I do love cats but.........

I am not complaining! I live in the centre of Bristol and I have a garden, albeit smaller than the average hankie and with zero soil, but I have a garden!! But.....

In my last garden I had spent 10 years working on the biodiversity of the space, introducing bird feeders, bug hotels and the like and of course pests appeared from time to time, but they were kept to the minimum by the natural balance of the garden. We had blackbirds who sang from the trees, a mix of birds that included dunnocks and beautiful gold finches, toads, frogs, and even a hedgehog called Barry who regularly visited. So between all of this we had few issues with slugs or snails and certainly never was worried by anything any larger.

So as I have said I am very lucky to have a garden living, as I do, in the centre, (almost literally as we are a three and a half minute walk from the shopping centre of the city), but I didn't realise I ws going to have to share it with what appears to be every mollusc in the south west and I certainly wasn't aware that I was planting a space that would be seen as the best place to defacate by every single cat in Bristol. Yes-every single cat.*

The slugs and snails have been worked on with dawn and dusk raids on their slimey selves. Do not ask what they're fate has been-suffice to say they have been despatched thoroughly. They keep coming but they are lessened in their quantity and the ongoing raids are, I think, making them understand that they are not welcome. I have also adjusted my planting slightly so that there isn't quite as much that is irresistable to them and am considering buying some scarificial lambs in the name of Hostas in the spring in the hope that they might leave other stuff alone. 

But the cats...... What really galls is that they like to do their business in a raised bed that is opposite my bedroom window, so often my first sight in the morning as I open the curtains is of a cat doing it's business and seemingly grinning at me whilst doing so. Do I sound paranoid? Well perhaps but they have ignored everything. I bought one of the Coleus' that cats are supposed to detest and before we could see if it might work it had been munched during slugmaggedon. I chopped up bamboo canes and stood them upright in patches that had no plants to keep the cats off and they just breathed in and stood in between them. I asked them politely to please go away and I chased them off. I even got to the point of persuading the dog to growl in a butch manner at them and that failed too.

So when I was obviously ranting on Twitter and was asked by STVPest Free Living if I would like to trial their Dog and Cat Repellent Granules, I screamed yes, if somewhat cynically. They arrived just as a cat had left its calling card on a newly germinated tray of lettuce seedlings and I may have stood in the garden brandishing it, hoping that the neighbourhood cats and the rest, were listening and taking heed.

I have been using the granules for 3 weeks and, much to my amazement, they appear to be keeping the feline felons at bay, particularly the one who lives upstairs and I believe was inviting the others in, as she won't actually come into the garden at all. The granules don't smell offensive and are made of natural ingredients so I'm only too pleased to use them. If only they could make a product that was as gentle but as persuasive to the mollusc millions.....

So far, this is keeping those feline friends at bay...

A corner of the garden.

*Perhaps not every one although.....

I have received a free trial of the granules but no monies have exchanged hands so althought sponsored, not enough that I wouldn't be honest!!