My poor bulbs

I feel for you BlueBelle as the same thing happens here. I have a very small garden but it is very important to me. Next door’s cats climb out of their bedroom window onto the flat roof and down via the fence into my garden. As my soil is nice and crumbly, they love it. I would like to blast them with a hose (which I’ve been told works) but I need to keep on the right side of their owners.

PEPPER!!

Not cats in this case, but squirrels. What should have been a lovely tub of tulips is about to have four rather stunted flowers. I found several half-eaten bulbs spread around the patio though there was no sign of digging - the little b.....s had just pulled them out whereas the local badger would have made a mess digging them out.

You could try spraying the cats with a squirt of apple cider vinegar, white vinegar and water in equal parts. You will probably only manage to do that if they are not wary of you which they could be given your frustrations. Failing that spray it on the bulbs as it will make the cats feel pretty sick and they will steer clear. The problem is the rain but I would keep spraying if they were my bulbs!
We used it to stop the cat misbehaving when he was little and only had to use it a couple of times, now we shake the spray bottle and he rapidly desists!
My problem is the beastly crows who pull out my plant labels! No idea what deters crows though although come to think of it I haven't tried that spray on them.

Oh don't get me started on cats...........

Wire mesh over the garden area works. We call it 'chicken wire'. The mesh is large enough for plants to grow through, but keeps out animals.
We have a lot of deer, and they eat the crocuses as they start to come up. My hubby made a cage over them with the mesh. It isn't very visible from a short distance.

Well the resident sheep have eaten all my daffs and snowdrops!

Last Autumn my little grandsons and I planted tete a tete daffodils and grape hyacinths. The squirrel has eaten most of the daffs but not the grape hyacinths.
Daffodils are obviously taste must be the preferred choice for squirrels

Synonymous that requires sitting by the window all day, I work, I go out, I shop so can’t rely on spraying them or else they d have had a bucket of water over them, does the apple cider vinegar hurt the bulbs and flowers if I spray it round them? I ve tried curry powder around the edges, one of those electronic sound things, sent that back with a photo of the cat pooing inches from it. I ve put prickly branches all over and round the plants and bulbs and watched the littlebuggers tip toe through the prickles
I don’t hate cat I just hate them pooing and digging in my precious little garden Everyone aroun£ me has concrete gardens mines small but my oasis

Fill a large empty lemonade bottle (remove the label that goes round) with water, screw the top tight and lay it flat near the flower bed. Apparently the cat will see its reflection in the bottle and scamper away.

It's the squirrels with me. I have 3 cats a neighbour has 2 or 3 and another neighbour with 3, but there's never any problems with them as regards the gardens/plants/bulbs but the squirrels must smell the bulbs a mile off and I can tell they've been around because not only the pots or ground is disturbed but there are no bulbs ! A bit disheartening.

The cats aren't fazed by the squirrels and must watch while damage is being done.

I'm wanting to take a chance on some lily of the valley and freesia so I'll have to bring them in for a while.

Sorry CrazyH done that, in fact that was the first thing I tried, it made no difference I even put an old mirrow lent up behind one trough not a scrap of help

I don’t get any wild animals in my town garden and I ve seen two neighbours cats both ginger one smooth, one very fluffy jump over and I ve frightened them off, but obviously they call back when I m not around

I just wish people trained their kittens on a litter tray and just moved the tray outside the back door, cats like to be clean and habitual and it would make a big difference

We bought a battery powered cat scarer from the RSPB which proved very effective when we first moved here and the garden was the local cat toilet. Expensive but effective!

That’s the very thing I sent back I think Synonymous supposed to emit a high sound that is unpleasant to cats hearing they pooed an inch in front of it
The only thing I haven’t tried is lion poo and I really draw the line at buying poo to prevent poo

Ellanvannin it is the rabbits which have a good go at our front garden, they bomb over from the golf course. You can tell by the scats and the way they scrape the soil from the plant roots.

We found that the batteries needed regular replacement. I can remember when we were still using the cat scarer, pre Smokie's arrival, when we saw one cat which ignored it completely. Himself was incandescent and stalked the cat which ignored him completely until he was in sight and then the poor old cat jumped out of his skin. Clearly he was stone deaf poor thing. We never saw him again so I hope he didn't die of fright!

I could now cry
I ve done the Jeyes fluid ( Blimey that’s expensive £6 ) I ve putt a circle of little sticks around the newly planted bulbs with some sticks on top and this morning got up to find them all lying on the surface a few inches away from their homes
I ll have to go and buy some netting but I could strangle that fecking ginger bleddy moggy
Sorry but I m either going to swear or cryand at the moment it feels better to cuss

With me, it's next door's chickens....they come in to hoover up the fallen seed from the bird feeder, and trample on my plants. (I didn't know chickens could fly. They actually fly over the fence).

Put some sticks facing inwards around the bulbs this will stop them. Good luck ?

The best solution that I found was to get some bamboo canes and snap them into various, irregular lengths and stick them in between the plants. Get gardening string and make a "cat's cradle" network around and through the bamboo canes, zigzagging back and forth. This makes it very difficult for the cat to get anywhere near a patch of soil to squat and poo on. The sticks and string do look a bit untidy at first but, as the leaves of the plants/bulbs come through, they hide it in a short while.

Only sympathy I’m afraid BlueBelle, we have the same issue and so far no real solution. We’ve spent a Kings ransome on liquids and powders which are supposed to work - they don’t. A neighbour suggested dried tea bags soaked in very smelly muscle rub. Haven’t tried it yet but it’s next on the list. Like you we dont hate cats, just the mess and destruction.

My cat problem that I cannot solve is..........the cat/cuprit does it on my Lawn! grrrrrrrr harder to pick up and If I don't see it when mowing! well! yuk. not found a solution for this yet, i've tried dropping tea tree oil around the are but as yet no use. I have seen those sonic things that emit a high pitched sound no ide if they work.

The pest controller told us that the high-pitched sound can deter animals briefly, but that most soon learn to ignore it, but how true that is, i don't know.

Foxes are the bane of my gardening life. Two large pots of tulip bulbs dug up and half chewed. They also wander through flowerbeds, decide to have a lie down and completely flatten anything growing well on that particular spot.

I have resorted to chopped up bamboo in the flowerbeds but knowing my luck I could end up poking an eye out as I bend over to weed. They now all have rubber thingys at the tip. Doesn’t look particularly attractive but stops me wanting to shoot the bloody things?

I put grit around an area a neighbouring cat favoured and that stopped any further visits.