Cat poo in veggie patch

[SureFootedWhispher]

It's my cat.

My patch was once amazing, now it has blue bottles everywhere, potatoes sprouting where I don't want them and constant weeds. And nothing grows with much vigour now.

Should I be digging out the soil this autumn?

Would a fruit cage work agaist the cats? They pull up all the seeds too. Would it be very expensive?

It has four raised beds of 6 foot by 3 I think. And the wood chippings between each bed is now weeds and potatoes.

It is depressing me.

This wont get answered will it because people will thinkit's another cat poo thread?

Wood chipping aren't great because cats view them as an ideal toilet.

I plant my raised beds then protect the seeds and young plants by laying chicken wire over the beds (resting on the edges)
This means the cats can't get at the soil. Once the plants are mature and fill the bed the cats aren't interested.

If I'm not using a veg bed I cover it with permeable black membrane which inhibits weed growth and keeps my cats off the soil (although they love to sunbathe on the black covering as it is a heat trap)

Have you checked out the other cat-poo-in-my-beds thread here, surefootedwhisper? There are lots of suggestions on there.

To stop the plants coming up through your woodchip paths, try laying permeable landscaping membrane and then putting the chips back on top of it. I tucked the membrane under the edges of my raised bed timbers to keep it secured and it works a treat. You can order it online pretty cheaply or buy it at garden centres.

It did have a membrane! What about the soil quality? I use home compost but it isn't rotten down well and potatoes are sprouting everywhere.

Think we are going for a fruit cage. Have tried numerous things from canes, smelly stuff, netting, but there was just poo in mid air on the netting.

I don't want to use sound because there are chickensthe other side of the fence.

I swear by horse manure for soil quality. Find a nearby stables and give them a ring. Just make sure they don't use broad-leaved weed killer on their fields - my dad used some once from a farm that did, and the weedkiller survived the transit through the horse and killed all his veg.

If not much is thriving any more, it could be just low nitrogen - in which case manure will sort it out - or it could be different deficiency, or it could be a pH issue, or it could be you've planted the same thing in it too many times.

What have you been planting?

If you're using general kitchen compost, I'm guessing it won't be a nutritional deficiency. I take it you're 'rough composting'? (digging stuff in before it's rotted down). There's nothing wrong with that in principle, and potatoes aren't pernicious weeds so I wouldn't worry too much about them. Just pull 'em out.

pH is more complex. You can buy pH testing kits pretty cheap online if you want to find out for sure, but personally I'd just chuck as much organic matter in there as possible, and steer clear of planting anything that needs a very specific pH to thrive.

Here's what I would do: clear the beds of weeds, dig through plenty of manure and any compost you've got, sow a short-term green manure. Come autumn, dig green manure through and cover with membrane.

Plant into it in spring, keep the cats off it and see what happens!

By the way, chicken manure is great fertiliser. If you know the other-side-of-the-fence chicken owner, make the most of it.

We have a riding school at the bottom of our road. I shall ask. Can just barrow it up. Great. Great advise, thank you.

if you can get horse muck, no need to dig it in. Lay it 4"-6" thick if you can, it will suppress weeds and the worms will take it down. Within a year it will all have gone into the soil apart from baler twine and the odd nail, and you can do it again. Either spread it around your plants and rake level once they are sturdy enough, or lay it, and trowel open craters for your plants. As they get big enough you can pull it back into the craters. You will get a fat and healthy worm population.

If the plot is very weedy, hoe it a few days before spreading. Not much weed will come through, and you can pluck out what does.

I prefer woodchip bedding as it is less wet and smells nice, but if you use straw, it must be (as they say) well-rotted, so you can't pull out individual straws.

I suppose two inches depth would do if you don't have vast quantities. That's enough to smother weeds (a mulch of grass cuttings would do the same)