This is slightly different from the original question/ thread, but this is too be the most fitting. I’m wondering what everyone does to keep their pets out of their gardens. They like walking/ playing/pottying/sleeping in the mulch. I have 3 cats and two dogs. The dogs are pretty well behaved and this makeshift fence keeps then out of the berries, but the cats i have no idea what you do with as well as a solution for the bigger bed with the trees
Seriously, to address the question: we have neighborhood cats, Lucy and Pickles and Tuxedo Cat, who are most welcome mousers, but who also think a freshly turned bed is a deliberate gift to be employed with delight.
So we lay welded wire fencing, the cheap kind that comes in rolls, over those beds immediately after turning. It works well. I suppose the cats think we’re perverse sadists, but they continue to patrol our lot.
Welded wire fencing with 2x3" openings. I also noticed animals are more eager to dig in fresh or disturbed soil / mulch. You can try the pepper product that’s supposed to keep animals away but I mostly found they dont work.
Shadow used to heed the wire border fencing I put up around the veggie beds. Once the veggies started to come in and attracted the smaller 4-footed pests, she wouldn’t hesitate to jump the wire and chase something. She’s not a big digger, but can’t resist digging up any fish emulsion I try to use.
She will occasionally bury a leather chew stick in the softer earth. Nothing funnier than seeing one sticking out of the ground, sort of like she’s trying to grow a bigger chew stick. The dirty nose gives her away…
No, cats do love fruit. I had a male cat look like in nivana over the rind of a store bought cantelope. My current female cat adores fruit and leaves of strawberries, especially strawberry ice cream. She licks pineapples. Mom said she used to eat applesauce until it made her get the runs.
As for greens, she went insane eating fresh honeyberry leaves.