If you're renting and think you might be moving at some point, it's worth growing as much as possible in planters and troughs. That way you can take them with you and keep looking after them. It also gives you a chance to set up planters full of fresh compost while you work on improving the soil quality of the actual ground.
As for the kitties, we inadvertently discovered a solution. Accept that wherever they choose to use as a toilet is where they prefer. Then dig it out to a depth of a three or four of inches and fill it with gravel - the small, rounded pebble type. To a cat, it'll be like a giant outdoor litter tray - just perfect 😁 Then it's just a case of doing what we call "poo patrol" every couple of days; we're lucky enough to have a council dustbin opposite our house where we're allowed to put cat & dog doo-doo, but if not it's just a case of disposable rubber gloves and picking out any pebbles before flushing it down the loo !
Great advice, thank you! I will try the outdoor litter box trick. 😁 I own the house but might still use the planters, don't want to have to leave too many plants behind when I start renting to someone else.