Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Anyone here using a battery powered lawnmower?

Are they any good?

Thoughts on this stuff?

Not mch more expensive than gravel boards and decent panels and the maintenance-free / eco / lack of chemically painty things seems positive.

Any tips on how to prevent cats walking through and sitting on ornamental grasses?

They're such a fucking nuisance. They have also ripped one of my mini polly tunnels to shreds. I really struggle to relate to why people own them.

I fortify with crossed bits of bamboo etc. Foxes and cats love to dig up where I've dug the fresh compost in.

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Get a water pistol. See a cat in your garden - zap the motherfucker. Soon they will learn to fear you.

Either that or they will learn to come at night, mostly. In which case you need a motion sensor activated cat sprayer. Which is a thing that exists and is the only thing I have ever found effective in keeping cats out of the garden.

At work people were discussing this last week. coffee grounds sprinkled around the beds seems to help, and the other suggestion was bamboo skewers in a grid around the area as cats don’t like getting poked by them.

Our terrier takes care of the cats but he likes to snaffle the manure, there’s no winning.

Spotted an amazing magnolia last night, such a shame the flowering period is so short.

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Cheers. Our garden is a major thoroughfare for cats and foxes so water pistols and the like are unlikely to do anything.

Bamboo sounds like the way as it can hopefully be disguised in the grass once it's starts growing vertical again. I just need to work out how to do it so my toddler doesn't impale themselves.

motion sensor activated cat sprayer

Had a look and they're actually pretty cheap.

Still thinking sticks in the short term as I can just do that quickly myself.

It does dissappear when the plants grow bigger. My allium patch is making them kind of dissappear. Kind of. Still, rather look at Bamboo than cat turds.

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Either that or they will learn to come at night, mostly.

Nuke the cats from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

Nuke the cats from orbit

We only have sub-deployed nukes. Will those do?

We seem to have spent a lot of money, seems a waste not to use them.

For all you cat lovers
As a general rule
cats tend to crap at the edge of their territory so if you don’t own any but they visit your garden make them feel welcome and they’ll expand their territory (including your garden) and problem solved and as a bonus you’ll experience a relationship with an animal that doesn’t need you, Priceless

I have no issue with cats or any other (non-human) uninvited creatures in my garden. Live and let live.

But those nukes are going to waste and a bit of nuclear winter solves a lot of issues.

no worries my answer was a bit tongue and cheek

Just try to make sure you don't establish good relationships with multiple cats so that their territories overlap. The catfights might end up being a bit of a disturbance.

come at night, mostly.

#rep

I hear you

I need help. :(

I have planted raspberry canes, a gooseberry, and a a blackcurrant bush. I stuck them in the soil in December (I think).

The gooseberry and currant came as very small plants (3-4 branches of 20cm emerging from a central crown) and now have lots of leaves, but no vertical growth. Will this come, or should I prune the ends of the branches to stimulate growth?

The raspberry came as four canes in a pot. It's an autumn-fruiting one. I planted the canes but didn't cut them back. Should I do that now, or is it too late?

Am I mad to sow grass seed today to try and take advantage of the forecasted good weather, or should I wait?

Will this come, or should I prune the ends of the branches to stimulate growth?

It'll come, the plant needs to grow some leaves to be able to grow more. They won't grow much until it's warmer and may take a year or two, but if you look after them and the soil they are in, they'll prosper.

I'd leave the raspberries, they'll sort themselves out this year and then you can cut them back once the leaves are gone in the late autumn, early winter.

This, alongside autumn, is the best time of year to get grass established, so I'd sow if I were you. Have you prepared the soil? Once you have, sow the seeds, give them a good soak and keep the bastard birds off.

Clearing the last of the weeds/ivy today. Soil seems great, to my uneducated eye. Will be scarifying/loosening with an asphalt rake, sowing, raking, pacing over and setting up the sprinkler.

You can drag a scaffolding board over to make a lovely flat surface.