Keeping Cats Out!

The problem with the raised bed is that is a cat attractor.  Nothing wrong with attracting cats if you want them where they are being attracted.  Seeds, tiny plants, and digging cat paws don't mix well unless you don't care of the seeds and plants grow.

Since the cats live outside and the the bed is outside, but I am not outside all the time, I could see that it was going to be a challenge to keep the cats out of the bed.  I considered several options.  The first was to put some kind of net over the top of the bed.  That would work if I had the netting or the budget to purchase it.  The second was to get some plastic sheeting and use pvc hoops to cover the bed like I hoped to do over the winter anyway, but had the same problem as with the netting.  There had to be a better solution that was easy, free, and available. 

I was mulling over my options when I noticed the cats playing around but not in a pile of branches that had been deposited near the bed after we had chipped up the previous pile.  Perhaps if I piled them over the bed after it was planted, the cats would be deterred.

I think that the best part of having a garden is planting the seeds.  Your hopes and dreams of the harvest to come haven't yet been marred by disasters like drought, frost, and cats.

 I grabbed several packets of cool loving plant seeds and began marking out rows.  I started with green bunching onions, then planted beets, two kinds of chard, then two kinds of cauliflower, some Brussels sprouts and more beets.  I was actually about six weeks late planting the seeds, but it couldn't be helped.  After planting the seeds, I picked up a bunch of the branches and laid the over the bed criss-crossing them until there were no places big enough for a cat.  There were no leaves so the sun was easily able to penetrate the bed.

In a week, I saw the first leaves of my new plants.  The beets and chard were up first and the onions were last.  We had a lot of weeds pop up as well.  The morning glories are the worst, but they are easy to pull.  They were young and succulent and perfect for my new ducklings to nibble on.  They have also been sampling the lambs quarter, chickweed, ground ivy, and wild amaranth.  If truth be told many of those are edible for us too, but I prefer to let my birds enjoy them.

The little plants have come up too thickly in some places and I am considering thinning the rows and enjoying the micro-greens as part of a meal for the family.  I recently removed the branches because I need to cultivate the rows. and the cats have been leaving the plants alone until this morning.  The loose dirt in the rows was too enticing.  They don't like to dig in wet soil, so a good fertilizing with some manure tea could be just the thing.  If I have to, I'll put the branches back until the plants are larger.  This time, I'll have the branches hanging over the side more to discourage jumping up in the first place.  Bold, Snip, and Blaze are the worst for that.

Cats and a Garden Experiment with Hugelkutur

There is something about the stillness of a clear fall afternoon that is so restful.  That is, until the cats discover that not only are you outside, but that your lap is available for casual occupation.  Bold and Darth Fluff approached at the same time but Bold got the lap space.  She turned around once and flopped.  Then she belched.  Evidently, her early supper met with approval.  After sitting for a few minutes and soaking up attention, she decided to jump down and chase away one of the other cats.

After Bold got down, Blaze decided it was her turn.  Then I had three of them (with the addition of Little Blue and Snip) for a little while.  I didn't really have room for three, but none of them wanted to give way for the others.

A recent project we built in the garden was a large raised bed.  I've been reading about hugelkultur and decided I wanted to do a version of that, after all, we have the raw materials in abundance and it would be shame not to utilize them.  It sure beats leaving them to rot in place.

I wanted to build the bed using three courses of concrete blocks around the sides.  I thought it would be a good working height.  Unfortunately, we are short on concrete blocks, so we started looking for other materials.  I suggested to my husband that even decent wooden pallets could work.  We found a free source on Craig's list and were able to get enough to build the project.  Right now the bed is four feet high by four feet wide by twelve feet long.  (I think if I was going to do it again, I'd cut the pallets in half so the beds were only two feet high.)

Because of the large gaps between the pallet slats, we utilized an old pool liner on the inside of the pallet walls.  Not a pretty solution, but it keeps the bed contents in place.  Landscape fabric would be good to use the next time we do this.  The pallet frame was situated in an over grown section of the garden.  Think weeds and light brush.  The whole bed was filled to overflowing with leafy brush, then we pressed it down with short chunks of heavy dried branches.  The brush compressed down to less than a foot thick and then the heavier wood filled up the bed to about two thirds full.  On top of that we piled wood chips to help fill in the gaps and then we added grass clippings, chicken manure, and composted leaves.  The final few inches at the top of the bed were filled with soil we had built over the past couple of years with organic materials.

The whole time we were building this, the cats stayed out of the way, but their curiosity with the new bed was evident with their tracks the day after we finished putting the dirt in.  They all agreed that my new winter garden bed should be a cat play ground.  The only trouble was they didn't consult me before making their decision.  I didn't spend two days of hard labor just to entertain my cats!