Plant a garden bed just for cats?

[bilby1915]

Plant a garden bed just for cats?

1 Mar '06 5:37 am

i don't know, but i have heard, if you have a serious cat problem in your garden, one way is to DISTRACT them. Plant out at least one area with all the things they love (catnip, catgrass, valerian and other cat friendly plants). That way, they will be so busy playing there, that they won't be digging up your seedlings or whatever other damage they might do.

Just a theory, haven't tried it.

Has anyone else tried it?

this webpage (by a vet) had great ideas (i just googled cat friendly plants)
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1315&S=0&SourceID=28

[CottageGarden]

5 Mar '06 1:03 am

I don't mean to be negative here, but I don't think you understand the true nature of the problem when it comes to cats and flower beds.... They don't do alot of damabe digging (leave that for the dogs).... Its that they use the bds as litter boxes. And I'm afraid if I planted a whole bed of ktty treats I'd end up with every stray cat in the neighborhood hanging around all the time. Sorry.

I'll stick to the method I use. It works and the cats don't return: live animal traps. the word "live" in the name means that it doesn't actually hurt the animal... they end up trapped (very much alive and usually extremely mad) in a small cage. Then just call and the city guys haul them off and return the trap.

Most of the strays taken to our animal shelter are not put down because they have a no-kill policy. But animals that are mean or diseased are destroyed. Its kind of sad, but if you think about it, how would you like to live in a sewer, eating only what you can catch, and be dinner for whatever animal came along that's bigger and badder?

[Liza]

Dear friend,

5 Mar '06 1:30 am

...maybe, it would be really useful for you (and the cats) to read what Bex and myself had proposed in the past for similar cat-problems. You may simply go to this very section and read the "Cats" subject. Or, www.forums.mooseyscountrygarden.com/garden422.html

[bilby1915]

5 Mar '06 5:10 am

hi cottage gardener,

i live in a city of one million, in the burbs. I seem to be the only household in my street that doesn't have a cat. Everyone loves these cats. If i set animal traps, my neighbours would hate me. So many single households get a cat for company. Complain to me all the time about the vet bills. I just nod cos i don't know what to say.

I don't grow cat attractant plants in my garden cos i don't want to attract them. But all my neighbours cats "visit" alot. In winter, they use my dormant garden beds as kittylitter and i really hate this. (I feel like if i said this to people, they would think i was a mean so and so)

There are moves in my council area to make keeping cats indoors at night a by-law, and there is SO much dissent i can't see it getting through. I would like it so the native birds would be safer at night.

In the country i live in, cats are an environmental nightmare, they kill the wildlife. But people love cats and so it is very hard to state my views without feeling like i will dirty looks. I feel brave even stating it here!

One of the reasons the bilby (my favourite animal) is endangered is because (introduced species) cats eat them.

I guess i assumed this forum thread (like real life for me) was populated by catlovers, so i was trying to fit in, by posting something, that i hoped, cat lovers would like.

sorry - i am new, just feeling my way.

hi liza, i'll go check out your links

[CottageGarden]

5 Mar '06 5:34 am

I love cats too... but I don't want them in my flower beds! And I've trapped neighbor's cats and they've had to go pick them up at the pound and pay the fine.... Of course, I DID NOT do this without first talking to them and letting them know that I would be setting the traps to capture strays. They were forewarned, and strays are such a major problem here that they agreed there needed to be something done ot get rid of some of them.

Stray cats don't get shots, get all kinds of nasty diseases, and then spread them all over through contact with other animals and in thier poo.... I just hate going to work in a flower bed and getting a handfull of cat doo!

[Liza]

Hi!	5 Mar '06 8:24 am

Hi, again, dear ones! Please, don't feel guilty! Everything is so natural, if you have a global, positive approach. This is our Planet Earth, which we all have to share with Love and Respect -and humor, that's all.

[Liza]

"Cat-friendly Garden Design"

5 Mar '06 10:32 pm

Dear Bilby,

Regarding your very first post in this section, don't miss Bex's "Cat-friendly Garden Design",in this very section, as well. It is super!

[catsmum]

13 Mar '06 10:12 pm

Hi girls
Up until 15 months ago I lived in the suburbs in an area adjacent to the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges. My particular local council didn't have a cat curfew but several close by did...and it worked very well.
My furrbabies have ALWAYS been inside-at-night cats and now that i live on 10 acres in the bush, full of wrens, kookaburras, finches, rosellas and other potential objects of cat aggression, my cats are inside cats all the time. The have acess to a 2m x 3m cat run cunningly disguised as a shade house via a catflap in the laundry and are quite happy with this arrangement. The catrun/shadehouse has catmint in abundance but the catnip and valerian got dug up in the search for the best spot to use as a litter box.
When they are out there they commune quite happily with my goats through the mesh.
A lot of their time is spent sitting near the double sliding kitchen door watching the succession of birds visiting the feeders. I placed these feeders near the doors quite deliberately to give the cats something to watch and they seem to enjoy their cat-tv.

[Bex]

Cat-friendly gardens

14 Mar '06 3:07 am

Good memory Liza on the cat-friendly garden design.

Susan - your description makes me want a cat of my own again! I do miss them, but it would just not be fair in a second floor flat Oh, to the countryside!!