Damn Blasted Cats!!!!

[puddingz]

Yes, well the title describes my frustation. After much delay and hard work my young apple trees have started to grow and looking good. Some damn cat has dug up some soil and pooed in the containers. Every tree has been done. What do I do? Throw away the trees and soil and start again with the cheapies from Lidl? Replant the trees? Is it safe? Something else? I wanna catch and do horrible things to the cat now. Hang on, I can see it on the fence.....

[Zog]

Throw a football at it?

Seriously, can you stretch some chicken wire over the top of the pots? That way, they can't get to the earth but you can still water/weed etc. I certainly wouldn't get rid of the trees, just dee-poo the earth.

[puddingz]

Zog - What a brilliant idea! I don't want to throw them away but doesn't cat poo has toxins in it. Won't the toxins be absorbed by the soil? Won't the apples be affected? (single ticket to paranoid city please)
P.S. Damn cat saw me and ran off

[Zog]

Well I would say that if the cat's only just done it and you remove all the poo (and maybe a little of the surrounding soil and replace with fresh) that you would have nothing to worry about as it hasn't had a chance to leech into the soil. But I'm no expert

[mrsvern]

I have a cat problem too - they dug up all my onion sets twice until I used chicken wire over the raised bed. I would say remove the poo and the appels when they finally grow will be fine - I doubt there would be toxins left - think of apples bought in a shop. How many animals must wee/poo up against trees in an orchard?

[puddingz]

Paranoid City didn't want me!
I'm ashamed to say that the poo looks like it been there for quite some time . In my defence for the weeks I've been so busy - I arranged my dd's christening, handmade the invites, made her dress, decorated the cakes, decorated the room and designed and printed the order of service for the church. Take pity on me pleaseeeeee

[puddingz]

And the damn cat brought a new friend..

[mrsvern]

nice two cats

I would still say it will be ok by the time the apples fruit.

[jenkel]

Whats horse manure? and you put that on the garden.

[puddingz]

Jenkel, I can get some manure from a local stable. But will it work? I don't want to go to all that trouble (read as - me going near smelly stuff )and it doesn't work.

[Wisp]

I've been plagued with this too. I read that cats hate citrus, so I rubbed lemon essential oil on the pots and patches of grass the cat seemed to like, and he hasn't been back for 2 months! I havn't even re-applied the oil, but it certainly did the trick for me.
Good Luck

[fletch81]

I have a bad problem with my next door neighbours cats. They think my garden is a litter tray. I spoke to the neighbour about it and she now has 4 cats. Its driving me mad. My daughter is starting to get about now but i dont want her to play in the garden coz there is always mess out there no matter how much i clean up. Anyone have any tips to stop them coming in my garden?

[fizzbuzz]

Put something prickly on flower beds, also does tin foil work?(or is that slugs) I too am plagued by this, apparently the best thing is to get one of thoses kids massive water guns, and squirt orange at them. There is also some plant you can buy that cats hate,but can't remember name of it.
Found a great cat haters website once who recommended the water guns. Good Luck!

[fletch81]

Thanks i will give it a go. I will enjoy it aswell.

[fizzbuzz]

Yeah so would I. Cats are basically feral animals, and in Australia, they have to be controlled, so they cannot crap everywhere, and kill birds, mice etc. Found one trying to get a frog out of my pond..think perhaps I will emigrate to Australia.
I will say this loud and proud I HATE *CATS! Yeah feel much better now..love dogs though.....

[fizzbuzz]

Yeah so would I. Cats are basically feral animals, and in Australia, they have to be controlled, so they cannot crap everywhere, and kill birds, mice etc. Found one trying to get a frog out of my pond..think perhaps I will emigrate to Australia.
I will say this loud and proud I HATE *CATS! Yeah feel much better now..love dogs though.....

[fizzbuzz]

Yeah so would I. Cats are basically feral animals, and in Australia, they have to be controlled, so they cannot crap everywhere, and kill birds, mice etc. Found one trying to get a frog out of my pond..think perhaps I will emigrate to Australia.
I will say this loud and proud I HATE *CATS! Yeah feel much better now..love dogs though.....

[fizzbuzz]

Why have I posted that last message 3 times? Best thing ever was, when we moved into our house it was a really hot summer. All local cats would settle on shed roof very very annoying. DH put binliners on roof, as they get very hot in the sun...soon got rid of the little *

[fletch81]

My DH said that we can get a dog in the new year. The bin liners were a very good idea though!! I think i will just get a spade and start throwing it back over their garden so they can clean it up and see how they like it!!!!!!!!!!

[fizzbuzz]

Have to say, although this bears no relevance to thread, that dh calls them "cooking fats" (work it out). Great until ds age about 7 decided to tell his teacher about the cooking fats on the shed

[fletch81]

How funny. Im lucky my daughter isn't talking properly yet and cant grass me up! What did the teacher say?

[fizzbuzz]

Fortunately she thought it was hilarious. Ds still doesn't know what it really means..yet...

[fletch81]

Well at least she has a sense of humour. My cousins little girl went to nursery a couple of months ago and told her teacher that when her dad gets up in the morning he has pointy pants. I would just want the ground to swallow me up if that happend to me, but then thats kids and they do say the funniest things.

[puddingz]

Allow me to hijack this thread but need to say thankyou for the lemon oil suggestion, which smells much nicer than the manure suggestion. Pointy Pants -