Gardens

[Zaria]

We've just had some work done in the garden and I am looking for some big wooden tubs/planters to put trees in (bay trees maybe, can't decide). Does anyone know a mail order place that sells them - and also ideas and a good email site for suitable trees?

Watched old Titchmarsh on this one, and none of his organic methods worked particularly well. Top was the beer trap. Sink a pot into the ground and fill it with some bitter. Slug loves it, and dies happy, drowning in a drunken haze! Oh and orange peel I think, and lots of it. Beyond that its the chemicals. Slug off! is one. But check its child friendliness. I didn't have any at the time I used this a few yrs ago, so wouldn't have thought to look.

There's a sticky stuff that you can buy to put around the tops of pots which my mum swears by, I'm about to try it with mine.
I've found putting sharp gravel around the bases of things like hostas has worked really well but is best when I get my act together and put it down before they get into their growth period.
Dh loves going out and pouring table salt on them as it has some sort of osmosis effect on them and they dehydrate (only works when it's not raining) but I find it gross...
Mum also suggests sticking a pair of gloves on and picking them all off but again, I'm too squeamish for that.

I'm brassed off today, DS1 managed to tread in some cat poo on the lawn and then spread it all over the carpet from his shoes, b**y cats again!!!. On top of that DD was awake all night being sick (don't know what caused it). It must be nearly bedtime for the kids now, I'm shattered.

Rozzy - hands on violence is the only answer. Our garden is beseiged so spent last night hunting them all down and sticking them in a sealable sandwich bag which I then put in the dustbin. Yeah, I know I've probably knackered my karma doing it, but it felt good and I have a feeling they won't be coming back.

Forget discouraging cats - my dh has just chopped down the plum tree with 50 million green plums on it....and id did look so beautiful in flower this spring.

forgot to mention spray WD40 round tubs the snails/slugs won't carwl over it.

I just read Willow2's advice to Rozzy immediately after PamT's complaint about cat poo and had visons of cats in little plastic bags...maybe helenmc's husband could join them! (What a vandal! Why did he cut it down?)
I have the cat problem too - and I don't use the polite word PamT used - I complain at the top of my voice about stinking piles of cr*p and hope the neighbours concerned are listening!

Maybe we should stick the little blighters in plastic bags and put them in the dustbin, they won't leave their filthy mess in my garden then. I suppose I'll be reported to the RSPCA now for having such evil thoughts.

PamT I've just read your mail about DS1 treading on cat poo, well this morning dd had exactly the same, and for a while I thought she needed a nappy change....it wasn't until I took her shoes off I realised what was it, so once I've finished wiht mumsnet I have to go ona pooh hunt as today's is just a lovely day and I can't keep dd away from teh garden.

our visiting cat seems to use the WHOLE garden, lawn flower beds the lot!! it seems like the best solution is the sonic device Maia suggested, will let you know if it worked!!

Please do let me know, I found some more yesterday right in front of the sand pit (which we keep covered so they don't use that as a toilet). Fortunately this lot was solid and was easily picked up - not that I should have to do it anyway! There's one cat which sits on my doorstep regularly because I can see it through the glass panel but as soon as I go anywhere near the door it is off, it sits on the fence watching for me to come out and makes a run for it if I get too close (I'm usually armed with water to throw at it but have never got near yet). Our problem became much worse when a new housing estate was built on our doorstep, they are mainly career people who can't have a dog - so they have a couple of cats instead. I can't even have a cat of my own (not that I would want one) because DH is allergic.

We're also having trouble with pests of another kind pinching our strawberries (apart from slugs), something is picking the fruit and hoarding it, presumably for a later feast, they aren't hidden and don't seem to be badly damaged in the picking. We have netting over most of the plants to protect from birds but this wouldn't stop rats, mice etc Any ideas what could be doing it? I did however still pick almost 5lb yesterday and about the same today -yummy! (this is at our allotment though, not our postage stamp garden.)

OOh, PamT, get a pump action water gun! You could just casually sidle out of the door, pump primed, and let it have it (they shoot a really long way so as long as you got the aim right first time the cat wouldn't stand a chance.)

Just think how satisfying that would be!

Good idea. the kids have got one somewhere (though it was probably confiscated at some point). I should be able to get the little monster whilst it is still sat on the fence looking all clever at me!

I had a look at cathate.co.uk which was quite fun, they have a list of anticat remedies, some natural, most not, but it does say that someone found that the sonic devices do not work.....it gives a lists of plants that apparently cats do not like, so I'll try that (geraniums, petunias, marigolds).

I'd try the water thing but I rarely cacth it in the act, it must come at night!!!

Is the poo on the lawn definitely cat's poo? The reason I ask is that cats usually prefer to go somewhere soft so that they can cover it up afterwards, so a lawn would not be their ideal place. We have two cats and consequently a lot of poo on the flower beds, but we also get poo on the lawn which is probably hedgehog poo, or possibly fox. We also have a wooden seat underneath a tree which is unusable because of the amount of bird droppings on it. It's not just cats that poo!!
Slightly changing the subject, why are dog owners so complacent about their pets? I've lost count of the number of times a dog has come hurtling across to dd and me in the park, and all the owners do is bleat 'xxxxx, come here' which is completely ignored by the dog. They then try to 'reassure' me that their mutt loves children and wouldn't hurt dd - but there is no way that they can be 100% sure that it wouldn't. If the dog is not obedient, it shouldn't be let off the lead when there are children around.
And then there is the dog poo....

Soothepoo, in our case it is definitely cat poo because we have a 6 foot fence around the whole garden and I think that even a hedgehog would find it difficult to get underneath it. The cats around here must be lazy because they don't even try to bury their poo. I did have a go at one of the neighbours (we share a garden with 3 other houses which is a real pain) because she was looking after someone's dog and I had to clear up 12 lots of dog poo one day in winter. I think she took notice of what I said though and hasn't used the garden since, she is equally as cross with the cats because she now looks after some of the borders.

My DS2 was approached by an energetic dog which licked his face when he was just 18 months. The owner did the usual 'Oh it won't hurt him' but it took another 3 years before he would even look at a dog, he used to stand shaking and screaming and could wet himself with fear. A medium sized dog can seem giant to a toddler and I don't think the owners realise just how frightening this can be.

Hedgehog poo (ours, anyway!) is black and shiny, quite firm and a couple of inches long. Cat poo is larger and squidgier!

Through removing poo by the bucket full from our very small garden, I have conducted an in depth study of different types of cat poo and have concluded that it depends on the health of the cat and what it has eaten. We go from horrible runny dollops to firm sausages with colours ranging from yellow through orange and red to various shades of brown. As I have said previously - we have a lot of cats in our neighbourhood and the whole lot of them need shooting Incidently they do tend to go on the grass less often when it has just been cut so maybe I should get the mower out whilst we have a bit of fine weather.