Cats and square foot gardening

[Patchninja]

My neighbours have cats and I don't want my square foot gardens to become their favourite place for them to do their business!
Anyway, had a happy coincidence today - I was putting some string across my beds to define the squares and looping it round thumb tacks pushed into the wood. Then I just hooked some bird netting over the tacks and that will keep the pesky cats off too Didn't have to attach it in any other way.

[Liza]

Hi patch, good idea nothing worse than having your seedlings dug up and poo`d on.

Good luck and pics please.

Liza

[taff]

I read the title and thought you were going to grow some cats

[Jeanied]

I thought Patchninja was a cat owner who had some good ideas for keeping the cats happy and growing veg too! Like growing catnip and kitty grass in amongst the veg.

[Patchninja]

Well, if the neighbours' cats get in my veg patch, I may well try planting a cat or two!

[Dave & Kate N Wales]

Good idea. We currently lie trellis over all our beds, it dosn't look good but it certainly works where everything else failed.

[OllieMartin]

Good plan.

My mum rang me yesterday to tell me she'd seen a programme where a local council equipped their park wardens with an aerosol can which, when sprayed onto dog poo, turned it hard and blue! She was a little vague on why this was such a good thing and we surmised that it was perhaps to make it easier for visitors to avoid or for the litter pickers to spot and to pick up with their grabbers.
I suggested that something blue and unusual on the floor might attract some people to go and have a poke.
Anyway, has anyone else heard of this stuff or has my mum been on the crack again?

[green thing]

My grandfather used crushed up campden tablets DO NOT SNIFF IT .one sniff and they never came back I use holly twigs pushed in around the edge of my tubs

[Rossa]

My neighbour tried the netting over her raised beds and all they did was climb up and settle down on the netting so that it collapsed under their weight. Her own cats mind you so she couldn't get too cross.

My boys leave my beds alone and I do grow cat grass for them to nibble at otherwise they go for any ornamental grass I have in the garden. 2 of them only use a litter tray but the youngest goes off a lot so we don't know where he goes to the toilet. Not had any complaints yet!

It's the neighbour's collie I have a problem with. We have a shared drive and my patio and raised bed is at the front with no fence or hedge or anything. If one of my cats is at the window he just rushes over the patio/bed knocking everything over in his excitement and jumps up at the window barking. Was funny to start with then got more annoying as one of my boys lies in wait on the windowsill and parades up and down deliberately to encourage him. We've tried parking a car in the way but he just runs round it.

Fortunately my neighbour now walks him up the drive on a lead but he is free to roam sometimes. At least he doesn't squat in the bed.

"... I went from adolescence to senility, trying to bypass maturity ..." - Tom Lehrer
Earth Wind and Fire

[Bigmallly]

Good plan.

My mum rang me yesterday to tell me she'd seen a programme where a local council equipped their park wardens with an aerosol can which, when sprayed onto dog poo, turned it hard and blue! She was a little vague on why this was such a good thing and we surmised that it was perhaps to make it easier for visitors to avoid or for the litter pickers to spot and to pick up with their grabbers.
I suggested that something blue and unusual on the floor might attract some people to go and have a poke.
Anyway, has anyone else heard of this stuff or has my mum been on the crack again?

My first thought is some kind of freezing substance that helps break it up.

[Jay22]

Nope it's supposed to be a way of shaming the owners for allowing their dogs to poop and not clean it up.

[mothhawk]

Owners like that have no shame....

[dim]

Nope it's supposed to be a way of shaming the owners for allowing their dogs to poop and not clean it up.

yea, I,m a dog person ....

if my dog walks down the road and poo's and I don't pick it up, I risk the fine of £1000

yet .... if you ride your horse down the road and it drops a load every second step, it's fine .... and you don't have to pick it up (even though it's on my pavement and driveway, and you still have the cheek to smile and wave????)

and if your cat enters my garden, digs up my plants and vegetables and destroys them to have a poo, it's fine???

the only solution that I have found for cats is superglue ....

when you neighbour who owns a cat goes out, superglue the catflap closed ... problem solved for several weeks .... the cat will poo and pee on the owner's carpets instead of your prized flower beds

[Richard Eldritch]

I have to cover every square foot or they'll shi...Plop in it. Oh how I hate them......

[Yasminh14]

Endless problems with our neighbour's 3 cats, the French just let all animals roam wild, dogs included. Their little terrier is also constantly squeezing himself under our gates and running around our garden, although he scarpers as soon as he sees us. The cats are the worst though, pooing everywhere and leaving an assortment of dead and injured animals around our property, sometimes it can be quite distressing when we have to dispatch the poor things because the cats have grown tired of playing with them. As for the poo, I got the idea from Joy Larkcom to lay hawthorn twigs over newly dug ground, and this works better than any of the multitude of other remedies I've tried (citrus peel, coffee grounds, Lion's Roar a complete waste of money....). I just shuffle them around as the seedlings come up and remove them once the plants are big enough to stop the cats.