Incoming and ongoing cat woes

[usedteabag]

Hi everyone! I know many of you must be cat owners and lovers, as am I. But let me tell you a little story about my cats and gardening.

I have two cats. Cat#1, named Schmichael, is exceedingly polite, doesn't jump on furniture, and brings us mice from outside--and eats them whole to save us the trouble of cleaning up the mess! Cat #2, named Mushroom, we picked up off the side of the highway as an eight month old kitten last August and at that time, hadn't discovered our plants, indoor or outdoor. But now he has proved to be a rambunctious, highly annoying trouble maker who likes to get into the compost at night and antagonize Cat #1. Cat #2 has also taken a recent interest in our houseplants. While he has no interest in certain ones, like our rosemary plants, he has already destroyed two others: one was a spider plant and the other I actually don't know (passed on plant from in-law).

But as you can imagine, with gardening season fast approaching, I'm worried about my future plants and seedlings. I've had a previous cat that I was sitting that ate all my lovely watermelon seedlings at night, and I don't want a repeat incident!

So you know what precautions I have already taken, my partner and I have designated spray bottles with water for when Mushroom jumps on things he's not supposed to, but he just does it at night anyway. We block access to the compost when we're in bed or not home. We've tried those storebought sprays that are meant to discourage chewing on things, but the tenneant in my house seems slightly allergic, so I can't use those.

Anyone have good methods for keeping their cats away from their potential spring/summer harvest? Thanks!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Last year one of my daughter's cats were in the house and she kept going in the bathroom where I was starting my seedlings. She must have liked the heat from the lamp I was using because I kept having to remove her from laying on top of the tray I was starting the seedlings in. Made me want to do unspeakable things to her.
I'm not exactly a cat lover. Sorry.
I only consented to the cat until my daughter moved into her college apartment, which has occured. My 16 year old picked up a stray from a clinic, which is already spayed and I recently informed her that the cats needs to start earning her keep and being a cat. She is outside and learning to deal with dogs and lizzards (unfortunately). I imagine she will move on to small birds and mice soon. I think on a farm, every animal needs a job. My dogs have their purpose, my poultry feeds me and fertilizes the yard/garden and tends to the grass and weeds. Goats, more of the same. I have a hard time really appreciating the cat, so far. I've had a few good ones, so I'll give Tink a chance. I'll see what the cat drags in. But I wanted catnip this year and if she digs it up.....GRRRrrr!!

 

[pinkfox]

ive been told that citrus peels help keept cats away, just sit them ontop of the dirt, supposedly works great

 

[ORChick]

Re: Catnip - get one of those hanging wire baskets that you can line with moss - or improvise something similar (don't use the moss, just the basket ) Turn it over your catnip, and use a few wire staples (hooks made from heavy gauge wire) to hold it down. The catnip will grow up and through the wire, and the cats will nibble and rub on it - but they won't be able to get to the base of the plant and kill it. The plant will eventually get large enough that you won't see the cage. I learned this trick from the herb lady at the farmers' market; she had little cages over all her pots of mixed herbs that contained catnip.
Re: Housecats and houseplants - I haven't ever had too much trouble with that, as I don't keep many plants in the house. The few I have are up on higher surfaces. I did have one cat who liked to chew on the lemongrass when I brought it in for the winter (never when it was outside in the summer ) but he didn't do too much damage, so I let it go. As to the seedlings in your bathroom - can you keep the door shut? Or keep the light down low enough that he can't get between light and plants? Or fix up another lamp with a comfy cat bed in a better place? By compost, do you mean the compost pile outside, or the compost bucket inside? If inside, try keeping it under the sink, with a childproof latch on the cupboard door.
The biggest problem that I have with my cats and plants is that they are convinced that any newly dug over ground is meant as a sandbox for them. Once something is actually growing there they are more inclined to leave the area alone. This means that I have to start almost all my garden seeds in flats to plant out. I've found though that lengths of wire mesh laid over the garden beds (actually arched over , like little tunnels, and a little more at the ends) is usually enough to keep them out. Doesn't look too pretty, but once the plants are up I can take it off.
Cats, as you know, are not easily trained. But, once they have shown you what their annoying habits are (and they don't, of course, all have the same annoying habit ) there is usually a way to work around it/them. I have 5 cats at present ... with a whole plethora of annoying habits. Luckily they also have many good points to offset the annoying bits

 

[Denim Deb]

You need 2 things, mice traps and newspaper. Set the mice traps and lay them on the area you want the cats to stay off of. Then, gently put the newspaper over top of it-single sheets only! The idea is, the cat will get up, the trap will spring, and while it will not harm the cat, it will scare it off of the area.

 

[usedteabag]

Hi guys, thanks for all the replies thus far! A little more clarification:

-->No plants in bathroom, so no worries there--sorry if I caused confusion.
--> We are working on sending Mushroom outside more and training him to be a useful cat like his friend/nemesis, our other cat. He seems interested in hunting but not good at it yet. Then again, few if any mice out and about now.
--> I should have been more clear: he gets into the compost bucket in the house. We have a makeshift lock on the compost cupboard door that works, but he's figured out that he can just go in the other cupboard door to wander past the household cleaners and get to the compost. (All space underneath the sink and countertop is connected, and the cupboard he now goes through we lean a chair on its side against it at night. Annoying but effective.)

Citrus peels, wire mesh, mousetrap and newspaper... These all sound like awesome ideas that I'll have to test, thank you!

I wonder, are there particular categories of plants or even just plant types that cats are attracted to or repelled by, does anyone know E.g., the cats are repelled by citrus peel and my rosemary but love spider plants and watermelon seedlings. Why?

And yeah, if my cats weren't so darn cute--and even useful in some cases--I wouldn't put up with them.

 

[Team Chaos]

Last year was my first year of cat vs. seedlings. I have no problems with cats but haven't spent a lot of time w/ them so I wasn't even anticipating that our outdoor cat, Ole, would suddenly prefer laying on the seedling trays and pooping IN the hot box I made for germinating. UGH! Not to mention, he's just huge and would truck on down the planting tables and the grow out shelves and leave disaster in his wake. If anyone brandishes a spray bottle around him, well them's fightin' words and he won't go without a serious fight, so that was out of the question! I ended up making masking tape loops and putting them on top of the seeding trays w/ lids and that seemed to work. For the seedlings on the grow out shelves, I put automobile solar shades down the wide open sides and secured them on the top and bottom, then I closed up the sides w/ cardboard. Pain in the butt? Yeah, but not as stressful as seeing my plants destroyed. He really really really liked the more "succulent" (fat and water filled) seedlings to eat, so I made sure those weren't exposed within cat striking distance. As for my hot box (a tupperware bin w/ an xmas rope light coiled on the bottom and kitty litter (I didn't even consider that a CAT might get ideas about that) over it) I had to cut the lid in half and "hinge" it, so that he couldn't just pop off the top completely and poop it up in there. Once it wasn't as easy to get in, he wasn't interested.
Fun times! Imagine my surprise when he chose, out of 80 acres, that he enjoyed peeing in the raised bed next to me while I planted :/ I learned a lot about cats vs. gardening last year.

 

[terri9630]

You need 2 things, mice traps and newspaper. Set the mice traps and lay them on the area you want the cats to stay off of. Then, gently put the newspaper over top of it-single sheets only! The idea is, the cat will get up, the trap will spring, and while it will not harm the cat, it will scare it off of the area.

If mouse traps are used tape a stick or something inside it to to keep it from closing all the way. A mouse trap can break a cats foot or tail. I found that using double sided tape worked better. When my daughter was born my cat wouldn't stay out of the crib so when the baby wasn't in the crib I laid several strips of the tape in the crib. After having to untangle herself from the tape a couple of times she quit getting in there. It worked on the house plants too. Couldn't stop her from eating the spider plants or wandering Jews though. They must tate wonderful!

 

[Denim Deb]

You need 2 things, mice traps and newspaper. Set the mice traps and lay them on the area you want the cats to stay off of. Then, gently put the newspaper over top of it-single sheets only! The idea is, the cat will get up, the trap will spring, and while it will not harm the cat, it will scare it off of the area.

If mouse traps are used tape a stick or something inside it to to keep it from closing all the way. A mouse trap can break a cats foot or tail. I found that using double sided tape worked better. When my daughter was born my cat wouldn't stay out of the crib so when the baby wasn't in the crib I laid several strips of the tape in the crib. After having to untangle herself from the tape a couple of times she quit getting in there. It worked on the house plants too. Couldn't stop her from eating the spider plants or wandering Jews though. They must tate wonderful!

That's the reason for the paper on top. It's to keep the trap from closing on the cat. I've tried this method B4, and it worked. Not one of the traps closed on the cat.

 

[ORChick]

Last year was my first year of cat vs. seedlings. I have no problems with cats but haven't spent a lot of time w/ them so I wasn't even anticipating that our outdoor cat, Ole, would suddenly prefer laying on the seedling trays and pooping IN the hot box I made for germinating. UGH! Not to mention, he's just huge and would truck on down the planting tables and the grow out shelves and leave disaster in his wake. If anyone brandishes a spray bottle around him, well them's fightin' words and he won't go without a serious fight, so that was out of the question! I ended up making masking tape loops and putting them on top of the seeding trays w/ lids and that seemed to work. For the seedlings on the grow out shelves, I put automobile solar shades down the wide open sides and secured them on the top and bottom, then I closed up the sides w/ cardboard. Pain in the butt? Yeah, but not as stressful as seeing my plants destroyed. He really really really liked the more "succulent" (fat and water filled) seedlings to eat, so I made sure those weren't exposed within cat striking distance. As for my hot box (a tupperware bin w/ an xmas rope light coiled on the bottom and kitty litter (I didn't even consider that a CAT might get ideas about that) over it) I had to cut the lid in half and "hinge" it, so that he couldn't just pop off the top completely and poop it up in there. Once it wasn't as easy to get in, he wasn't interested.
Fun times! Imagine my surprise when he chose, out of 80 acres, that he enjoyed peeing in the raised bed next to me while I planted :/ I learned a lot about cats vs. gardening last year.

What a great idea! I am stealing this!