We have a real problem with cats doing their business in our garden and every winter we have to do something to protect the vegetable plot or it will become a giant toilet.
We try to keep the rest of the garden as full as possible to leave no space for the cats but even this doesn’t always stop them. Sometimes they actually do their business on top of a low laying shrub which is horrible to clear up.
We have in the past put net or chicken wire over the veg plot in winter but it looks unsightly and sometimes the cats poop on top of it which is even worse to clean up. They are very determined.
We have tried all deterrents to no avail.
What we did notice during the summer was that the pea twigs stopped them. Maybe it inhibits them being able to squat. This gave us an idea. We could fill the veg plot with twigs over winter. We didn’t mind the look of it and if it would keep it cat poop free we would be happy with that.
We went in to the woods and gathered a bundle of twigs.
We collected a pile of twigs
One side of the veg plot has twigs planted
At this point we got rained off so had to leave the job to finish another day.
The next thing we did was empty the last two potato bags and put the compost in the chicken run. I have now bought the soil level in the chicken run back to what it used to be.
I emptied the two terracotta tomato pots back into the holes that they came out of and cleared this side of the plot of all but the leeks.
The first side is completed now that the potato bags have gone
The other side planted with just the leeks remaining
The finished plot
As I take out the leeks I will fill the space with more twigs until the entire plot is covered with twigs. We have found some cat poop in the bigger gaps between the twigs so today I have filled in the gaps with small twigs. I will keep going until it stops the cats completely. I am hoping this will now solve the problem.
We now have a winter veg plot full of twigs. I think it looks okay.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
What a good idea.looks fine. Your leeks look good,we have never had much luck with leeks.
Leeks are the thing that grow the best in our veg plot, I have no idea why. I get to a point of actually getting fed up with them but they keep well in the ground so I take a break from them and then start again. It does give us one veg when everything else is over.
Nice work. I’ve used long, thorny branches from the rose bushes in the past and those work well too.
After I had completed the job I thought that it was a shame I hadn’t saved the branches, pruned from the rose bush, as they would work even better. Something to remember next year.
Try laying chicken wire out flat on top of the mud, they hate that.
We tried that last year and occasionally they went on top of it which was horrible to clean up. They are really determined cats round here. Even the twigs have to be really close together or they get between them. Since I have filled all the gaps it has stayed clear so far, so I am fairly confident that this will work okay.