Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

You've had a lot of good responses, but my wife insists I add our solution. A couple of years ago we built raised beds in our approximately 60 x 60 garden and filled them with a loose growing medium. Our barn cats thought it was all for them, and they were very pleased.

We tried several things unsuccessfully. Then, I drove a steel T post just outside each corner of the garden, placed a few step-in electric fence posts between corners, and went around the entire perimeter four times with polywire (an electric fence wire composed of filaments of thin stainless steel and plastic). I hooked this to a solar fence charger left over from our dairying days, and the problem was solved. There were one or two yelps from cats that discovered the wire...and one cat got into the garden but dared not try to get back out. We carried him back to the barn and had no more cat trouble.

It was a bit of an inconvenience stepping over the short electric fence (about a foot and a half tall), but it sure did keep the cats out.

Lee

----- Original Message -----
From: elijahapril
To: MittleiderMethodGardening@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 11:25 AM
Subject: [MittleiderMethodGardening] Cat problems!

I'm just at my wits end with the cats in my neighborhood. They have decided that my 10 container gardens are the perfect place to do their business and I cannot keep them away. There are at least 5 or 6 that I see every day, and though we chase them off they come right back as soon as I walk away. I planted seven rows of sunchokes last night, and came back this morning to find at least three of the rows trampled, dug around in, and used for a bathroom. My lettuce garden was destroyed, and my poor beets aren't going to make it either. I have 6 foot fences around the entire yard but they just hop up and over.

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS THAT CAN HELP ME!?

I could cover my gardens with burlap or something to keep them off until the plants pop through, but after they are up the cats will still come back, I lost a whole bed of peas thanks to a cat last year after transplanting them carefully. Once the plants are full mid summer they stay away, but in the mean time I'm just completely out of luck.

I would appreciate ANY ideas!! I've talked to the neighbors who have told me I'm out of luck because they aren't putting their cats on a leash (although it's the law in the town, I've never seen a cat on a leash EVER!), I've tried spreading ashes around the perimeter because a friend said they really dislike ashes. I don't want to hurt the animals just because they have lazy owners who refuse to take proper care of them and let them wander all day, but I'm about at the end of my rope.

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