We've been living in this house for about 2 years. Recently, we noticed that some neighborhood cat has been using our vegetable/fruit garden area as a litterbox. Most of this area is open and covered with weedmat with woodchips over it. Are there good ways to deter the cats, without either harming them or our veggies and fruits? I suspect part of our problem is we live on a corner lot....
Thanks in advance!
Lil
Have your husband shit in the vegatable/fruit garden area on a regular basis. Every other day should be sufficient.
Lil, when you get any serious answers I certainly would be interested also. My mother has a cat that loves to use mine as a litter box also. So far the only thing that I have found that chases them is I squirt them with the hose. But that is only a very temporary solution. Also that only works when I am around to see them in the garden. Hildur
You can densely surround a garden with thorny groundcover that cats won't cross & dogs won't squat on, to their bum's distress if they try. Good protective groundcovers include Crown of Thorns, or "pygmy crimson" barberry, or a low-growing creeping rose or dwarf "shrub" roses. It could even be a vining variety of blackberry or raspberry so that it was part of the harvestable garden. Or Smilex (Greebriar aka climbing asparagus) forms a woody thorny vine barrier & is even sometimes called "cat briar" because it keeps cats at bay.
Of course cats will often find a way over or around such a barrier, the same path you'd likely take, so there may also need to be a closeable gate for your own ingress.
You could also can lay out all over the ground lengths of dried thorny canes, anything that makes it less pleasant to dig in fresh-turned earth. This would only work in spots where you wouldn't yourself be kneeling down or rooting about with your hands.
Another method is to just clean up after the cat & say to yourself, "Oh boy! Compost enrichment!" & toss the cat turds in the compost heap. It's no more or less than you'd have to do with your own cat. Indeed, you can GET your own cat, for whom it would not be quite so annoying to clean up.
-paghat the ratgirl
Every year this comes up. I bought cheap 12" border fencing. That junk they sell at Walmart or elsewhere which is made of wire and has on the bottom wire to stick into the ground. Only, I have it attached to my fence with those wire tines facing upward and I bend them down toward the ground. If a cat climbs the fence, those tines are right there. I also affix my rose canes with giant, sharp thorns to the bottom of the gates so they don't try to come under them. That is the only way I know of how to keep cats out. It seems to be working, but I don't want to jinx myself. I am also very opposed to doing anything intentional to hurt the cats, other than physical barriers.
Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for a friend?
Go to Google groups and search rec.gardens and uk.rec.gardening for "cats". You will find thousands of posts with practical suggestions, as well as a lot of nasty ones.
Yup,, downfalls with the above approach,,,,but ain't it kinda fun?
My advice is to buy some rat poison. A shot gun would be just as goo though. Good luck
- Crawfor
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if you try something unique (ie, no shotguns, pellet guns, gopher rtaps, etc :-) ), i'd like to see your results in a posts here. :-)
Hildur M. Hendricks in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
if the problem is in a small area, then the 'scarecrow' might work. i'd try to rig multiple sprinklers to squirt at the cat from all around. you'll have to fiddle with heights of hoses to keep water from draining, so it will remain ready in the hoses for each sprinkler.
A large Bull snake or Black snake would help to keep the cat population down and out of your yard.
'enry VIII
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