[salmonking]

i have 7 beds in my garden with veg just starting to pop their heads out.i have or i thought i had cat proofed the beds using different types of liquids, bottles of water, orange peel, netting and my latest attempt, fishing line!!.ive put canes in varies places and wound the line around in all directions. i have also wrapped it around the outside all the way around from ground up to 4ft high with a couple of inches gap in between!!.got up this morning and went to check the beds.................................. ,not happy a cat has managed to get in the carrot bed do its business, bury it, rake up half my carrots and dissapeare without moving the fishing line!. now i HATE cats anyway but this has made me even more anti cat!!! what gives the owners the right to just let their horrible sly animals out to do their business in other peoples gardens!!so im asking,whats next for me to try??? .if i catch the blooming thing there going to be trouble!!!

[Beetroot queen]

We have a cat and our neighbour hates her with a passion, she once presented me with a poop on a child's spade saying is this your cats. To which I replied without a DNA test I can not tell. Unfortunately cats can't be controlled like dogs and they have roaming rights while I agree that it's annoying cats are cats and owners can't stick corks up their ar@&* 

My cats answer would be but your soil is so lovely and crumbly. Sorry I didn't really help did I, if you want I can swap your cat for our resident badger, then you wouldn't have any carrots just a huge hole for a new badger door.

[pdblake]

I find netting keeps off most things, cats included. I also put gooseberry prunings around the place. Having a dog doesn't help at all, except to drive her mad whenever one cuts through the garden. Thankfully they tend to use our garden as a cut through more than anything, and the clay's a bit to rough to use as a litter tray. They do squash the odd plant though.

Incidentally, while they do have the right to roam free, their owners also have a duty of care to take reasonable measures to ensure they don't cause damage (got that from the Cat's Protection League). Not sure what measure you could take though.

Personally I think an animal that can not be fully domesticated, trained or contained in someway (as in a hamster say) should not be classed as a pet, but that's a whole different argument, and probably not helpful.

[tribs]

We have problems with cats in our raised beds too. It's not too bad at the moment (touch wood). There have been times when I have felt the way you do, but now I am more relaxed about it.

Most of the usual tricks didn't seem to work. Bottles, cd's, citrus peelings, thorn bush prunings.

Contrary to common belief, I find scaring them off whenever I see them in the garden fairly successful, but there are a large number of cats in the area and new ones appear from time to time. I do not buy they are spiteful and see it as a challenge. IMO, they are relatively lazy and will go somewhere else if it is less hassle.

[Willow_Warren]

Got to be honest I have a cat and she doesn't go anywhere near my veg patch (or maybe I shouldn't speak too soon...) she seems to prefer sitting on top of the septic tank inspection cover thing - no idea why, perhaps it's warm there???  :blink:

Hannah

[finleyfreyaseth]

Got to be honest I have a cat and she doesn't go anywhere near my veg patch (or maybe I shouldn't speak too soon...) she seems to prefer sitting on top of the septic tank inspection cover thing - no idea why, perhaps it's warm there???  :blink:

Hannah

cats dont c..p in there own territory thats why your beds not interesting to it,weve 3 cats next door and if i catch em well theres gonna be trouble twice why planting in the garden ive had two handfuls if my kids ever get it on there hands why helping me next doors gonna get it smeared allover there door handles see ow they like it, rant about cats over i know difficult for owners to keep track on them but being a responsible dog owner why the h..l should we be responsible for cleaning our dogs mess up and cat owners dont?

[Beetroot queen]

Being awkward though  I think the RSPCA would be interested if I treated my cat like a dog and refused it going out unless it was on a retractable lead.  Might be interesting when she climbs a tree. 

It's a hot debate but I can see both sides even as a cat owner. I don't think cat owners and non cat owners will ever agree.

I did hear some herbs are good for getting rid of cats, might be worth looking into 

[JayG]

I think the usual points have been made here, and as usual it's moving into areas which many won't find either acceptable or helpful, so I will lock the thread (you can of course use the forum search facility to read previous discussions on the subject.)