Saturday, June 23, 2007

Nasty Night Soil Soils my Garden



The image and text don't match, but that's is exactly what it's been like going into my garden lately and finding beautiful blooms, amid clouds a flies and a the stench of cat scat. Despite my ongoing attempts to trap and neuter the feral cat population in the neighborhood, they don't seem deterred in choosing my beds for their nightly toilette. That was bad enough. Then to add insult to injury, they've managed to break off several branches of my lovely corner Japanese maple, Acer palmatum 'bloodgood', on their climb out of the garden after doing their business. Oh what to do, what to do. Jared has offered an elecric fence. My sister has recommended nails or glass shards driven into the tops of the fence rails. I've tried stones, sticks, large (ugly but usefull) garden ornaments which all work but they the cats move onto another spot in the garden. The current favorite is under the orange tree. So many litter boxes, so little time.

Ironically there was an article in the chronicle today on poisoning of ferals. I could so easily sympathize. You just get to the point where you want them all to be euthanized. Despite enjoying seeing them out there frolicking, I just can't take the fighting, flies, scat and spray any more. After going to the trouble of catching 20 animals, having them fixed and releasing them, this is how they repay me. What is a gardener to do?

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