Felines: Friend or Foe?

Felines: Friend or Foe?

Warning on Villeray Tree to Neighbourhood Cat Owners

In recent weeks, I've come across photocopied notices to area residents regarding a certain neighbour who evidently hates "stray" cats in his garden.This neighbour "Claude" has taken to posting an anti-feline message on the perimeter of his property, and it reads like this:

"Warning to all (Avis à tous), cats without tags will be captured and sent to the SPCA."

Another concerned cat-loving resident photographed Claude's warning message, added her own message, photocopied it and posted it to the tree directly across the street from the cat-loather's home, "Warning: keep an eye on your cat..."

Fortunately my own cats have tags, but after I asked around at work, I discovered that some of my long-time cat-owning colleagues have never put tags on kitty. So, it would appear that our neighbour Claude may be trying to tackle hapless felines in his backyard who indeed have legitimate homes.

Monsieur Coton on our BBQ

And some of the neighbours are vocally opposed to his kittynapping. In a woman's curly blue-pen scrawl, another concerned resident has added to the notice, [Translation] "I say we pass around the hat in the neighbourhood to collect some money to pay for cat-hating Claude's yoga lessons. He needs to breathe through his nose."

Now, I can understand the sentiment of fretting cat owners. Our feline friends go wherever they please, and we have little say in the matter. Take for instance our neighbour's tagless cat, Monsieur Coton, who refuses to buy into the concept of human property ownership. Twice I've gone downstairs to find him sleeping on the couch, and we suspect that Monsieur Coton regularly uses our garden as his litter box, so we do understand where Claude is coming from. For catless green thumbs, felines can be the bane of their gardening existence.

But we may have found a solution, which we are trying as I write this. It's called the ScareCrow, a motion-activated animal deterrent. As an animal approaches your garden, the motion-detecting sprinkler repels the animal with a startling two- to three-cup burst of water. The sudden noise, movement and spray of water should keep the cats away. We have aimed our ScareCrow directly at Monsieur Coton's favoured poop du jour site. Fingers are crossed.

If the ScareCrow is a successful deterrent, I might slip the spec into Claude's mailbox to keep some peace in the hood and to save him some lacerations and possibly his sight. The funds raised from the neighbourhood collection could be used to purchase this new found solution, and then we could all breathe through our noses again.

Other Villeray-related sites

Food: Villeray's Subtle Rawsomeness

Buying Local: Slak on Villeray 
Churros: The Uruguayan
Who's a Cyclopathe
Neon Icon: Miss Villeray
Café Cuzcatlan: Roasting Local Coffee Beans
Creole Cuisine
Oriental Pastry Delights

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Upcycling Meets Guerrilla Gardening

Upcycling Meets Guerrilla Gardening

Pssssst...my book giveaway for a copy of the Spare Room is still on, and you have a great chance to win. Just follow my blog or leave a comment.


Three years ago, I picked up a copy of the Troublemaker's Teaparty on urban activism and discovered covert ways to beautify our urban surroundings. I live close to some abandoned factories, and people love to come here to work on their cars, spray paint graffiti and sell drugs. In this book, I learned that by creating a presence, through keeping the area clean and planting flowers, you could keep undesirables out of your neighbourhood. I figured it was worth a try.

The next year, while on maternity leave, I did some guerrilla gardening, which involved gardening on private property. This was a lot more work than I had anticipated, and I had to contend with theft, vandalism and a coup organized by a nearby condo-dweller who subsequently took over my plot, as she wasn't thrilled with my choice of flowers.

I also discovered that a gardenless condo dweller could create "seedbombs," which are thrown into empty or abandoned lots. If all goes well, you will see a spray of flowers instead of the broken remnants from last night's party. I briefly toyed with the idea of creating seedbombs and selling them for $0.25 each, but I thought it would be dishonest to sell something that I hadn't actually tried and tested for results.

If you've made seedbombs that actually took root, please send us the recipe. Officially planting day in these parts is the third week in May.

To date, we have tried two seedbomb recipes. The first one simply involved combining wet clay and seeds. The second, the Liz Christy seedbomb was much more elaborate. Liz Christy was the original urban gardener. Her seedbomb involved filling balloons or Christmas ornaments (?!) with water, adding bits of paper towel, peat moss, soil and seeds. Anyway, last year, my kids and I tried her recipe.These bombs were a lot more fun to throw than those from the previous year, but were much messier to make.

Alas, neither recipe yielded any blooms, but the birds and squirrels will be forever grateful.

A pair from California has, however, cultivated the idea of commercializing seedbombs. Their Los Angeles company, Greenaid, has taken old gumball machines and used them as seedbomb dispensers. For $0.25, the buyers get two seedbombs and a small map showing them the best place to throw their ammo for optimal results. You can purchase the gumball dispensers from the company, and Greenaid will help you come up with a seed mix that will work in your area.

Maybe that's where we went wrong--the seed mix.




Other Seedbomb and Guerrilla Gardening Related Posts:

Delinelle Park and Garden: Adjectival Transgression
 The Fate of the Delinelle Community Garden and Park
More on Guerrilla-ing in NYC and St. Henri
Trespassers in St. Henri Win City Gardening Contest
Liz Christy Seed Bombs and Some Not So Covert Bombing
More on Guerrilla-ing in NYC and St. Henri
Attention Guerrilla Gardeners: the Liz Christy Seed Bomb (a how-to)
What Exactly is Guerrilla Gardening?
Guerrilla Gardening: Tips for the Novice

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