Herb garden from cat toilet?

Sideways

Hi

I have cleared a section of a raised border, roughly 6ft x 3ft, that had previously only been occupied by a few plants and my cat. I want to start a herb garden this year, my main concern is that the spot has always been my cats preferred toilet area.

I have cleared away the cat poop I can see and removed the top inch or two of soil. I then turned the soil well and dug in some compost. It is now covered with a mesh to keep the cat off, much to his disgust

I was hoping that a couple of months of frost and rain will kill off / wash away any unfriendly bacteria in the soil leaving it ready for planting in the spring.

What do you think? Is the spot unsafe? Should I give the soil more time to ‘heal’. Is there anything I can do or add to improve the quality of soil and remove any health risks associated with the area previously being my moggy’s fave dumping ground?

Or am I worrying unnecessarily?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

~Chameleon~

The risk you face from cat faeces is a disease called toxoplasmosis. The usual advice is to thoroughly wash any fruit or vegetable that may have come into contact with it before, but I don't think it can actually cause of any problems to the plants that grow there.

I'd be interested to hear others' views on this also, as it appears my cats have been treating one of my freshly dug raised beds as a huge litter tray :mad:

mary43

We grow our veg in tubs and for some reason the minute OH plants some courgettes our cats figure that's their 'summer loo'.........we clear it off best we can and as the courgettes are above ground and washed thoroughly before use we feel pretty safe. Been doing this for several years now and still here to tell the tale.

Sideways

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I think I may bite the bullet and dig up all the soil in that area and discard it, replacing it with fresh soil from a garden centre. It’s not the most cost effective solution but when I consider how much money I spend on herbs from the supermarket I reckon I will recoup the cost in the first year, providing my herb garden is a success of course!

kaya

i dont understand why you want to use the cats toilet area to grow herbs in?

~Chameleon~

Sideways wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I think I may bite the bullet and dig up all the soil in that area and discard it, replacing it with fresh soil from a garden centre. It’s not the most cost effective solution but when I consider how much money I spend on herbs from the supermarket I reckon I will recoup the cost in the first year, providing my herb garden is a success of course!

Wouldn't it be cheaper/easier to buy some tubs/troughs to grow your herbs in and leave that area for the cats to continue using? Chances are they will go back and use it anyway even if you have herbs planted in it

Sideways

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Wouldn't it be cheaper/easier to buy some tubs/troughs to grow your herbs in and leave that area for the cats to continue using? Chances are they will go back and use it anyway even if you have herbs planted in it

Im not sure I would save money this way, I still need to buy the soil plus the tubs.

The garden is quite small and I have no other place to use. The spot is crying out to be used as a herb garden, it is sheltered by a fence on one side, raised and in a good, sunny spot. If I had a choice of spots I would leave the cat to it.

Once I have replaced all the soil I will keep the 'mesh' in place (which happens to be made out of an old fire guard, my cat will need an oxy-acetylene torch to get back in!). As the area establishes itself I will keep some form of cover over the exposed areas until there is no soil left to access.

Gingernutmeg

I was always told that cats hated orange peel, and certainly when we put some around our herb garden it did seem to keep them off (a bit lol, I think you'd need an entire tug of war team to separate a cat from it's preferred loo spot ... ).

A_Clock

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Wouldn't it be cheaper/easier to buy some tubs/troughs to grow your herbs in and leave that area for the cats to continue using? Chances are they will go back and use it anyway even if you have herbs planted in it

They dont like using an area if its full, im doing my garden up at the moment and got 3 cats from around about using it as a loo :mad: The only bit they dont use, is where ive put bits of old sticks. The OP should be ok once the plants are bigger enough as the cats wont have a clear area to poo and dig to cover it up... saying that i used net to keep them off and they done it on top of the net :eek: Sticks are the best things lol

Sola

I'd be more inclined to hang pots from the fence and grow herbs in them. Or get a standing 2-3 tier circular unit on a stand with moss liners; this is what I'm doing with herbs this year. I've got 6 cats and have never successfully kept them off the garden, so it does limit anything edible I want to grow.

alanobrien

I would cover the existing soil with weed supressant / driveway material and build a raised bed over it. Then maybe net over the raised bed to keep the cats out.
That way you still use the area and don't have to worry to much about what was left in it by the cat.