Cat Guards

We have (choke choke) 11 cats; I’m not sure why, I wish I did, but I don’t. Cats are wonderful, snugly, sweet, independent, mischievous, and on occasion, naughty animals….and we love them. But cats and gardens don’t always mix. Many times we have had to replant beds and shore up plants knocked over by playful kittys, not to mention the digging involved when felines need to ‘do their business’ and decide to do it on a newly planted garden bed. Several years ago we came up with the idea of using plant trays around transplants as well as on top of seed beds to discourage our cats from using the garden as a big litter box.

I usually cut the edges off and secure with drip irrigation anchors. Most of the time I just leave them in all season; occasionally we will remove them once a bed is established.



I used to turn the trays in to our local nursery for recycling, now I just keep them and add to our collection of plant protectors.  We have also used metal shelving (this green one was found in the neighbors trash) and old refrigerator shelves.

We still have areas of dirt where the cats can dig to their hearts content, shady spots that don’t support edible garden life, but the places that we use for food production are fairly well protected .  We do have one cat that will ‘go’ on top of the guards….but she is the exception…sigh, there’s always one :)