Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

We had a problem with one of our pet cats wanting to use all the large indoor
flower pots instead of her litter box. We took a "make them less inviting"
approach ...

1. Wire mesh screen across the top of the pots ... turn down the edges to fit
the top of the container and then wire down in place if necessary. We used a
fairly wide square mesh for this, so a lot of plants would be able to come up
through the mesh and continue to grow. The screen was a few inches above the
dirt, so this made it hard for her to reach the dirt and dig, and the mesh was
uncomfortable for her feet when she tried to sit in the container.

2. LOTS of large bamboo skewers ... stick them in the dirt point side up (about
2-3" exposed) fairly close together .. instant cat sized pungi sticks.

3. When she was really determined, we had a powered water gun that we kept
under the couch ... if we caught her trying to dig in the pots anyway, we'd send
a stream of water in her direction ... cats don't like to be wet. (After
awhile, we didn't need to even have water in the gun ... just the sound of it
was enough to make her back away.)

None of these methods hurt the cats, but they go a long way toward encouraging
them to take their business elsewhere. :-)

They like your container gardens because they're easy to dig in ... maybe if you
placed another container outside your fence, the cats could be encouraged to use
that one instead (that way they wouldn't even have to jump the fence.) You
could maybe put it far away from your fence even ... like in your neighbors yard
...

Annette
Who loves my kitties ... and my plants ...

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