Cats

[Perciba]

Every year at this time I want to murder the cat. She seems to think I prepare all these seed beds just for her to use as her personal toilet. The only way i can find to keep her off is to net everything. I don't like doing this, though, as it also keeps the birds away, and I want them to get the slugs! Any ideas?

[FionaH]

Only answer I have come up with so far is to shoot the cat!
As ours won the battle of hearts and minds many years back, I would be in serious trouble!
There are quite a few threads on this if you type cat into the search facility

[maytreefrannie]

A guard dog for the seed beds?

[FB.]

A house near to me uses some kind of sonic repeller to keep cats off their finely manicured lawn and garden.
Shooting cats is not an option, however much you might want to; you'll end up with horribly wounded cats and an awful lot of trouble with the RSPCA.

[FionaH]

Shooting cats is not an option, however much you might want to; you'll end up with horribly wounded cats and an awful lot of trouble with the RSPCA.

I was only kidding!!

[Victoria26]

I bought a cat and dog repeller gel. Its bright blue and smells like citrus but since doing this my cats dont go near my seedlings and my dog doesnt dig up my flower bed.

Still have quite a bit left. If you'd like me to send you it PM me your address and i'll get it posted tommorrow.

[Alice]

The real answer Perciba was to train your cat from an early age as to where to go for the toilet. This could be an indoor or outdoor litter area. Otherwise the cat just thinks any area of soft soil which is easy to scratch is just the place.
I have to net all my seed beds to keep them off - and I don't have a cat.

It may not be too late to train the cat.
Make a cat toilet in a discreet area of the garden. Dig out a square yard and fill it with propriatory outdoor litter, or sand and ashes, and hope the cat finds it attractive. It would have been easy to train the cat to go there as a kitten.
At regular intervals you have to shovel out the toilet and refill it but it's preferable to the cat scratching all over the place.

Hope we can find a solution for you - and me.

[Eco-Chic]

Try growing a small patch of nepeta somewhere well away from your seedlings. Cats go crazy for it.

[Iamhanuman]

the citrus thing really does work
they hate citrus and i speak as a long time cat owner of two beautiful diggers
thankfully ours have gotten over their digging phase in their old age so i think i'll be ok, but those are famous last words

[rana]

The difficulty with cats are for those of us gardeners who chose not to own one but still have to put up with all the local moggies dumping in our hard worked tilth. Unfortunately cats are able to wander where-ever they want unmolested in order to find the best soil in which to do their business. An unexpected handfull of fresh cat poo or the persistant odour of the stuff is something us non-cat owning gardeners are forced to endure.