Britannia Ovens (esp Range cookers) your experience

[AJuff]

I am very cross. Tonight I came home and saw the neigbours cat running out of our garden. It has scratched up all my red onions and all my leeks as it has dug a hole in the earth. What can I do to keep it off my raised bed? All that hard work ruined.

[HappyhenSG]

Hi, I have cats myself and have found the best way is to net the veg patch. I put a cane in each corner and suspended some fruit netting between them. It's only a couple of feet high but so far they haven't even bothered to jump it.

 

You could also try orange peel scattered around - they apparently don't like the smell. Alternatively, try cat pepper or some green citronella scented gel called 'keep off' or 'get off' - both available from the likes of Homebase or any garden centre.

 

Hope this helps.

[Couperwife]

we have a problem with local cats too (including our little madam )

 

we filled the raised bed with those bamboo skewers (like the cocktail sticks but longer - come in packs of 100 ish)

 

they were put a little too close for kittycat to be able to put their bum down, so it put them off

 

or you could try a piece of net / chicken wire type stuff over the top of it, about 2 inches above the soil

 

good luck - cats are rotters - arent they

 

cathy

x

[Cinnamon]

Maddening, isn't it?

 

I have a big bundle of those thin sticks,about 14inches long which I stick into the soil between the crops at a sloping angle, so the cats don't have any way of getting onto the soil.

 

As they are digging a toilet hole,if you put sticks in so they have nowhere to squat,it foils them.

[chickencam]

We have raised beds with enviromesh lids, because we have 2 cats and I don't fancy their doings in my salad beds

[Valkyrie]

I have that problem with a Kitty - unfortunately it's our Silkie that keeps sneaking in the veggie patch and digs holes big enough for a lion. She actually squeezes through the netting! Apart from that, cats cause less damage than her nowadays, but I generally have chicken wire over the top of our beds - she gets underneath the arches - arghhhhh! I have been told I am not going to get any more fencing as we have spent too much already, so I guess he will have to put up with tiny uprooted onions, half the leeks, no peas . . . and lump it.

[Bramble]

Have you thought of lying in wait for the culprit with a pump-action-water-pistol? It sounds funny but the range you can get with those things is amazing and kitty-kats seem to learn quite quickly!?