Spring and Gardens and My Desire to STRANGLE the Neighborhood Cats!!!

Two weeks ago I got my raised garden beds all ready for seeds to be sown.  I tilled the soil, pulled the weeds out, added compost, raked it all even, planned the layout of where everything would grow, and put obelisks in the center of the beds for the pole beans to grow up.  Then I patiently waited a couple of days for the weather to co-operate and proceeded to plant my vegetable garden.   I put in two varieties of sweet corn, two varieties of peas, pickling and salad cucumbers, purple pole beans, blue lake pole beans, lima beans, carrots, onions, lettuce, turnip greens, cantaloupe, watermelon, eggplant, zucchini squash, yellow crookneck squash, white scallop squash, and tomatoes.  All started from seed.  It's a rather ambitious garden.  

The following day I went out to water my seeds.  Seeds don't grow without water.  As I walked toward my garden I was HORRIFIED -- the *$#%^@(*&^!!! neighborhood cats had been using it as a litter box!!!    Normally I don't harbor negative feelings toward cats.  BUT I am NOT going to allow my garden to be used as a shitter!  I have been battling those stupid cats for the past two weeks: turning the garden hose on them, throwing sticks at them, and letting the dogs chase them off (normally the dogs are not allowed to chase cats).  Two of the beds finally have enough veggies coming up that the cats no longer venture near them.  Now I only have to keep them away from the bed that contains the squash.  I am sooooooo FRUSTRATED!

Good news is that everything I planted has come up and it looks like I'll be up to my ears in veggies this summer.