Something keeps destroying my flower beds! Grr!


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So, recently i have started to do the garden, bit by bit when the weathers nice. I bought a few reduced plants, decided to try my luck and if they bloomed - bonus! The night after i planted them, the next morning they looked like they where flung to the other side of the bed! Annoying. And there was piles of mud next to quite a deep hole. I put them back, the same thing happened the next day. So i left the plants and the next morning another dug up hole appeared. I replanted the plants and this weekend i was teaching my daughter how to sprinkle seeds and plant bulbs.. So hopefully we should have some lovely sweetpeas and i cant remember the other plants! As you guessed, the next morning both beds has been dug up (their raised beds by the way) Bulbs all over the garden, holes and piles of mud everywhere and mug all over the garden path.

Anyone have any idea what creature could be taking joy of destroying my garden during the night? Iv only ever seen next doors cat around and they lock him in over night, as do my cats. I dont live in an area where badgers have been seen either as i live in netherfield. As annoying it is, it somewhat fascinates me too!

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Never considdered it to be a fox, never seen a fox since i moved here... But im sure if i looked out my window often enough i might catch one. I love foxes, but if its a fox, i do wish it would stop ruining my hard work! lol

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I had trouble with one a couple of years ago, first I tried chicken wire laid over the ground with some success but the clincher was to lay green plastic bean support netting over the ground. Yes it was messy after the fox came a calling but after getting tangled in the mesh he/she never came back.

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i had an idea it was cats, but iv just never seen any other than next doors and my own... cheeky boggers, they must spy on me waiting for me to plant something new! Tempted to get some lion poo - then i wont even see my own cats, muahaha!

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True. I thought it may be foxes, a neighbour suggested hedgehogs digging for worms. But ill settle for it being cats lol

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In the past we've had squirrels digging up bulbs and plants we've put in tubs, but that's been in daylight, cos we've seen them do it. Why don't you get a basic CCTV set up? Alright for me to talk ....... we've had one still in a box for over a year now!

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Might put abit of flour around the bed, been thinkin about cctv for a while Lizzie as theres an alley that runs at the back of my garden, found a few basic cameras for around 20ish pounds so its quite tempting.

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I wouldn't be so sure its cats, they do dig for the toilet in newly dug earth and then bury it, but I have never known them to leave deep hol;es and chuck the earth everywhere, thay are quite delicate in their digging and covering up. Dogs tend to be more violent. I've had foxes in my garden but never seen them digging, though he did attack a very large rubber tarantula I had put under a tree!!!!!! Took chunks out of his leg! I have lost a lot of bulbs this year and had holes where they were...it was mice, they love bulbs particularly crocus.

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Buy a cheap mini DVR camera from ebay, add a memory card.

A 240 volt - USB charger wired to a PIR light.

When the light comes on the camera records onto the card.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok so the OH's grandmother suggested using old tea bags covered in olbas oil, apparently cats etc hate it and wont go near the flower bed. So thats what i did, this morning as i was up from 4am with the little one, there i was having a cuppa at the dinning table and saw my own cat digging up the freshly dug up soil!! Little bogger! And its not like he was using it as a toilet either, it looked like he was doing it for the sake of doing it.

I went out to check flower beds as iv planted some pansies, a rose bush and a few more bulbs... The plants where in tact but the bulbs dug up, as for the tea bags, he ripped those up too! I now remember why teabags dont go in the kitchen bin, the silly cat loves tea bags, especially green tea and mint ones, the olbas oil didnt seem to bother him...

Any ideas on keeping cats away from fresh dug earth? Im planning on turfing or seeding an area for grass and i dont want him destroying it, someone sugested lion poo, but someone else said it doesnt work and as its my own cat, makes things a little more awkward.

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i thought about this later after posting the reply. Going to get some at the weekend, but isnt it a pain when it comes to planting new plants etc?

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Ok so the OH's grandmother suggested using old tea bags covered in olbas oil, apparently cats etc hate it and wont go near the flower bed. So thats what i did, this morning as i was up from 4am with the little one, there i was having a cuppa at the dinning table and saw my own cat digging up the freshly dug up soil!! Little bogger! And its not like he was using it as a toilet either, it looked like he was doing it for the sake of doing it.

Sorry but that was a "spluttering my green tea all over the laptop" moment - made me laugh out loud. :laugh:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just had an epiphany moment....(ooer missus!) Was just watching a squirrel having a go at the supposedly squirrel proof peanut feeder. Squirrels absolutely love bulbs and will dig them up, I wonder if this is who your visitor is Pixie? They would be capable of chucking earth all over as they dig the bulbs up. I noticed my squirrel went away on a route which takes him past my damaged flower beds, and as I've never seen a him in my garden before or ever had the damage before I suspect he may just be the culprit. Apparently one way of deterring them is to lay cedar bark over the ground after you have planted your bulbs.

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