Cats in your garden?

Nonna.PapaVino wrote:Your information about damage to an animal's eyes from contact with cayenne sounds possible. I shall rethink using it as a deterrent. To date all of my raised beds can be "fenced" off with the plastic "chicken wire" from Ace Hardware cut to the diameter of the beds and clipped to a hula hoop frame arched from corner to corner of each 4x4 bed. (Just get cheap hula hoops, cut each one on one side and stretch it from corner to the opposite corner; zip tie the place where the two hoops intersect.)

I thought so when I read it. I can't imagine how badly it would burn if I touched my eyes after handling pepper flakes, especially if they're fresh, or very hot ones.

Another deterrent I found comes from used furnace filters. Within the filter is a fine wire screen which I've stripped away from the filter paper and spread over newly planted beds and prevents a cat or other critter from digging in the covered area. Best deterrent, though, is the chicken wire cage a la Mel's directions in the Square Foot Gardening book. Nonna

BRILLIANT recycling, reuse of something! Thanks for that idea!

Eeeeeeekkkkk.... snakes!

Seriously, I could not live in the south. The cats wouldn't bother me. Coyotes wouldn't bother me. Heck I could even cope with bears and skunks. But you can keep your snakes and bugs.

As for that pretty cat in the picture above.... check out the one in a cage in the background... that one make me laugh.

Lol, we do have a lot of bugs. Snakes...thankfully I don't have an issue with those.

My neighbor's kid told me yesterday that they had taken the two cats to the pound but 'lo and behold (as I was taking the chicken wire off my squares), I see one of the two offenders in her backyard.

Cats are not supposed to like a heavy pine scent as is in those pine cleaners. Try spraying the outside of your boxes with it. From what I read in a Jerry Baker book the cats will look elsewhere to do their business. Worth a try. I have lots of cats around here, but have not caught one in my elevated beds yet. This area seems to attract people who no longer want their house cats so they just drop them off out here. Most of the cats are friendly and very few will not come up to me. Even though its against the law, and we have signs posted, doesn't stop the nice folks from dumping them. We work with local agencies to get them fixed when there is grant money available and haven't had kittens for quite awhile at least until the next expectant mother gets dumped. Don't have much of a rodent problem outside so that is a bright spot at least. Just waiting for the mint to get established then wont have any problem at all as crushed mint drives rodents away when its made into paste and scattered around. So much work to do and not enough daytime cool to do it in, such is life homesteading in the desert.

TexasTracy then they will tell you they are only inside cats!

Well Gunny don't you want 50 cats or so wandering around. They do help with the rodent problem but at some point too much is too much. Thankfully the cats have not wanted your raised beds!

In my experience, cats generally do not disturb raised beds once the plants are established. If one can keep the felines out until the plants are of a somewhat decent size, there should be few problems.

I will say, however, that one of my three cat babies likes to sun himself in certain squares, but he doesn't dig or leave deposits. I like to think that he's incubating certain plants.

Donna, your cats have some manners, lol!

Perhaps it's their breeds: two Maine Coon mixes, and a Siberian Forest Cat.

It remains to be seen, however, how they respond to my expansion this year. So far, no one has been sitting on my strawberry bed.... And there are no dig marks or deposits in my asparagus bed or potato/leek/carrot bed.

An attempt was made! A cat scratched up the soil and partially dug up a potato which is a little below middle of the picture. I am thinking he couldn't squat. It went in-between the squares of a trellis which have an opening of about 8" x 10". I had to dig by hand around there so I wouldn't damage my potatoes. No deposit!



It tried in this spot also. That is a tomato cage lying on its side that it went into. No poop there either.



I have other beds that I have not dug through yet but they like the ones that I have already loosened up and probably planted in.

I was tearing apart a compost pile a few days ago and making things smaller that were not and heard my next door neighbor saying hi to a cat named Budda. Of course she has told me numerous that she does not have an outdoor cat.

Since you found no "deposits," the offender may not be a feline.

We had some sort of visitor overnight - I don't know if bobcat again, outdoor cat, or something else. We set up a solar sprayer (with its own reservoir) which is supposed to give 18 shots before running out. This morning it was almost empty. My potted plants near my fence were knocked over and my tomato leaves look like maybe they got wet overnight. I'm not quite ready to recommend the product as it doesn't have a great range and it is new to the market, so I won't be linking to it. I've heard great reviews about the scarecrow water spraying sprinkler, though.

We figure whatever it was got scared and ran out and over the potted plants on their way to hightail out of the backyard.

Wow! The plot thickens!!!

At this point, I wish you had access to a motion-activated video camera, so we could actually see what's going on!

If I suggest the camera to my husband, he will probably run to the store to buy it before the words are completely out of my mouth. Boys and electronic toys, after all...

iiiigardener wrote:If I suggest the camera to my husband, he will probably run to the store to buy it before the words are completely out of my mouth. Boys and electronic toys, after all...

Well go for broke and get an infra red / colour CCTV set up running on a PC Then spend the weekend watching the film ..... together

...and I'll bring the beer and Plantoid can bring the popcorn!

iiiigardener wrote:If I suggest the camera to my husband, he will probably run to the store to buy it before the words are completely out of my mouth. Boys and electronic toys, after all...

Hey, I resemble that remark! or I did while I was still a working stiff, but now in retirement gotta save for the new toys

I think my barn cat is pooping in my box. I just started planting in it, so I havent covered it yet. I found a few deposits, dug them out, and planted pepper plants. A couple of days later, today, I see my pepper plants are dug up and there are a couple more deposits in the same spot! He must be hopping the fence. Im going to try bird netting over the box. They didnt bother my other boxes with netting. Though I did see my other cat trying to pee over the netting.

Im trying to avoid buying materials to make a cage. Ugh stupid cats thinking my garden is a litter box...

Seems like we have an overnight visitor again. The sprayer was down about a third, so it might have scared the bobcat earlier than the day before.

The cat had gone back to the same SFG square it used before and had dug up the ground but this time it was scared off before the deposit was made, so to speak. We had decided to leave that square foot empty while we tried to get the cat out of the garden - why throw good plants after bad? It doesn't mess with the other 15 squares.

I am beginning to think that I am a sounder sleeper than I thought - this is all happening within about fifteen feet of where I lay my weary head and sprinkler and cat noises are not interrupting me at all.

BTW, I mentioned the camera to dear hubby and he surprised me - I thought he would want to rush to Best Buy or something. No, he went techie and rushed to Amazon and now has it narrowed down to two. The problem is the motion cameras that pan over an area are for inside use and the ones for outside are fixed. He's now dithering over which one he wants and trying to convince me of a multiple of uses that it would be good for. Also, should it be high def or not? I'm surprised he hasn't yet pulled out the first grandchild is due in October card and we have to have many types of cameras and accoutrement to record the life and times of said grandchild. Maybe I'll nudge him about that and see if he bites.

Donna I am thinking that the cat couldn't get his hind end down low enough into the area that he was scratching, but you may be right. I have gotten pretty good at detecting their paw prints and there was at least one in the bed, unless it is something else with small paws. I heard last year, just days after I had posted that we don't get raccoons, that one neighbor had a raccoon sleeping on their patio. If it were a raccoon, I would think it would have tried to eat the potato it uncovered or go after my chickens. Neither one happened. The plot thickens. I do think it is just a ferel cat though. My neighbor behind me has a beautiful calico cat and I have never seen it in my yard.

Wow R&R and iiiigardener, my digging is happening in the same spot(s) as the last two times also. Cats are creatures of habit, that's for sure. Well I guess we all are though, which includes my dogs. When I let them out they usually run the perimeter of my yard or straight to the back of my fence to stick their heads through to see their little friends. I have been thinking of setting up a video camera also but I am not sure how long my camera would record and don't have the money for that. I'll join you guys on the watching of the video!

Another rant by me!  Just yesterday I dug up another bed so I can get some of my tomatoes and watermelon and onion starts planted finally.  Got that done before dusk and went out this morning to water.  Lo and behold was an area that had been dug up.  My onion starts had been partially covered and one of my tomatoes had moved soil on it.  I dug for a bit and thought that the cat must have been just digging.  I moved over a bit to an area that looked like it hadn't been dug and found a cat poo!

Just to make certain I hadn't missed any, I dug that area very thoroughly and found that there had been a second deposit (in three pieces).  So either one cat pooed after I went in last night at dusk and again this morning or two separate cats chose the same spot, which may be unlikely.

I did borrow a cat trap from animal control about a week ago and I hadn't had any deposits made.  I didn't want to set a trap with tuna and lure a cat into my yard that wasn't going to come in.  Did the cat(s) just keep checking every day to see when I was going to get another bed ready for them, or what!  It sure seems like that.

Tonight is the night and if need be every night.  From my experience in the past I usually catch a cat within 5-30 minutes of setting the trap.

It is just annoying that I have to be put in the position of being the "bad guy" with these cats.  There are probably three households that feed the ferel cats and none of them have put forth any effort on taking care of keeping the cats from being a nuisance but are quick to undermine, threaten or criticize the steps I have taken to keep the cats out of my garden.  I have been told that each of them have at least 7 cats apiece, indoor and outdoor.

I have two dogs that I make sure they have their shots, I have to get their licenses and I make sure they stay in my yard, don't poop or pee in others' yards.  I make sure they don't bark excessively.  I just don't get the total disregard of some neighbors to the rights of others.  I don't sound angry, do I?  

Triciasgarden,

You may want to check out this link for a motion-activated animal deterrent sprinkler:

http://nixalite.com/scarecrowaspx

It's very highly rated, and my upscale local nursery recommends it.

Thank you Donna. My next door neighbor bought one toward the end of summer last year, checked the frequency with her indoor cats and I put it in my garden. It didn't seem like a good location and I moved it to the fence. It did work for a short time and then I saw a cat climb up right next to it and hung around next to it. I returned it to her last year and she was going to replace it but hasn't. Finances being what they are . . . At this point I don't trust their reliability a lot either. There is a chance she just got one that wasn't very reliable but I don't know. I did do some research with the low volt electric fence for small animals but the cost again was just too much.

I think some cats are just tenacious and don't have good manners!

Or don't mind sprays of water!

donnainzone10 wrote:Triciasgarden,

You may want to check out this link for a motion-activated animal deterrent sprinkler:

http://nixalite.com/scarecrowaspx

It's very highly rated, and my upscale local nursery recommends it.

I think this is great! I have seen it before and it would detect "larger" pests at the fence! I do have a new hose for this year and could set it for night. I like the idea that it won't go off for birds. I didn't have a visit by a cat last night.

If the sprinkler doesn't work...

Try one of these: