How to keep cats off vegetable patch> Ideas please?

The neighbours are away, so the parents have moved in to look after the remaining dog (other died last week) 5 rabbits and their cat.

The cat is disturbed by recent events so has decided to dig up part of my veg patch. This isn’t just the normal ‘oh I’ll use it as a loo’, no, it’s a large deep hole, taking with it (this morning) half of my parsnips and tonight half of my peas. Arrrggghhh.
The parents have been nice about it and offered to replace the lost veggies, she doesn’t understand though, the weeks of work that goes into getting the patch up and running.

So any ideas please serious or humorous, on discouraging cat/s? btw I am a cat lover, just not when they do this.

Jayne, we’ve just put some plastic fencing around ours, or lob a mesh over the top. Or get an air rifle.

you might have to get some proper cat deterrents..A mates mum heard if you half filled a water bottle and lay it on its side the cats saw a reflection they didn’t like..

Cat had a poo on bottle…

Apparently..

Get some cheap ground pepper and spread it about.

A couple of cut up lemons is supposed to work.

You can buy lion poo which is supposed to scare them off.

Pee around your veg patch.

Lol @ Martyn.

Pook – was so annoyed tonight that an air rifle would have been just the ticket.

Get rid of the vegetable patch – nothing else will work in my experience.

Right off to get mr bunnyhop to wee around all 3 of the veg patches, he’ll just have to keep drinking all that lovely beer that singletrackmind gave him last week.

Cat had a poo on bottle…

Sounds unlikely – most cats like to bury theirs. Much more likely is a fox turd, as they like to leave theirs in a predominant and highly visible place.

You could try planting some of these :

http://www.bloomingdirect.com/products/Coleus-Canina-Scardy-Cat-x-5-plants.html

Some netting held down at edges with tent pegs and kept up of soil with upturned plantpots in middle has worked for last 4 months on our raised veg beds, all cat poo deflected away to other parts of the garden (ggrrr)
Just need to make sure it’s secure and the cat can’t walk over it

My cats are crapping on my flower patch and I’ve put up a low fence – didn’t work! Hose pipe is good. Putting up a fence as I want to plant flowers in sections as well. Got some lemon balm growing and coriander and my cats hate them

Right off to get mr bunnyhop to wee around all 3 of the veg patches, he’ll just have to keep drinking all that lovely beer that singletrackmind gave him last week.

oh Jesus…. remind me to keep away from your cabbage…….

Martyn – that’s the least of your worries, there’s half a ton of cow, horse, sheep, goat, cat and fox poo in there for good measure.

Oh and tell Ernie ^^ that the cat pooing on the bottle was your famous Northern sense of humour pooping (whoops typo there) out.

cat poo on bottle issue….. mates mum witnessed cat pooing on aforementioned deterrent from Kitchen window

the bottle needs to be upright and full of water

Wish I’d seen that.

A cat looking at an upright bottle of water won’t see its reflection – just straight through the bottle. A much better option would be a mirror – they’re designed to cause a reflection.

bb gun, shoot the blighter while chasing it off.

it’s not the reflection which unsettles it, i think it is the distortion of everything behind it, but in truth i don’t know how or why it works, only that it did and does

The owner might shoot you. I truly fear what I might do if someone purposefully harmed one of my cats. And there are plenty of people a lot less rational than me.

Meet stumpy.
[/url]
stumpy[/url] by Jon Wyatt[/url], on Flickr

He’s dead now but he did know what he liked. And that was shagging cats.
We always knew when a new cat was in town because it was stupid enough to come in our garden. Stumpy wasn’t daft though, he knew if he just stood out in the open the cats would steer clear so he’d hide underneath something and wait for the cats to come to him.

We’d never see the same cat twice and no mistake.

😯

I truly fear what I might do if someone purposefully harmed one of my cats.

youve not shot a bb gun have you…? they sting a bit but they wont even break the skin unless its point blank and a cat has a massive layer of fur aswell.

If you can get hold of some gorse, berberis or blackthorn sticks (or anything else prickly) and lie it across the patch that does the job. Also doubles up as pea supports.

A product called “CURB” is also very effective at keeping them away and is safe to use on food crops and organic safe (as far as I recall…..). I can’t remember if it is called or available as CURB anymore but the active ingredient is aluminium ammonium sulphate if that helps you find a similar product.

Plant some cat mint / cat nip (Nepeta cataria) away from your veg. Hopefully should attract it enough to leave your home produce alone.

Or….get a cat. At least if you have a cat you won’t get others coming in and should get limited amounts of cat crap in your own garden. The only advantage to owning a cat as far as I can see is to stop every other toxoplasma addled buggers fleabag moggy from having a dump in your garden, rolling in plants and weeing over everything.

The bombers on the tandem need something to do….

Mothballs work, trouble is the smell is pretty rank.

Tea bags soaked in bleach scattered around in, replace every few days – works wonders

Mothballs work, trouble is the smell is pretty rank.

and getting them off the moth is pretty fiddly

Tea bags soaked in bleach scattered around in, replace every few days – works wonders

I’m surprised with that too. Many cats are highly attracted to the smell of bleach ….. it’s the whole bleach/ammonia/urine thing I believe.

My cat is addicted to bleach

One of our cats will lick bleached floors and try and drink out of the toilet after it’s been bleached. Maybe you put the teabags in next doors garden. I can dig that.

Berberis clippings +1.

I think “get an enormous rabbit that has an insatiable lust for raping cats” is probably the best advice I have ever read on the internet. 😀

My grandmother used to stuff tights with newspaper and attach milk bottle tops for eyes. She thought the cats would confuse it for a giant snake and flee in horror. . . She’s in a home now.

Scatter orange peel around the patch. Most cats hate it. Needs to be fairly fresh though.

anti-freeze in a saucer? Apparently cats love the taste, but it wrecks their kidneys, thereby providing a permanent solution to your problem.

Something like this?

http://www.pestcontroldirect.co.uk/acatalog/Spray_Away_Animal_Chaser.html

I’ve heard they sort out problems like yours pretty quickly 😀

A sack will do the job every time…

Put the cat in it,tie thee top and dump it in the nearest canal

I have a plastic crossbow by the window. When I see the cats sun bathing or digging in the garden I fire a bolt at them. I rarely actually hit them as the bolt gets blown in the wind but they scarper damn quick when it hits the ground near them.

It took about a week and about 10 bolts for them to stop coming in and now I only get to use it perhaps once a week to remind them.

I still think buggering them with a large rabbit would be more entertaining and would score well on u-tube

Bollox to lion poo and getting a dog (or a sexual predator of a rabbit), a 13ft python is what you need