Cat mess in veggie plot

calleyw

With out boring you I found buried cat mess inbetween two rows of veggies.

I am very :mad: as it meant they walked pass a huge pile of dirt and messed in my raised bed.

The first time was about a week or so ago. We took out the mess and some of the soil.

I am now worried about contamination. I am going to abandon the two rows on either side but how wide an area should I stop using and for long until it is safe to re-plant in the same area.

A very fuming

Calley

staffie1

Filthy things, cats. They look all cute while your paying them some attention, then when your back's turned, they !!!! all over your garden. You should get a shot-gun!

calleyw

fingers crossed in the next couple of weeks I am getting a 6ft fence put around my garden.

Hoping that will stop it.

Yours

Calley

forgotmyname

6ft fence wont be an issue for a cat unless its too old to jump.

I am well fed up of my neighbours cats, They cause a right racket at 2/4am because
they dont let them in, Use my garden as a toilet, And these cats DO NOT bury it.

Tried the sprays & gel crystals, They didnt work. I cant afford to waste money on stuff that
wont sort the issue.
I dont want to harm them i blame the OWNERS. Thinking a cat cage & relocate them.

annie123

calleyw wrote: »

fingers crossed in the next couple of weeks I am getting a 6ft fence put around my garden.

Hoping that will stop it.

Yours

Calley

Wont make any difference I'm afraid.

The cats love freshly dug or turned soil, when I do a new border or any planting for that matter my neighbour's cats seem to know and would be over within minutes to poo in it until I started putting chicken wire over it.
Just laid bits of it that I had kicking around either flat on the ground or domed up if I've put plants in.
Seems to take 2 weeks for them to lose interest in it, but it does work.

Started doing this a couple of years ago when they moved in, first place the cats went was my new carrot spot:mad: sowed wild flowers in it instead that year, didn't fancy carrots grown from cat poo soil:eek:

Gel crystal from the £ store work but only for a few days so gets expensive.

you have my sympathy.

calleyw

forgotmyname wrote: »

6ft fence wont be an issue for a cat unless its too old to jump.

I am going to check out the cost and legality of those plastic spikes in a strip.

The cats around here are lazy and I really don't think that they are going to waste time jumping a 6 foot fence.

And if they do I will be waiting for them with a water pistol :rotfl:

Yours

Calley

freezspirit

Don't know if they work but a couple of things are:

Plectranthus caninus/ Coleus Canina (not sure which name it comes under)
Lemon Balm and Helichrysum Italicum
Cat Repellent Rods
Jet Spray Cat Repeller
Battery Ultrasonic Cat Scarer
Mega-sonic Cat Scarer
Prikka Strips

When I was younger a neighbour used to use a spud gun but I don't think you can buy them anymore. I did overhear someone on a bus once say lion/tiger dung stopped the cats using his garden.

Sunnyday

We have a cat which comes in and uses a litter but there are lots of cats around here that use my garden.

In the veggie beds i have upside down plant pots in every available space and small pieces of cane stuck into the soil too. Its not perfect but has almost stopped it.

I do check the beds a couple of times a day and if i see anything that has been disturbed then i remove the results, and give the area a good watering with the hose.

If its not been there more than a few hours then we carry on as normal.

when food is grown outside and sold in the shops its hardly going to be a sterile environment and there are lots of animals in the wild that will mess around crops. My way of thinking is clean the area and carry on as normal. We`ve done this for the last three years and all has been well. The key is checking often and watering. It`s not nice nut i`m not letting some cat spoil the emjoyment/money saving of my garden. They come less and less once they get used to it and i`ve not had any on my garden for weeks. It does seem worse when the plants are tiny and the soil is more accesible. Netting is good too but is a pain when you need to move it to do stuff.

SD

Oldbiggles

Cats don’t like citrus smells so try this:
Grate up some orange and/or lemon peel and scatter around your veg patch, it’s cheap to do, you get the benefit of a healthy diet and the garden will appreciate the rotting peal.
Back in ‘nineteen hundred and freezing to death’ when I had a large garden and grew all the veg I could possibly use or give away, I would use as much natural fertilizer for the patch that I could get, including horse, sheep or other dung. So I don’t think a little cat mess now and then will harm your plants so don’t give up because of it.

calleyw

I am not going to give up on my raised beds.

And I am farmers daugther so understand about what gets pooped out the backsides of animals in fields every day be they wild or farm animals.

But cat and dogs are different from cows, horses and sheep. As cats and dogs eat meat and you can't compost there pooh. Also there is the issue of if they have been wormed or not.

I am happy to touch cows/horse/sheep droppings as there is very little that you can catch from it.

But dogs/cats mess is different ball game and can make you very ill and even blind if not wormed properly. That is why I am concerned.

Yours

Calley

aliasojo

I've just bought a 'Scaredy Cat' plant which is supposed to give off a smell cats hate. I've planted it in the trough planter thing we have that the cats seem to think is their litter tray. So far so good. Maybe you could plant one in amongst your beds? Ignore me if that's not practical.

Plectranthus ornatus
Coleus Canina has been named the Scaredy Cat plant because of it's unique ability to deter cats from messing up the garden!

The ultimate cat repellent that also provides foliage colour and light blue flowers in the garden. It has a scent that Cats and Dogs do not like but which is non-offensive to humans. Coleus Canina is a perennial plant and will provide lasting benefits in your cat wars!

http://www.hangingbasketsdirect.com/Product.asp?ProductRef=1116