I've seeded may plot recently and a neighbours cats have decided to use it as a loo and are digging up all my work. I've read the posts on here, but does anyone think laying plastic netting over the area will work ? My plot is about 5m x 2m and has some rocks in it but no plants , so I could lay the netting over the top and secure it with canes or something.
has anyone tried this, the netting is only £1 from B&Q plus some canes..will it keep the naughty cats away and give my seeds chance to germinate and sprout ?
Jack - I created some beds last year but I had manured them (they had been grass which I had lifted) and covered them with plastic and some bark so that they didn't look too awful. Same problem as others here have mentioned so I put some netting over them. Not pretty but it worked. It wouldn't have to be very high for the purpose you need but if you make it about 12/18" it would let the seedlings get to a good height. Last thing you want is the seedlings dug up and worse. I had the same problem on my ornamental raised bed and I used some split canes pushed into the soil in an arc where there was a bare area until the plants grew. Hope that's some help.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
We have new neighbours with 3 cats! They don't use their own garden for their toilet...they use ours. They have only been here around 2 weeks and already I cannot open the window which overlooks the area that they are using, this is a stoned area, quite chunky. I have tried using bleach to no avail. I have spoken to the owners who have apologised but say that they can't do anything.
The smell is horrendous. Any other tips please. I'm just on the way to pour lemon Flash over the area.
I have a large chocolate labrador. He is free to roam the garden as he has no means of getting out. He is trained to use a purpose built gravelled area as his toilet and always does. Whenever he leaves the garden he is accompanied and on a lead. He is trained to wee and poo in the gutter by the side of the road and we always, without exception, pick his mess up and take it home to dispose of. All this considered then, how unfair is it that most mornings I find that cats have used my beds as a toilet ? The neighbours on both sides of me are cat owners and are very nice people, however, if my dog had found a way to get into their gardens and use them as a toilet I would be horrified and I'm sure they would be complaining and rightly so. If you mention that someones cat is using your garden as a toilet they, usually, are apologetic but claim there is nothing they can do about it. As someone posted earlier it is possible to train cats to use specific areas but as cats are seen as low maintenance pets owners tend not to bother. It's a good job dogs aren't allowed to freely roam wherever they like and do their mess in whichever garden takes their fancy, there would be uproar!
Ask your neighbours to provide their cats with a large sand tray under cover in their own garden, and keep it regularly cleaned and filled. Hopefully they will use that more than they use your garden, especially if you get a Contech water scarecrow - have a look on Amazon - their reviews look good.
It'll be much easier to train your neighbours' cats while they're still new to the area.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
You miss my point. The cats are not new to the area, they are older than my dog! I'm not moaning about a particular cat, my point is that cat owners seem to think that it's acceptable behaviour for their pets to be a nuisance to other people. I can't think of any other domestic pet that is given carte blanche to do as they please. Why should people have to go to trouble and expense to control other peoples pets? I understand that people get great pleasure and, in some cases, comfort from owning a pet but surely it should be the responsibility of the owner to ensure that their pet is just that, theirs! It certainly is the case with any other domestic animal.
Sorry Pottering I was responding to the post before yours.
I do agree that some people seem not to be embarrassed or concerned about their cat's soiling and damage to other people's gardens, let alone the harm done to wildlife. On the other hand some owners do go to a lot of trouble to prevent as much cat-trouble as they can. When we had cats we kept them in at night and provided them with litter trays outside in our garden which they used. This protected our flowerbeds and our neighbours said that our pets rarely soiled their garden.
Our next door neighbours have cats - we chase them out of the back garden and they're getting the message - helped by the fact that one of them performed it's usual leap over the hostas, not knowing that we'd dug and filled a pond on the other side! We've not seen that cat in the garden again However, I always protect newly sown areas with wire netting laid over the top to be on the safe side.
When we came here the front garden was all grass, but since we dug a border it's received attentions from a cat from across the road. Now that the border is planted up it's 'performing' on the lawn over night. Not pleasant but removable with a plastic bag in the morning.
Cats are more difficult to 'control' than dogs and other domestic pets, and I think that has been accepted over the years in exchange for their role in keeping down rats and mice within communities. Now cats are too well-fed to need to hunt and yet many of them are still let out at nights where they are vulnerable to foxes and traffic. I used to drive for my job, and certainly the feline traffic casualties that I saw were always in the very early morning.
Cats don't need to be outside at night. I wish their owners would keep them in. Members of my family have cats - they never go out at night and are perfectly happy and healthy cats.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I agree that their are some responsible cat owners and that it's very easy to generalise, especially after you've just tried to break up a large lump of soil with your fingers and found it's not soil!
I agree entirely that cats don't need to be out at night but it seems it's an easy option to just open the back door and let them out for some, if not most owners. If cats weren't abroad at night I'd have no trouble with 'em as, during the day my dogs a good enough cat repellant, even though he's as soft as your cap and would probably want to play with them!
As with most issues concerning domestic animals it's the owners, not the cat, that's the problem.
just to recap we have not had any cats in our garden since we put the chicken mesh around the top of the garden fence. We have seen the cats look up at the mesh and then turn away. We hope it stays that way. We love animals but we don't like them doing their business in our garden.
Posts
I've seeded may plot recently and a neighbours cats have decided to use it as a loo and are digging up all my work. I've read the posts on here, but does anyone think laying plastic netting over the area will work ? My plot is about 5m x 2m and has some rocks in it but no plants , so I could lay the netting over the top and secure it with canes or something.
has anyone tried this, the netting is only £1 from B&Q plus some canes..will it keep the naughty cats away and give my seeds chance to germinate and sprout ?
Jack - I created some beds last year but I had manured them (they had been grass which I had lifted) and covered them with plastic and some bark so that they didn't look too awful. Same problem as others here have mentioned so I put some netting over them. Not pretty but it worked. It wouldn't have to be very high for the purpose you need but if you make it about 12/18" it would let the seedlings get to a good height. Last thing you want is the seedlings dug up and worse. I had the same problem on my ornamental raised bed and I used some split canes pushed into the soil in an arc where there was a bare area until the plants grew. Hope that's some help.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I am trying this for my seedlings, and it should prevent carrot fly too if I am lucky!!
We have new neighbours with 3 cats! They don't use their own garden for their toilet...they use ours. They have only been here around 2 weeks and already I cannot open the window which overlooks the area that they are using, this is a stoned area, quite chunky. I have tried using bleach to no avail. I have spoken to the owners who have apologised but say that they can't do anything.
The smell is horrendous. Any other tips please. I'm just on the way to pour lemon Flash over the area.
I have a large chocolate labrador. He is free to roam the garden as he has no means of getting out. He is trained to use a purpose built gravelled area as his toilet and always does. Whenever he leaves the garden he is accompanied and on a lead. He is trained to wee and poo in the gutter by the side of the road and we always, without exception, pick his mess up and take it home to dispose of. All this considered then, how unfair is it that most mornings I find that cats have used my beds as a toilet ? The neighbours on both sides of me are cat owners and are very nice people, however, if my dog had found a way to get into their gardens and use them as a toilet I would be horrified and I'm sure they would be complaining and rightly so. If you mention that someones cat is using your garden as a toilet they, usually, are apologetic but claim there is nothing they can do about it. As someone posted earlier it is possible to train cats to use specific areas but as cats are seen as low maintenance pets owners tend not to bother. It's a good job dogs aren't allowed to freely roam wherever they like and do their mess in whichever garden takes their fancy, there would be uproar!
Ask your neighbours to provide their cats with a large sand tray under cover in their own garden, and keep it regularly cleaned and filled. Hopefully they will use that more than they use your garden, especially if you get a Contech water scarecrow - have a look on Amazon - their reviews look good.
It'll be much easier to train your neighbours' cats while they're still new to the area.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
You miss my point. The cats are not new to the area, they are older than my dog! I'm not moaning about a particular cat, my point is that cat owners seem to think that it's acceptable behaviour for their pets to be a nuisance to other people. I can't think of any other domestic pet that is given carte blanche to do as they please. Why should people have to go to trouble and expense to control other peoples pets? I understand that people get great pleasure and, in some cases, comfort from owning a pet but surely it should be the responsibility of the owner to ensure that their pet is just that, theirs! It certainly is the case with any other domestic animal.
Sorry Pottering
I was responding to the post before yours.
I do agree that some people seem not to be embarrassed or concerned about their cat's soiling and damage to other people's gardens, let alone the harm done to wildlife. On the other hand some owners do go to a lot of trouble to prevent as much cat-trouble as they can. When we had cats we kept them in at night and provided them with litter trays outside in our garden which they used. This protected our flowerbeds and our neighbours said that our pets rarely soiled their garden.
Our next door neighbours have cats - we chase them out of the back garden and they're getting the message - helped by the fact that one of them performed it's usual leap over the hostas, not knowing that we'd dug and filled a pond on the other side! We've not seen that cat in the garden again
However, I always protect newly sown areas with wire netting laid over the top to be on the safe side.
When we came here the front garden was all grass, but since we dug a border it's received attentions from a cat from across the road. Now that the border is planted up it's 'performing' on the lawn over night. Not pleasant but removable with a plastic bag in the morning.
Cats are more difficult to 'control' than dogs and other domestic pets, and I think that has been accepted over the years in exchange for their role in keeping down rats and mice within communities. Now cats are too well-fed to need to hunt and yet many of them are still let out at nights where they are vulnerable to foxes and traffic. I used to drive for my job, and certainly the feline traffic casualties that I saw were always in the very early morning.
Cats don't need to be outside at night. I wish their owners would keep them in. Members of my family have cats - they never go out at night and are perfectly happy and healthy cats.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Sorry for the misunderstanding Dove.
I agree that their are some responsible cat owners and that it's very easy to generalise, especially after you've just tried to break up a large lump of soil with your fingers and found it's not soil!
I agree entirely that cats don't need to be out at night but it seems it's an easy option to just open the back door and let them out for some, if not most owners. If cats weren't abroad at night I'd have no trouble with 'em as, during the day my dogs a good enough cat repellant, even though he's as soft as your cap and would probably want to play with them!
As with most issues concerning domestic animals it's the owners, not the cat, that's the problem.
just to recap we have not had any cats in our garden since we put the chicken mesh around the top of the garden fence. We have seen the cats look up at the mesh and then turn away. We hope it stays that way. We love animals but we don't like them doing their business in our garden.