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thepiebaldraven
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Veggie Gardening and Feral Cats

I know, the subject line is strange, but hang with me! :)

So, as I mentioned in my intro post, I'm a newbie gardener and need all the help I can get. A few years ago, I built a 4 x 12 raised bed garden using untreated lumber with cardboard boxes as a weed barrier. Honestly, I don't remember what I filled it with, but seeing how I'm clueless with all of this, I imagined I used bagged topsoil.

My problem was and is now this: feral cats. We only have a couple roaming around now, but back then we had close to TEN roaming around our dead end neighborhood block. The main issue was not being able to keep them out of the raised bed because not only would they chew on some of the plants, but they'd use it as the community litter box! Obviously, I don't want cats (or any other animals) chewing on my hard work, but my main concern is the parasites that can be found in their fecal matter. I'm not sure if it will contaminate our produce or if we can become infected working with our hands in the soil. Are these fears legitimate? Is there a way to treat my soil to make it safe or do I need to complete dig the whole frame out and start fresh?

Thanks in advance!

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thepiebaldraven
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Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, we don't have any rose bushes, although I have toyed with the idea of planting one. Would posting chicken wire around the perimeter also be an option? The sharpened sticks sound good too. Do you just set them up like a fence?

Susan W
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I use plastic fencing to keep my Kitty from thinking the garden is her box. This the rolled fencing (Lowes, HDep) with about 1.5" squares. I cut in strips and lay down between and around plants. Not an ideal solution, but do-able and in budget. I have used it on the large containers when the squirrels get into digging mode.

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rainbowgardener
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here's a 3 page discussion we had about this last spring:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... +of+garden

I don't think it is hard to keep cats out of your veggie gardens - just don't leave any bare dirt. If you keep your bed well mulched, that is usually enough to keep them from using it and mulching is good for the bed also.

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applestar
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Rainbowgardener found it -- I probably said all this already in that thread.... Oh, well :twisted:

I can be mean to feral cats that poop in my edibles garden. I yell at them to chase them out to a recognizable boundary -- fence, sidewalk, etc. -- I believe they understand "territory" and I claim mine. Even new ferals understand after a couple of demonstrations, and will run to the edge of the property when I bang on the window frame from the inside. I sometimes test their perception by giving them a hard "target" stare without making any other noise. It's kind of interesting that some of them do seem to sense being stared at and stop, look around, and even move out of the boundary I've mentally set for them and try to reinforce. They do seem to saunter out of the territory as if insisting nobody is *making* them do it -- that it's all their own idea.... Typical feline behavior. :roll:

>> So I do feel that I have given them plenty of "warning" <<

When I find feline deposits, I pick up with plastic bag, treat the area with some compost for extra microbial action, and sprinkle powdered hot pepper on the area and surrounding vegetation. Initially I bought cheap cayenn pepper powder, but now I use hot pepper pods that have in some way gone off -- moldy, discolored, etc. I keep them and dry them separately, and use an old coffee grinder.

Depending on the area, I may also put some rose, greenbrier, citrus, wild locust, wild blackberry, etc. thorny clippings or holly leaves, juniper, etc. in the area as have been suggested ... But I have to be careful to remember because I have on occasion hurt myself with the thorny stuff,

greenstubbs
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I have no love for feral or neighbors cats that are allowed to roam! My problem isn't in the garden, but in the yard. You can go to your towns "animal control" place and rent a trap, or go buy one and catch the SOB's and dispose of them as you see fit! They will do nothing but breed and then you have a bigger problem on your hands. If I could, I'd be giving them high impact lead poising.

imafan26
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I have birds eating sluggo and eating lettuce leaves and seeds right out of the pots. I also had huge locusts and mongoose digging up the beds especially if I buried kitchen waste when I lived on a perimeter lot with a ravine in back. It was impossible to grow anything unless it was caged and covered from birds, locusts, mongoose and all kinds of insects, but especially the leaf footed stinkbugs and locusts. Small bugs would get in micro sprinkler and I would have to manually clean them nearly every week.

I did end up building a cage around the garden. I used pvc piy pipe and covered it with fabric netting. It worked as long as the insects were excluded but still had problems when they got in. There were feral cats around, but they never used the garden as a litter box.

I do have feral cats in my community garden and I have learned to garden with gloves. I don't have that much of a problem because I have very little bare dirt. I divided my garden into sections. I have even installed shut off valves on the T's off the mainline so I can work on one section and still be watering the rest of the garden.

When I do work on a section, I till and plant in the same day and I water deeply 4-6 inches down. Cats don't like to dig in wet soil. I used to put plastic fencing on the bed and hold it down with U-wires and removed the fencing after about a week and the ground had settled. If I waited two weeks, sometimes I ended up pulling out some of the seedlings too.
Then, I started using citrus peels. Cats don't like the smell of lemon and the peels spread over the ground is a deterrent. It does have to be replaced since they lose their effectiveness once they dry out. Usually once the plants start filling in, the cats are less inclined to dig in it. I practice intensive, not square foot gardening, so I don't have 'rows' of dirt between the plants and I plant smaller plants below larger ones to maximize the use of the space.

I did try these plastic springy things that were supposed to be cat deterrents and they work as the cats don't like to step on them, but they are maybe 8 inches square and you have to have a lot of them strategically placed, just one is not enough. I know people leave out jars of water on their walls. I don't really know if that works or not. The cats supposedly see their reflection and think another cat has claimed the territory.

Where I am living now, I do occasionally catch a stray cat sleeping in my orchids or jumping over my fence, but the worse is the neighbor's dog who regularly gets loose and messes in my and my other neighbors yard. We would all love to shoot the owners and make dog adobo with that noisy thing.

Mulch is not a deterrent as much as something heavy like rocks or can't be dug into like plastic, or if plants are tall and closely spaced. The cats at the community garden use the mulch piles for a toilet, so I know mulching would not stop them in my garden plot.

KiwiGardener
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I use a combination of measures to minimise the occurrence of feral cats in my garden. Apart from stratigically placed plastic netting pieces I also save large hedge cuttings and larger items destined for compost eg broad bean plants and place them over any bare soil. They are easily moved and can be added to as necessary. Pieces of aluminium foil threaded on a string reflect the light and help discourage visiting cats.

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rainbowgardener
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We have three outdoor cats that we feed, that were strays that just showed up. I can't call them feral, since they are tame and affectionate and like to be petted. They make sure we don't have mice or rats on our property, which we would otherwise. My garden beds never have bare soil and there are plenty of wilder areas for the cats to use, which they prefer, so I don't have trouble with them using the garden for litter box.

We do spay or neuter any stray cats that show up, which I think is the only responsible thing to do.

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jal_ut
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Simple: Kill the cat!

dustyrivergardens
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I have a neighbor that is the cat lady for our small town and over the years I have found that a layer of pine needles keeps them out....good luck

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Gary350
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Cats are never a problem in any garden. The problem is, people do not understand cats. Cats are Meat eaters. I have 4 cats, my neighbor has 5 cats, the other neighbor has 3 cats, the other neighbor has 2 cats. I have cats in my garden all the time, they are my friends. Cats keep away, possums, squirrels, rabbits, birds, and other small animals that eat my garden. Possums come after dark, squirrels come when crops are ripe, birds peck holes in everything just to get a drink of water, rabbits will eat anything green. Why do people think cat poop is, toxic, poison, dangerious, it is not more dangerious than cow, horse or rabbit manure. The only reason cats poop in the garden is because the soil is soft and it is easy to dig a hole and cover it up. If you keep a soft place tilled just for cats to poop or a pile of sand to poop in cats will never poop in your garden. Cats are clean animals, much cleaner than dogs but no one every seems to complain about dog poop with swarms of green maggot flies all over the whole yard and stuck to the bottom of their shoes.

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jal_ut
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imafan26: " We would all love to shoot the owners "

Whoa, that may be going a bit too far? Perhaps a good slap up side of the head instead? :)

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hendi_alex
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Yep, kill the cats. Maybe feral is the wrong word, perhaps free roaming would be better. However, IMO free roaming cats are far worse than feral cats, cats that have reverted to the wild state. Wild cats have pretty large ranges with not a lot of overlap with other cats. That habit prevents overcrowding and undue strain on the native animal population. On the other hand, domesticated cats that are allowed to roam are nature's nightmare. They can exist in far greater than natural densities and wreak havoc on all small to medium sized wildlife. They are murderous beasts that kill just for practice, even when they are fully fed all of the time. Those cats should be captured and adopted out as indoor cats, they should be penned, or they should be put down. Placing the blame on bad pet owners does nothing to reduce the problem. The problem is too many cats where they should not be, period. Reduce their numbers in those location, and one reduces the problem. Spaying and releasing helps a little, but still doesn't solve the root problem of too many cats exceeding the carrying capacity of the habitat.

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jal_ut
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Perhaps we worry too much?

There has always been cats around my world since I was a child. Some hung out in the barn, some hung out around the house, some were pets, some were wild, you couldn't get near them. You would see some out in the fields far away from houses or barns. Wild? Domesticated and out for a stroll? I don't know.

All the cats I have ever had were free to roam at will. For the most part it never seemed to be a problem. I have a couple of times had one kill a little chick. Occasionally one will get itself wounded or killed by some machinery or a car. But we all face that risk? In the winter before you start the car, bang on the hood, cats sometimes perch on the warm engine and when leaving when the car is started I have seen them get caught up in the fan belt. arrrrrrggggghhhh!

For sure it seems that we have less problems with rodents if there is a cat around?

At present there are two cats hanging out here. They come into the garage at night and we feed them. Daytime they are free to roam the yard. They do not come in the house. My rule number 14: No cats in the house! There is a liter box for them to use when in the garage, when outside they pick their spot. Yes, even in the garden, but it has never been a problem.

I know of no instances of disease or parasite that have been attributed to cats in my family.

Hey, take them in to the vet and get their shots. Then enjoy those cats and let them do their thing.

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jal_ut
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Oh, I should mention I am also an avid bird watcher. We feed the birds here in winter. The feeder is on a six foot tall metal post the cats can't climb and they won't jump that high. So no cats on the bird feeder and the birds get along fine. Yes, I have seen the cat monitor the feeder in interest, but never saw a cat get a bird from the feeder. You know the birds are not blind and they recognize the threat too.

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hendi_alex
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Feeders work fine with cats around, as long as a bit of common sense is used in mounting the station. But bird houses are another matter. The cat plants itself within a few feet of the bird house and antagonizes the bird until it sweeps toward the cat. Within a few sweeps, the bird is usually cat food. This is true whether the nest is in a box or is in a natural bush or low tree location. There is nothing natural about this predator overload, where a single domestic cat can kill dozens or even hundreds of birds in its lifetime, not to mention the plethora of other wild critters that get destroyed by these destructive animals.

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rainbowgardener
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We don't put any low birdhouses. We do feed "feral" outdoor cats. As noted, they watch the birds, but rarely get one. They do get the occasional bird, mostly the morning doves, which are ground feeders and slow. We have plenty of morning doves, so I don't mind. In a natural eco-system, birds would be hunted by hawks, eagles, foxes, coyotes, etc. We have none of those here in the city. There needs to be a top predator for the health of the system. Of other critters, they get mainly mice, rats, shrews, voles. In all the years we've been here feeding them, I only once have seen them get a baby squirrel and honestly we have plenty of squirrels. The adult squirrels are way too fast at climbing trees for the cats to get them.

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Lindsaylew82
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Here, the birds pester the wild cats so much, that they look up as the walk around! I have bird boxes and nests all over. We have a huge feral cat problem, too. We catch, spay, tip the ear, and release. They're great vermin control, and they're not NEARLY as messy as the neighborhood DOGS that people don't keep penned. I watch my step in my garden all summer long with the free range dogs on the loose. Cats are no problem here. A welcome pest deterrent.

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hendi_alex
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"it is not more dangerous than cow, horse or rabbit manure. "

You're saying that poop from a meat eater is similar quality to that of herbivores? Why not use cat poop and dog poop in your compost pile then?

" I have 4 cats, my neighbor has 5 cats, the other neighbor has 3 cats, the other neighbor has 2 cats. I have cats in my garden all the time"

I rest my case. Couldn't have provided a better example of too many cats!

"they're not NEARLY as messy as the neighborhood DOGS that people don't keep penned."

I can't believe that society still puts up with dogs running loose through the neighborhoods in some places. Not nearly as much trouble with that here as there used to be. I absolutely hate stepping in dog poop. Was the most disgusting thing that I noticed on our trip to NYC, dog poop everywhere on the side walks, parks, etc. That was about 8 years ago. If I catch a dog running loose, I either hold it in our fenced yard until the neighbor picks it up, or call the pound to pick it up.



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