planting with wildlife in mind

Have a look here :
Cotoneaster franchettii Hedge Plants for Sale | Ashridge
Bare root available November

 

Yes, I saw that infradig, might just give them a go.
If they're still available in the Autumn it would be no great loss if I messed with them, although obviously, I WOULD like to have that in my garden.

 

@CostasK I do appreciate your reasoning on some points but the basic fact remains - if you wish to have a cat ( or any other animal ) as a pet, then you have to be prepared to deal with all the pros and cons.
It's surprising ( or perhaps not ) how many cat owners are happy to put their pets at risk. One issue which always sticks in my mind was a post on a NDN site where a cat had been run over on the road outside it's house and the owner was very upset and angry. Knew the road was there and their cat had unlimited access and often tried to cross it but they never made any attempt to keep it safe. It's not the cat I am blaming but those irresponsible owners. No thought for their pet, their neighbours or other wildlife.
Having been involved with animals of all description ( domestic/exotic/wild) for most of my working life, I do despair of our attitude towards them sometimes. It may well be unrealistic to expect any change but, like a lot of other things, it needs to be done at some point.
@Selleri if you read my post, you will see that walking a cat on a lead is 1 option - not the be all and end all
Apologies to @Ditherer for making such an issue

 

I am certainly not saying that cat owners should not try to manage their cats as much as possible @Philippa, especially if the animals are at risk, but that in my opinion (a) the focus should be on the environment around them rather than trying to mimic the training of a dog, and (b) that even with steps in place, there will be occasions where those steps will fail. I am not in favour of irresponsible pet ownership, but I do think that there should be a level of understanding, if the owner is trying.

@Ditherer cotoneasters are fairly common plants. You can probably find them cheaper in local garden centres, if you have some near you. There are lots of variants and most of them are indeed very food, but there is a very small number of them which are considered invasive e.g. Cotoneaster Horizontalis, so you may want to avoid those particular cultivars.

 

Cats are cats and they will soon have their new owners trained.

 

I visited a garden centre yesterday and they had fairly good Cotoneasters for less than a fiver. The GC I visited was a British Garden Centre chain, a former Dobies.

It's also worth checking supermarkets, Morrisons in particular has occasionally a good selection of plants at very, very low prices. They do a "evergreen shrub" £3 range in summer. The plants are small, but with a month or so pampered in a large pot and then planted, will get roaring the next summer.

 

Agree with Morrisons, I've had good results with their little plants. Though the last few times I've been in they've had nothing much on sale, presumably due to the weather conditions. B&Q is also worth a try; mine has a small but good garden centre, plants tend to be bigger than the Morrisons ones but still good value for money.

 

I just think you're going to have a lot of problems maintaining holly and gorse at a height - and more importantly, a width that will be worthwhile @Ditherer. They'll spread considerably if they're happy, and no matter what you then put on the inside, they'll push through that too.
All those suggestions of prickly things to prevent cats getting in [along a fence] - they don't work. Carpet gripper material rots quite quickly, and I've watched them walking along it anyway, and the plastic spikes for deterring birds are useless. I had some spare that I put along the top of the side gate [which is about 6 foot] in a double row, with branches from the blackthorn sticking up as well. I regularly caught cats just jumping over it.

 

Well, I DO want to at least try.
The piece of garden that I want to work on is covered with paving slabs right now.
I could re-position two rows with a gap of say one foot, and plant a hedge between the two rows.
Then, as it grows, walk on the slabs and keep the hedge at a width and height of my choosing.
Whatever I do I shall let you guys know how it goes.

 

infradig,
I shall bear that "roots in November" idea in mind and leave all of my planting for Spring and Autumn, have learned THAT lesson.

 

BTW, if anyone is interested,

talking of deterring cats,

search "spikey cat deterrents".

 

I too have problems with neighbouring cats (a dozen at the last count) and the only way to keep them out is as Armandii explained below. My garden is fairly new to me so his idea is something I'm thinking on for the future.

Here is a quote below from Armandii. Still missed by many of us here on GC after his passing a few years ago.

"I'm lucky as I have good neighbours and they, years ago, let me erect a 3' high by 6' long frame of slack Chicken wire on top of and along my 6' high fences. At the time I had two Cats with one in particular always trying to climb onto the Garage roof which meant me when returning from work to climb a ladder in my Suit to get her down. I put those frames on the fences to keep my Cats in and stop them from becoming run over as had happened to previous Cats that we had. But, one unrealised bonus when I built the frames was that they have also kept Cats out due to the fact that when a Cat jumps onto the frame the slack Chicken wire makes the Cat go backwards and they can't hang on and so fall off and that works the same for my Cats. There is only one other access point to my garden and that is a 7' tall wooden garden gate/door which no Cat has ever jumped over."

 

I'm fed up spending money to keep other people's 'pets' out of my property.
Those serious spike things might work @Ditherer , but I don't really want to live in Stalag 15. I sometimes pass a house which has a serious run of stuff along a fence and it's utterly hideous.

I saw an item a long time ago where the people had used a piece of downpipe set along a fence top, through the usual type of fixings, but the downpipe itself was loose, so the theory is that it rolls around if anything tries to go along it. The problem again [even if it works] is the cost.
I think chicken wire would certainly be a deterrent @Sheal , and I've seen people state that just a piece attached in a loop over the top of a fence works, but again - it looks dreadful. I'm considering putting it along my back fence, and I now have hedging there, so it would eventually be quite well hidden. Problem is - too many other access points where it wouldn't be viable.

 

fairygirl,
I really don't care about "looks".
Just want those cats deterred.

I have thought about downpipe, not a good idea then.
I think the only possible way to do this is to prevent them from having a clear run at the base of the fence, ie. something prickly.
I thought about putting that plastic prickly deterrent on the floor, but that would also keep the hedgehogs out, and I don't want that.

 

The trouble with securing all your boundaries like that is that it also keeps out other animals like foxes, badgers and hedgehogs. Some people might see that as a benefit, but those animals desperately need somewhere to forage.