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.

Bold the Beautiful

Miss Bold made a trip to the vets yesterday to be spayed.  She was not happy about it but is enjoying a certain amount of coddling as part of her recovery.  She is supposed to have crate rest for the next week.  Her incision is looking good and she is eating well.  She especially enjoys having her own plate of food and not having to share with the others. 
I cut back my sweet potato vines today.  I've been meaning to do it for a while.  They were rampaging all over the place.  some were visiting the melons.  Some were outdoing the cucumbers on their own supports.  A few were saying hello to the tomatoes.  One was slogging through the onion patch to greet the okra..  They are currently back in their own area and I took a large mound of vines and gave them to the ducks and chickens.
When I first went out to the garden to work, the kittens were nowhere to be seen.  No sooner had a picked some summer squash than furry bodies appeared.  Blaze and Darth Fluffy were the first.  Moments later, Snip, Snippet and Tiger appeared.  Snip and Blaze were most determined to help me by getting under my feet and inspecting every cut I made with my hand pruners.  Sometimes the safest way to garden with cats is the scoop them up and snuggle them in your arms while someone else does the cutting.  Blaze and Snip love to be scooped and snuggled.
I picked my first burgundy okra and found three nice sized summer squash.  Some of the tomatoes are ready to pick and there are armloads of sweet banana peppers in every shade from yellow through orange and red.  Lots more to do.