Welcome to the Environmental Studies Capstone Course blog. Over the past decade, community interest in reclaiming control over food production and consumption has fueled a wave of food activism, what Sandor Katz calls"America's Underground Food Movements."

Participants in this course are taking part in the urban agriculture food movement. In addition to reading , discussing, researching and writing on urban agriculture, we are participating. We are planning and planting a garden on campus, forming allegiances with campus and community groups, and contributing to a more sustainable community.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

The Cat Problem

So I've been looking up some possible solutions to the cat problem and found several safe, natural ideas that might work, possibly in combination. The two most common ideas are to deter them either by smells they don't like and/or by creating a ground surface that discourages digging.

For the smell route the best suggestions seem to be to plant lavender, to spray/spread a cayenne mixture, or anything with citrus--orange and lemon peels scattered about and such. Obviously the lavender would be permanent and additionally enjoyable for us, but the second two would probably require reapplication every fews days.

As far as digging, one site I found suggested laying chicken wire in the dirt before planting, or putting stone gravel on top of the dirt to make it less attractive for deposits and digging. I'm a little wary however of methods that allow them to get in the garden before they discover its undesirable...I was wondering if just a high chicken wire fence around the box might also work?

What are y'alls thoughts? I personally don't have any experience with any of these--can anyone vouch for the effectiveness of one over another??
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  1. Stephanie BerryMarch 1, 2010 at 7:46 AM

    I have some lavender growing at my house and it is really easy to propagate. If we wanted to use lavender as a way to repel the cats I would be happy to make some cuttings and start them at home to transplant.

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