{"id":18057,"date":"2016-11-15T16:32:57","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T16:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=18057"},"modified":"2016-11-15T16:34:37","modified_gmt":"2016-11-15T16:34:37","slug":"we-are-growing-twigs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=18057","title":{"rendered":"We are growing twigs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We have a real problem with cats doing their business in our garden and every winter we have to do something to protect the vegetable plot or it will become a giant toilet.<\/p>\n<p>We try to keep the rest of the garden as full as possible to leave no space for the cats but even this doesn&#8217;t always stop them. Sometimes they actually do their business on top of a low laying shrub which is horrible to clear up.<\/p>\n<p>We have in the past put net or chicken wire over the veg plot in winter but it looks unsightly and sometimes the cats poop on top of it which is even worse to clean up. They are very determined.<\/p>\n<p>We have tried all deterrents to no avail.<\/p>\n<p>What we did notice during the summer was that the pea twigs stopped them. Maybe it inhibits them being able to squat. This gave us an idea. We could fill the veg plot with twigs over winter. We didn&#8217;t mind the look of it and if it would keep it cat poop free we would be happy with that.<\/p>\n<p>We went in to the woods and gathered a bundle of twigs.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18069\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=18069\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-18069\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18069\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18069\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/we_collected_a_pile_of_twigs.jpg\" alt=\"We collected a pile of twigs\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/we_collected_a_pile_of_twigs.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/we_collected_a_pile_of_twigs-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/we_collected_a_pile_of_twigs-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-18069\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">We collected a pile of twigs<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_18070\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=18070\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-18070\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18070\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18070\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/one_side_of_the_veg_plot_now_has_twigs-planted.jpg\" alt=\"One side of the veg plot has twigs planted\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/one_side_of_the_veg_plot_now_has_twigs-planted.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/one_side_of_the_veg_plot_now_has_twigs-planted-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/one_side_of_the_veg_plot_now_has_twigs-planted-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-18070\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">One side of the veg plot has twigs planted<\/p><\/div>\n<p>At this point we got rained off so had to leave the job to finish another day.<\/p>\n<p>The next thing we did was empty the last two potato bags and put the compost in the chicken run. I have now bought the soil level in the chicken run back to what it used to be.<\/p>\n<p>I emptied the two terracotta tomato pots back into the holes that they came out of and cleared this side of the plot of all but the leeks.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18107\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=18107\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-18107\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18107\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18107\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/first_side_planted.jpg\" alt=\"The first side completed now that the potato bags have gone\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/first_side_planted.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/first_side_planted-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/first_side_planted-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-18107\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first side is completed now that the potato bags have gone<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_18108\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=18108\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-18108\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18108\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18108\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/just_the_leaks.jpg\" alt=\"The other side planted with just the leeks remaining\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/just_the_leaks.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/just_the_leaks-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/just_the_leaks-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-18108\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The other side planted with just the leeks remaining<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_18111\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=18111\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-18111\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18111\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18111\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/the_finished_plot.jpg\" alt=\"The finished plot\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/the_finished_plot.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/the_finished_plot-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/the_finished_plot-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-18111\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The finished plot<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As I take out the leeks I will fill the space with more twigs until the entire plot is covered with twigs. We have found some cat poop in the bigger gaps between the twigs so today I have filled in the gaps with small twigs. I will keep going until it stops the cats completely. I am hoping this will now solve the problem.<\/p>\n<p>We now have a winter veg plot full of twigs. I think it looks okay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have a real problem with cats doing their business in our garden and every winter we have to do something to protect the vegetable plot or it will become a giant toilet. We try to keep the rest of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=18057\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18057"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18117,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18057\/revisions\/18117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}