Keeping the cats off!

[tinalou]

I have 4 cats who I love dearly, but since we have put in our new beds this year, they seem to be more interested than ever before in using them for a dirt box Anyone got any good ideas on how to discourage them, or am I just going to have to net everything off

[jemma_charlie]

you can buy a powder from homebase that stinks but they don't go near it. Or i buy cheap tent pegs and randomly stick them in all over the place. They don't seem to like being poked by them.

[OllieMartin]

I always promote the weed suppressant matting. Put it in between rows, or cover the whole bed and cut 'X's in it for plants like brassicas to grow through. They find it hard to foul in the thin gaps in it.
That said, even that wasn't 100% effective against my local mob. I've stopped them at last by fixing the hole in my gate and blocking most of the gaps in the fence into the garden. They can still jump the fence, but it seems more effort than they can be bothered with. I suppose you can't really do that if they're your own!

[Bigmallly]

My latest efforts keeping felines off my beds involve putting moth balls down. They seem to have worked for the last 3 days. Not sure what happens when the moth ball stuff leaks into the soil though.

[Jeanied]

Just found this when looking up the toxicity of mothballs - a recipe for sprinkling powder to deter cats (and groundhogs, but I assume you don't get many of those!)

2 parts cayenne pepper
3 parts dry mustard
5 parts flour

Simply mix together and sprinkle

[gillian62]

I am having the same problem with one of my cats who wants to sit and rest in all the areas I have put a cloche or fleece over, crushing everything underneath!!

[piskieinboots]

... who wants to sit and rest in all the areas I have put a cloche or fleece over...

They are nothing if not clever when it comes to finding warm spots

I have two darling cats that I adore, I also have (had, just moving house!) a large veg bed in my garden, they - my darlings, have always invited the neighbourhood cats around to view their grand toilet, asking them to try it for size

I used a lot of netting, straw, bamboo canes, landmines, nuclear explosives, pleading, begging - 'we' now accept they they rule!

[Paul Sill]

I find cutting a lemon in half and putting on the beds tend to keep the cats out, my soil is mainly sand which doesnt help! Just have to put new lemons down every couple of weeks.

[Buleste]

I have 3 cats and there are many many many neighbourhood cats all of whom try to use my front garden as a loo. At the moment I think one of them is actually trying to dig his way to China I have such a gaping hole there. I've been trying to promote the use of Coleus Canina a flower that deters both cats and dogs as it gives off a smell that deters them but is undetectable to the human nose unless the plant is rubbed (and then it smells a little like canabis). I haven't got any at the moment near the mine shaft that the cats have dug so don't take that as a sign that the plants don't work. Other than that is grow some Catnip in a pot to keep the cats distracted. I have read else where that if you keep a litter tray outside that that can also stop cats from pooping where you don't want them to.

The truth is though the more money you spend on trying to deter cats the less likely it will work on them as cats have some sort of built in detector that means they will only eat stuff that is expensive, play with stuff that is cheap and laugh at people who spend everything on trying to stop them from crapping where they are not wanted.

[janeyo]

My best success yet is to crisscross garden canes on the beds. It really does keep them off as they don't like them under their feet.

[gigleypants]

I have 2 wonderful cats and both love nothing more that "going" on newly raked beds ... the best thing I have found is a lemon juice and vinegar mix and use a spray bottle to apply around the area all natural and nothing gets harmed ....

Gigleypants

[Florence Fennel]

I put chicken wire over bare patches until the seeds are well up and that seems to work.

[falkon]

i have chicken wired the whole area around the raised beds... have a look into my album.. and now cats have no chance...

[Guttata]

i have chicken wired the whole area around the raised beds... have a look into my album.. and now cats have no chance...

Is that hopeful enthusiasm I see?

[northepaul]

We had next door's 13 cats loving to sh** around my ornamental cherry in the flower bed in the middle of the lawn. During the winter not really a problem, but in the summer it was awful and stunk to high heaven!
I found that if I kept the mulch moist they did it less so, but over the winter I saved various prickily branches from holly and roses. Stuck them everywhere - looks like a weird peice of landart, () but kept the cats off...so far..