We've been living in this house for about 2 years. Recently, we
noticed that some neighborhood cat has been using our vegetable/fruit
garden area as a litterbox. Most of this area is open and covered
with weedmat with woodchips over it. Are there good ways to deter the
cats, without either harming them or our veggies and fruits? I
suspect part of our problem is we live on a corner lot....

Thanks in advance!

Lil

Lil wrote:
We've been living in this house for about 2 years. Recently, we
noticed that some neighborhood cat has been using our vegetable/fruit
garden area as a litterbox. Most of this area is open and covered
with weedmat with woodchips over it. Are there good ways to deter the
cats, without either harming them or our veggies and fruits? I
suspect part of our problem is we live on a corner lot....

Thanks in advance!

Lil

Have your husband shit in the vegatable/fruit garden area on a regular
basis. Every other day should be sufficient.

On 6 Jun 2004 09:31:17 -0700, (Lil) wrote:

We've been living in this house for about 2 years. Recently, we
noticed that some neighborhood cat has been using our vegetable/fruit
garden area as a litterbox. Most of this area is open and covered
with weedmat with woodchips over it. Are there good ways to deter the
cats, without either harming them or our veggies and fruits? I
suspect part of our problem is we live on a corner lot....

Thanks in advance!

Lil

Lil, when you get any serious answers I certainly would be interested
also. My mother has a cat that loves to use mine as a litter box also.
So far the only thing that I have found that chases them is I squirt
them with the hose. But that is only a very temporary solution. Also
that only works when I am around to see them in the garden.
Hildur

Lil wrote:
We've been living in this house for about 2 years. Recently, we
noticed that some neighborhood cat has been using our vegetable/fruit
garden area as a litterbox. Most of this area is open and covered
with weedmat with woodchips over it. Are there good ways to deter the
cats, without either harming them or our veggies and fruits? I
suspect part of our problem is we live on a corner lot....

Thanks in advance!

Lil

You can densely surround a garden with thorny groundcover that cats won't
cross & dogs won't squat on, to their bum's distress if they try. Good
protective groundcovers include Crown of Thorns, or "pygmy crimson"
barberry, or a low-growing creeping rose or dwarf "shrub" roses. It could
even be a vining variety of blackberry or raspberry so that it was part of
the harvestable garden. Or Smilex (Greebriar aka climbing asparagus) forms
a woody thorny vine
barrier & is even sometimes called "cat briar" because it keeps cats at bay.

Of course cats will often find a way over or around such a barrier, the
same path you'd likely take, so there may also need to be a closeable gate
for your own ingress.

You could also can lay out all over the ground lengths of dried thorny
canes, anything that makes it less pleasant to dig in fresh-turned earth.
This would only work in spots where you wouldn't yourself be kneeling down
or rooting about with your hands.

Another method is to just clean up after the cat & say to yourself, "Oh
boy! Compost enrichment!" & toss the cat turds in the compost heap. It's
no more or less than you'd have to do with your own cat. Indeed, you can
GET your own cat, for whom it would not be quite so annoying to clean up.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com

Every year this comes up. I bought cheap 12" border fencing. That junk they
sell at Walmart or elsewhere which is made of wire and has on the bottom wire to
stick into the ground. Only, I have it attached to my fence with those wire
tines facing upward and I bend them down toward the ground. If a cat climbs the
fence, those tines are right there. I also affix my rose canes with giant,
sharp thorns to the bottom of the gates so they don't try to come under them.
That is the only way I know of how to keep cats out. It seems to be working,
but I don't want to jinx myself. I am also very opposed to doing anything
intentional to hurt the cats, other than physical barriers.


On 6 Jun 2004 09:31:17 -0700, (Lil) opined:

We've been living in this house for about 2 years. Recently, we
noticed that some neighborhood cat has been using our vegetable/fruit
garden area as a litterbox. Most of this area is open and covered
with weedmat with woodchips over it. Are there good ways to deter the
cats, without either harming them or our veggies and fruits? I
suspect part of our problem is we live on a corner lot....

Thanks in advance!

Lil



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On 6 Jun 2004 09:31:17 -0700, (Lil) wrote:

We've been living in this house for about 2 years. Recently, we
noticed that some neighborhood cat has been using our vegetable/fruit
garden area as a litterbox.

Go to Google groups and search rec.gardens and uk.rec.gardening for
"cats". You will find thousands of posts with practical suggestions,
as well as a lot of nasty ones.