My Tiny PlotCat-Proof Radish
I decided to plant my radish in a small wicker tub in the back garden. There are too many problems with flea beetle up at the allotment so I thought this would be the safer option. I sowed some seed around a week ago and the seedlings are up already. However, it seems that I’m not the only person interested in the tiny seedlings. Yesterday I found that half of them had been dug up by a certain grey and white kitten. So much for ‘safer in the backgarden’. So.. I’ve tried cat pepper (it doesn’t work), I’ve also tried those freaky glow in the dark gel things (they don’t work either). This time I meant business – time to crack open the wooden skewers. It worked. Now the little sh*$! can pee somewhere else (of course I love him really).
Oh how I understand THAT problem! Some years ago we tried growing mushrooms with a kit in a cardboard box thingy. We were in a flat then and the only place to put it was on top of the fridge freezer. Mushrooms gradually started to grow but only ever round the edges of the box, we wondered if this was meant to happen and carried on harvesting them, yum yum. After a week or so i went into the kitchen to see a very happy , smiling tabby face peering from the box having relieved himself right in the middle!
He thought he’d struck gold not having to go outside for a widdle when he didn’t want to – thankyou mummy!
We didn’t eat any more of those shrooms!
Oh man! – that’s cat’s for you – ultimately lazy. Since I posted this he has broken through the barrier of skewers and rummaged in my radish again. I’ve doubled the defences!
I read your blog regularly and just read the comment out to my boyfiend as we have cats and similar problems! However, he has read somewhere that a guy had put coffee grounds around his plants to help the soil and this deterred cats as the smell is too strong for them. Haven’t tried it myself…but could we worth a go!
Brilliant – we have lots of coffee grounds (because we drink lots of coffee). I’ll give it a go. Thanks!
I so sympathise with the cat crapping problem. I have one that’s been doing it EVERY DAY on my lawn. I wouldn’t mind the flowerbeds, but the lawn is sacrosanct.
Thus I have bought a device called a Scarecrow, and it really works. Motion tracker sees cat on lawn and fires water at it. Brilliantly effective and highly recommended.
I have a unique (and slightly odd) suggestion re the naughty felines – stemming from a village in Spain where my Dad lives that has a large stray cat population.
All the villagers leave two-litre (clear) fizzy drinks bottles filled with water on their doorsteps (lids sealed).
I don’t know how but it miraculously results in cat mess – free doorways and stairs.
Keep up the good work! (from a fellow allotment owner)
Alice x
Hi Jess – do you have a link to that Scarecrow device? I might give it a go!
I’ve found that cat repellents containing citronella work well there are various biodegradeable types available