Help!! Cats....

[weekendwellies]

I need your advice desperately please.
After spending the last few weeks proudly working my new allotment, I am finding that there are cats seeing my carefully made raised beds as enormous litter trays. As the site is surrounded by houses they probably live close by.
I thought of using netting to keep them off, but does anyone know of any good deterrents to keep these blighters off my beds besides netting. I don't want to harm them as I quite like cats; just not using my growing space as a loo. I obviously dont want to upset the owners of these cats either, as they are likely to be neighbours of the site and need to be kept/encouraged to be friendly.

[SarzWix]

Gorse cutting, blackthorn cuttings, berberis cuttings... Anything with spines on it, spread over the beds will keep them off. Netting will work too, if you secure it well. They don't like getting their feet tangled up, so strings crisscrossing the bed will probably work too.

[Sweepster]

I face a similar, but smaller-scale, challenge with my little raised beds in my garden - I have three cats of my own and there are others around. At the moment I just have potatoes in, and am using chicken wire laid across the beds until the shoots come up; then I plan to use a combination of chicken wire, enviromesh raised on canes, and twiggy sticks in any gaps (I'll be using enviromesh anyway, for carrot fly etc). Any thorny, twiggy prunings you can lie inbetween the crops will put cats off.

[Nickerly]

Try orange peel, lemon peel or tea tree oil in little pots. They apparently hate the smell.

NB: this doesn't have a 100% success rate and there's always someone who insists that their cat happily chews orange peel or bathes in tea tree oil

Another thing you can try is foil or sticky back plastic/tape on the edge of the beds because some cats don't like the texture and the way it feels on their paws. Might stop them from being able to use it with ease.

[Droppey]

Apparently something called Lion Poo (or something like that lol) is a deterrant as cats don't like it but not sure if it will do any damage to what you're growing.

Lion poo is available from garden centres

[Two_Sheds]

There are over 40 threads on cats. Have a gander at this: Cats - Old Threads

[weekendwellies]

Thanks 2-sheds - clicked on your link - got nothing - how do I get to where you are directing me?

[weekendwellies]

thanks everyone. I have a gorse bush on the plot. I will cut some of that and pop it on the beds. I will try the other suggestions too. No t too sure about Lion Poo though - lol - Ta very much

[taff]

I saw somewhere that cats can't jump over things, only onto things, so I put chicken wire round an entire bed (size about 7/8 ft by 4ft). So far, no cats have been in there (been about 6 weeks now), but they've been in every one that I put chicken wire on top of.

[Storming Norman]

There are four cats cross my garden, as well as my own. I stop them disturbing stuff by laying canes on the ground beside the seeds/seedlings. I peg these canes down with the fleece pegs you get 10 for 99p at Wilkinsons - it deters them from digging in the area, and is a good use for old canes that are fit for nothing else. It deals with vulnerable plants - they don't seem to worry bigger plants.

However foxes are another issue altogether - they can destroy you work and just love new earth to dig really big holes - raised beds are a target for them, only spiky stuff works on foxes. Mahonia cuttings were pretty effective with my peas last year, but I managed to spike myself a few time removing the leaves from the bed later in the year!

[greendean]

I saw somewhere that cats can't jump over things, only onto things, so I put chicken wire round an entire bed (size about 7/8 ft by 4ft). So far, no cats have been in there (been about 6 weeks now), but they've been in every one that I put chicken wire on top of.

how high is the chicken wire fence taff?

this info about not jumping over thing could be the answer to my cat probs

[deezyb]

i have three cats of my own and although I love them dearly, I do get annoyed if there is any sign of them using my raised beds as litter trays....have one of the raised beds covered with cloches and the other one with netting and secured firmly. No problems for this growing season so far...not from cats...slugs maybe...but that's a different topic altogether!

PS last year I pinned down plastic mesh across the raised beds to allow seedlings to grow through...this worked also!

[taff]

It's about 3 foot I think, or thereabouts, I haven't measured, I just left it as it was on the roll.
My father uses that orange stuff workmen and builders use to fence off areas, and witre mesh panels [god knows where he got those from] to keep the cats off, laid flat on the garden, that works too.
I used twiggy wood laid on the ground to cover a bed, but they just used it anyway, and pushed the twigs out of the way.

[snohare]

Plant some Rue nearby (little known herb) - they hate the smell of the stuff, all it needs is to be brushing up against a fence or whatever and off they will run. Supposedly !

[Eco-Chic]

I believe rue is prone to causing quite severe blistering if sap gets on the skin during sunlight.