Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

I plant almost everything by seed, not transplants. After sowing, I lay
chicken wire over my bed ( I have 12 X 4 foot raised beds).You can buy
chicken wire in 4 foot widths. I don't own cats, but there must be at least
6 neighborhood cats that think my garden beds are litter boxes ......... so
the chicken wire keeps them away for the most part. The whole bed must be
planted to crops that will come up and fill in at about the same time. I
lift the chicken wire off just as the plants are starting to come through
and keep the soil wet. These cats don't seem to like wet soil. Good Luck.
nj

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 9:25 AM, elijahapril <aprilstanfield@gmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> 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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