Trying to Repair Lawn - Cats

FATBALLZ

We moved into our house about a year ago and unfortunately the previous owner had a dog so there are lots of little holes etc in the garden which I'd like to just be able to fill with soil and grass seeds and leave to repair itself.

The problem is however that next door has a larger population of cats than humans, and whenever I try to fill the holes in the cats come and dig it up again. I've managed to fill the biggest hole, and have a bit of grass growing out by getting one of those ultrasound things to scare cats away, however there are several areas to do and I don't want to be paying £30 (plus batteries) a go for cat repellents to keep the area cat free.

Is there some other way of protecting these areas? I know you can put down lemon rind and stuff but that doesn't always work and then if it washes away and you forget about it the cats dig it up and you have to start again.

I was wondering if it would be possible to put some sort of wire mesh like this...

...down over the new grass and secure it with stakes so that the grass would get sun and rain but the cats couldn't dig it up. Would that work?

wallbash

WE had pet rabbits . so i have had the same problem with holes . We chose getting a new lawn , expensive but timed to perfection i.e with the last few weeks of rain.
Your idea might well work , but to expensive unless you already have the mesh. Think cheaper netting, ??


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pack-Garden-Plant-Seeding-Netting/dp/B003V51GCC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339944106&sr=8-1

antw23uk

You will be better off cat proofing your garden. The lawn is one thing but next you will want lovely borders filled with plants etc and they will still be ruining things and diggin gup bedding plants etc (Im a cat owner and most of the time not a cat hater )

But if thats not your thing then yes a raised level of wire across the lawn or patches is your best bet.

BTW - our cats walk straight up to those sonic cat deterents, rub their faces against them and walk off to catch and kill the neighbours birds ...

rabidbun

If you have any of those grills that come with the blowaway style mini greenhouses they work a treat for keeping cats off grass repair sites. One word of warning though, the cats may well just dig up the grass for a while once the mesh is removed, or move to another grassy area and ruin that (we have cats digging up our gravel drive down to the hardcore six inches down since we turfed where they were digging on our lawn).

m13r13c13

We have chicken wire and twigs sticking up all over our garden. Do you live near me, our neighbour across the road takes in cats that always seem to be having kittens. So when we have finished letting one lot know that they are not welcome in our garden then another lot comes along. I used to love cats but when I spend so much time planting things only to get up the next morning to find that they have been dug up and pooped on it makes me so mad. I wouldn’t harm them but there does not seem to be a full proof way to keep cats out. Mind you they have only managed to catch one bird and that was a baby thrush, and it hasn’t deterred the birds from coming back. By the way, the chicken wire and twigs do work. :-)