Total noob Raised Beds & Soil query

[Bill HH]

What would be the best netting to use to keep cats off? I saw debris netting mentioned. I'd like to get something made up over the weekend so anything I can pop down to local garden centre and grab would be great.

Best to incorporate onto a frame?

Debris netting has the advantage of being much cheaper than chicken wire and it will protect your plants from a range of insects. You can also easily staple it to frames etc. the mesh is so fine I dont think even greenfly can get though it.

[starloc]

Netting is one of 2 things I found that keeps cats off plants,

the other is a dog....

Since finding Frankie the dog a few months ago the cats no longer steal my food....from the garden or from in the house.....

Cats were a problem with eating food from the plants and stealing from in the house.....

Netting on the plants worked, but birds got stuck in it, so that had to go

Cats became a big a problem! , digging seedlings up....Frankie only collects potatoes and eats wallnuts and blackberries....everything else is safe...unless it moves!

I was driving every few weeks 20Km for some shopping getting some pork chops for example.....take it in the house and then seeing it run out of the door dangling from a cats mouth an hour later....

Since Frankie is here.... barking and running round ,no cats!

He doesnt allow cats....

He likes cats but in more of a food way being a rescued hungry dog himself.

[sunshinekitty]

soil mixtures

Seems some got stuck on cat issue and missed soil refill issue
a 4ft x 4ft bed 1 ft deep is 16 cubic feet

1.blended compost at least 5 different types.

2 square foot soil mix from 1981 book
Makes 16 cubic feet
Mix thoroughly:
1 bale peat moss: 6 cubic feet
1 large bag coarse vermiculite: 4 cubic ft
10 pails (2.5 gallon size) sharp sand: 3 cubic feet
2 pail of wood ash and charcoal
1 coffee can full of lime
1 coffee can of organic fertilizes

3. square foot soil mix from current book
1/3 compost blended compost 5 different types
1/3 peat moss
1/3 vermiculite

here are few soil mixes I have seen posted on the Internet.

[nizlamb]

Wow! That all looks very precise. Will try at least one of those in one of the other beds when they are built

[sunshinekitty]

in my previous post on this thread the 3 different mixs got scrunched together

[veggiechicken]

Hello Kitty and welcome. I've just edited your first post to separate the mixs. Hope I've got it right. If not, its quite easy to edit your own posts

[sunshinekitty]

veggiechicken tried edit it,but it did not work with firefox or chome

[Two_Sheds]

Any recommendations for cat deterring?

The only thing that works are barriers: probably netting

[nizlamb]

Netting seems to have done the trick. No cat poo so far

[vixylix]

I netted mine - to prevent my cats I might add - from when they were built (sept 2014) to mid July this year - I didnt have anything in there over winter and could keep the netting up once I had planted in April up until things started getting far too big to be restrained by the netting. So over 10 months - by that point the cats seem to have got bored (or intimidated by the plants) and no longer are even interested in it (touch wood!!!)