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Cat poo

Nancy 3Nancy 3 Posts: 9
in Problem solving
Hi, i am at my wits end with poo in the garden, i am an organic gardener and dont use weedkillers or slug pellets etc, and always remove the poo with a poop scoop.  However, i am in the middle of moving strawberries from a raised bed and have as im sifting and mixing up the soil im finding lighter coloured clumps and i dont know if its poo from being buried over winter or just the soil clumping, i want to grow veg in the bed but dont know what to do with the soil now, is it safe? Is it poo? Should i replace it? Please help!
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Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 84,033
     This may, or may not be of interest
    https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1012968/troublesome-cats/p1

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,061
    yet another £1 for me. 
    Devon.
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 6,657
    edited May 2018
    If it's been there all winter then it's probably OK but I'd get out as much as you sensibly can. Wash your hands and your veg carefully and use a water scarecrow or the like if you can to keep the cats off your raised beds in future.

    If you can afford it, and if there's space in the raised beds, you could put a thick (4 inches at least) layer of fresh compost down on the surface, as you would if you were following a 'no dig' method for growing veg. That will encourage the natural processes which break down all the poo and other stuff in the soil and make it safe more quickly while also giving you a 'clean' surface layer.

    I'd grow leafy veg or peas and beans - tall stuff in other words so that the edible parts won't be in contact with the soil much - in that bed and your salads and root veg somewhere else this year (most of those grow well in pots).
    “Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first” 
  • Nancy 3Nancy 3 Posts: 9
    Thank you everyone. 
  • Papi JoPapi Jo Posts: 3,875
    Hostafan1 said:
    yet another £1 for me. 
    And 1 euro for me!
    You are invited to a virtual visit of my garden (in English or in French).
  • Petula WPetula W Posts: 22
    you lot are so sad, its only a garden.
  • FireFire Posts: 17,116
    Thanks for that.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,061
    Petula W said:
    you lot are so sad, its only a garden.
    And thank you for your sparkling wit.
    Devon.
  • plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,234
    Took two years to come up with that!  :D
  • Quercusrobur81Quercusrobur81 Posts: 231
    Hi Nancy 3, I stretch chicken wire lids over the raised beds where I’m growing lettuce etc. Might be a bit harder to do this with taller veg though...
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