May Update: What are you growing in 2006? (Tips here for Fruit, Veggies and Flowers!)

GreenFingers_2

annie-c wrote:

I have a longstanding problem with a local cat who uses my garden as a toilet. Despite trying all sorts of remedies that I've found on other threads (orange peel, bottles of water, special plants), I seem always to be cleaning cat poo from my tiny veg borders.

What I've found today though really takes the biscuit - I found cat poo in the big tubs in which I am growing potatoes and salad!! :eek: Disgusting! I've cleaned it away and will persevere with the spuds (I think they should be OK??), but suddenly the salad no longer seems appetising....

I'm not at home during the day, so can't stalk the animal and shoo it away. What can I do????? :mad:

Hello Annie,
What I do and it appears to work quite well for deterring pigeons and cats is to tie an old AOL CD disc.... or any CD for that matter.. lol to the top of a bamboo cane and let it dangle about two feet from the top. Then push the cane into the ground at an angle so the CD is free to spin and twist in the breeze and cause bright flashes in the sunshine ...hooray...

annie-c

GreenFingers wrote:

Hello Annie,
What I do and it appears to work quite well for deterring pigeons and cats is to tie an old AOL CD disc.... or any CD for that matter.. lol to the top of a bamboo cane and let it dangle about two feet from the top. Then push the cane into the ground at an angle so the CD is free to spin and twist in the breeze and cause bright flashes in the sunshine ...hooray...

Thanks GF... how far above the soil should the CD be? Do I need lots around all the pots?

Thanks again
Annie

tw0906blue

annie-c wrote:

I have a longstanding problem with a local cat who uses my garden as a toilet. Despite trying all sorts of remedies that I've found on other threads (orange peel, bottles of water, special plants), I seem always to be cleaning cat poo from my tiny veg borders.

What I've found today though really takes the biscuit - I found cat poo in the big tubs in which I am growing potatoes and salad!! :eek: Disgusting! I've cleaned it away and will persevere with the spuds (I think they should be OK??), but suddenly the salad no longer seems appetising....

I'm not at home during the day, so can't stalk the animal and shoo it away. What can I do????? :mad:

Oh dear Annie,

Mmm, this is a real problem and I sympathise. I have a cat and I still get others coming into my garden to use it as a toilet. Though, since putting the hose on a couple and running screaming at the top of my voice a few times when I have seen them, they are a little more circumspect! But I too was clearing cat poo from my lawn yesterday. :mad:

It will be the lovely soft fine compost which is the attraction, so maybe if you get some cat deterant....can't think what it is called, but if you look in the garden centre you should see it, and sprinkle that on the soil....but of course, I have no idea if it is suitable around edibles, so you will have to look on the tin. I am desperatley trying to stay organic, but sometimes it seems impossible! I think I may have seen some kind of stick thing to put into the compost....but my memory is sketchy, sorry.

Maybe if you try and cover the pots with something like garden fleece until the cats go elsewhere? I bought some from the garden centre for 79p per meter and have just put it back over my cabbages to stop the pigeons pecking them to oblivion. Seems to be working. :T Pigeons walk around confused but so far so good. and my book says it shouldn't be a problem with plants to leave the fleece in place.

Just think of the cat poo as manure, scoop it out and put a little fresh compost in its place and all will be well with your lettuce.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

tw0906blue

GreenFingers wrote:

Hello Annie,
What I do and it appears to work quite well for deterring pigeons and cats is to tie an old AOL CD disc.... or any CD for that matter.. lol to the top of a bamboo cane and let it dangle about two feet from the top. Then push the cane into the ground at an angle so the CD is free to spin and twist in the breeze and cause bright flashes in the sunshine ...hooray...

Hey Greenfingers,

This is a great idea, I will get to it tomorrow eve.........I have a couple of canes left over and I am sure I can find a cd or 2

GreenFingers_2

annie-c wrote:

Thanks GF... how far above the soil should the CD be? Do I need lots around all the pots?

Thanks again
Annie

Hi Annie,
At the moment I have one CD/cane in the middle of each of the veggie beds. Each bed is 6' x 6' in size. The CD's are dangling about 2 feet above the tallest plants (the Brussel Sprouts). Later...perhaps in a few weeks time I will put an extra CD/Cane in each bed - its a matter of playing it by ear so to speak...lol . Now if your pots are quite close together I would think one Cane/CD should be ok..but I can only guess really. Hope this of some help.

newleaf

Hi, new here but just want to let you know it's been an amazing year for Rhubarb here in Yorkshire! We've got 5 crowns and they're going absolutely barmy - keeping myself and several colleagues in plentiful supply!
Re Potatoes, My MIL plants hers in an old tyre, then puts another on top and tops up with soil, then another & so on, every time they poke through. This makes it easy to get your spuds out when done too. A good idea if you have the space methinks.
Re Carrots, we've had success in recent years in growing these in large pots, raised slightly off the ground - on bricks. It seems to thwart the carrot fly.
Currently we are harvesting Purple Sprouting Broccoli (yum!), and salad crops are coming along well. Soft fruit will not be too long - Raspberries, Strawberries, Gooseberries, Blueberries and Blackcurrants. There's nothing more satisfying than going out to pick something for your tea is there?

culpepper

Annie another thing you could do would be, push thin sticks or wire(or knitting needles) into the ground at intervals and cross them at the top so that mr !!!!! cant walk across the bed.My cat uses my newly sown areas as a loo and thats what I do.

Badgergal

It has done nothing but rain since I planted my seeds (Little Gem, Mixed Salad Bowl and Perpetual Spinach) in the tubs on Thurs! I did punch a few holes in the bottom of each tub with a hot screwdriver before planting so there is some drainage, but even so the compost is very wet from being constantly rained on, I'm worried being waterlogged will kill them? Or will they like all the rain?!

**purpleprincess**

Hey all!!! I have bought some salad leaves seeds (lettuce), I don't have a garden so am going to plant these in a tray and pop them on my windowsill with my herbs. Will this be ok? Should I use lots of soil? How often should I water them? Should I plant them all at the same time or in stages?

Hope someone can help me!!!

Thanx!

annie-c

Hi Purple princess

I am a novice, but for what it's worth I am growing lettuce/salad leaves in a window box with just about 1-2" compost in the bottom and it's doing fine. I don't think the roots go very deep. Mine are outside so they are getting 'watered' nearly every day by the rain, and seem to be thriving on it. My seed packets say that I should sow a new row every 2 weeks to ensure a constant supply of lettuce through the summer. So far I've sown 2 lots and I'm just going to play it by ear. Read what it says on the packet for the best advice, as some lettuce just grow and you pick them whole and that's the end of that plant; other salad leaves are known as a 'cut and come again' variety which means you can pick the leaves off the plant and then more will grow on the same plant throughout the season.

Good luck!

Annie