains.

It’s absolutely disgusting stuff and we seem to be overrun with it now and the missus particularly doesn’t even want to go into the garden it’s that bad, let alone eat stuff growing in it.

So sad about it as we really enjoyed it.

Kind Regards.............Rob

There's a cheaper solution than netting or pepper dust, but it's more fiddly. All you need is a reel of sewing thread and some short lengths of stick out of the hedgerow or off a tree. Push the sticks in around the edge of your plot about 6 inches apart, leaving about 6 inches sticking out of the ground, then string the cotton tightly from stick to stick across the plot widthways, and the same again lengthways, to form a grid of approximately 6 inch squares that are about 4 to 5 inches off the soil (all distances/heights are approximate you understand, no measuring or accuracy involved).

The grid of cotton will keep off the cats, but it does make it a fiddle to sow or plant, so best to do after you finish sowing all your seeds.