Gardening has its challenges, for sure, often beyond our control. How we approach them can bring out the best innovations or worst emotions. One example involves squirrels and cats in flower beds and potted plants.
I’ll do anything for my grown daughter Zoe, but sometimes my best isn’t enough. Teenage angst years aside, our shared father/daughter experiences have mostly been great, from her learning to waltz by standing on the tops of my shoes to learning independently that neither of us eat mushrooms.
But now we are having to share strategies about critters in our gardens. Both our small raised beds are fenced to keep out dogs, possums, and raccoons, but our large overstuffed outdoor potted plants are prime hunting ground for the squirrels dropping out of every tree, and litter boxes for the feral cats.
After decades of working with both professional horticulturists and avid home gardeners, I know that nothing works well for everyone, especially store-bought and home-made repellents which require regular applications and work just so-so for a few gardeners at best.
So the other morning, when I got a text from Zoe that something had dug up all the flowers I had potted up for her, I sprang into action. The usual foils for felines, like mulching with pine cones, rocks, or orange peels, or sticking lots of plastic forks in the soil, don’t work well for roaming marsupials and clever raccoons, so I customized an individual-pot fence.
I cut a large circular piece from a roll of chicken wire from my shed, and hand-shaped a dome that fit over the top of her new pot, spray painted to match the pot, molded it snug around the outer edge of the pot, and staked it in place with some small crape myrtle branches (also spray painted to add a dash of color).
And it has held, so far. The neighbor’s cats can’t lounge in the pots or use them as feline latrines, and the covering has thwarted any late-night rooting around by possums. And the diminutive geodesic dome “sprouting” painted branches looks kinda Star Trekkish cool.
So yesterday I did it on a larger scale for my large raised container garden, made from a six-foot diameter galvanized metal horse trough. Hand-crafted a three-foot high chicken wire cylinder big enough to surround a few plants in the center, topped with a round piece and staked in place with short pieces of metal rebar so it fits securely over my beautiful, tasty kales which are among the most colorful, nutritious winter edimentals but which get devastated by squirrels. No idea out why the tree rats ignore the closely-related flowering cabbage but go to great lengths to strip my kales, first the leaves, then come back the next night for the stems.
Anyway, I have just about perfected the small-scale garden fencing thing. It is easily removable for reworking the pots, looks okay being painted and all, and can be draped with insect netting to keep caterpillar-causing moths and large stinkbugs out, or battened down with plastic sheeting right before a sudden deep freeze (not that kale needs cold protection).
Big new tip for folks with cats lounging or burying little surprises in flower beds or large pots: Last year I saw a garden whose beds were covered with an inexpensive mesh fabric that has dozens of inch-long plastic spikes sticking up, which deter cats perfectly and doesn’t look too bad. It can even be lightly mulched and still work.
Gotta do what we gotta do. Fences are not rodent-proof, but reusable, removable customized metal netting does the trick.
Felder Rushing is a Mississippi author, columnist, and host of the “Gestalt Gardener” on MPB Think Radio. Email gardening questions to rushingfelder@yahoo.com.
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