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Unwanted visitor

Hello all,

I seem to have a cat or cats that visit my garden on regular occasions to use my garden as their toilet. mostly at night i think. Of course at this time of year i have soil exposed,  they are digging up my new growth,and baby plants, i have tried pepper, crushed sliced /garlic,lemon /orange peel and limes, 'Cat off'  lion poo, vinager, plasic rolls of wire, gravel, nothing  seems to work they or it' will find a space. does anyone know if it will harm my plants? and any other ideas would be wonderful i will try anything.image

Thank you

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Posts

  • I have bought a roll of chicken wire 75cm-ish in width, the type with small holes.  When I sow my seeds I make a sort of a cloche shape out of a length of the chicken wire and place it over the row of seeds fixing it with tent pegs - it keeps the cats off.

    Now that I'm at home in the daytime, if the cats become too much of a nuisance I shall also invest in a high powered water pistol - I shall not hurt the cats - I like them - but I do not want them in my garden any more than I can help. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Dave MorganDave Morgan Posts: 3,123

    Jeyes Fluid in small pots works well, cats hate the smell.

  • Jeyes Fluid can make cats very ill indeed - not recommended to leave it out in uncovered containers in the garden. 

     


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Lupin 1Lupin 1 Posts: 8,916

    Cat vomit isn't nice either. Better and kinder & more sensible ways than Jeyes. I used to plant catnip, forgotten name, Nepetia ??  in a far corner of the garden, the cats went straight to it and were so "chilled" after rolling on it they didn't want to do anything.

  • We have a cat and the following helps:

    1 Avoid bare soil as much as you can. If need be place old tiles/slates at intervals even if temporarily.

    2 Plant plants close together to avoid bare soil. Avoid digging over soil unless you need to - cats love nothing better than soft freshly turned soil for their ablutions.

    3 As with "dove" - I use wide plastic trellis but secure horizontally to short lengths of cane. The plants grow through it and any obvious sections of exposed mesh can be clipped off later with secateurs or scissors.

    4 Drive many but short lengths of cane into the ground around vulnerable plants/seedbeds. Either place the canes vertically or angle them to cover an extra bit of ground. The plants will soon obscure them and as for the cats - well, you know what Corporal Jones in Dad's Army used to say!

    5  I try to keep an out-of-the way patch turned over in the hope of keeping them off other patches, but then I don't mind doing that too much as it's my own cat that's one of the chief culprits. 

  • Trying soaking old tea bags in Jeyes fluid and disperse around the areas affected - works pretty well. Also spray tea bags with Ralgex.

  • Just put out lots of sticks where soil is bare as Steve has said above. Broken bamboo canes and the like work well. I really do not think that anything else works over time as smells flush away with the rain.

  • Sorry, was told that my tea was ready so had to jump to, and forgot to add another tip!

    Thorny trimmings and prunings e.g. hawthorn, quince or holly are really useful if you have any or can beg them. They are even better than bamboo cane lengths as you will probably find among them small branches with twigs poking out in several directions, and of course they look less obtrusive.

     

  • Thank you everybody for you help i have tried chicken wire on soil however they just do it on the top without digging image thanks stevew1975 i will try the trimmings from my pyracanthia and im off to buy canesimage garden loos like a building site with all the barracades at the momment  i'm looking forward to some growth ! i really don't want to use anything harmful as i have  lots of frogs and squirrels vistit now and again but thanks anyway for the suggestions.

  • Hi! My name is Laura and I'm a researcher for the tv production company Landmark Films. We’re making an exciting new BBC1 documentary all about cats - the good and bad sides of them! One particular area we are keen to focus on is the problems they can cause in people's gardens, and how people manage to deter them. If anyone is interested in letting us know how they manage or if they have a cat problem, we'd love to hear from you - please let me know at [email protected] or give me a ring on 01865297220. It would just be a quick chat and wouldn't mean you were going to be featured in anything, (unless you wanted to be of course!) Thanks, Laura

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