How do I keep cats out of my garden?

[SwanMom]

They dig up my lovely seedlings and deposit their not-so-lovely poo in my beautiful raised beds. What can I do? Should I cover everything in branches? Cloth? Is there something (essential oil?) I can spray on the garden?

I am so not a pet person. This is so stressful to me.

[doubledutch]

martha puts chicken wire on top of her soil, under her mulch.

i also did a google search for eo that is repellent to cats and found: lavender oil, lemon grass oil, citronella oil, eucalyptus oil and mustard oil. other natural deterrents i found are citrus peels, coffee grounds and cayenne pepper.

good luck! we have a few neighborhood cats (this is my first year gardening) so i'll have to give some of those a try myself!

[serenetabbie]

I did my final paper on this for my gardening class

In addition to the above suggestions, I would suggest plastic forks (or sticks) placed every few inches, tine side up. No one likes a fork in the butt. Plant all your stuff close, cats like to have room to do their business. Try a wire fence about 5 feet tall. If you know who's cats they are, tell them their pets are in your garden... this usually will not help but then you won't feel bad when you squirt the cats with the hose! If they are feral, call the humane society to see if you can get some traps and have them haul the critters away. If you have a super soaker and some time on your hands, target practice is very effective. You could try planting cat nip a distance from your garden to lure the cats away... but like essential oils and orange peels, not all cats will take the bait.

I DO NOT suggest pepper sprays AT ALL. They can seriously harm the animal and you need to re-apply them a lot. Plus, most of them stink and don't you want to smell nice gardeny smells when you are out there?

HTH a little and good luck!

[anjasma]

I second the barriers. I have to cover my garden from my own kitties, just until the seedlings are established. THey are not interested in digging up plants, but love that nice, loose, soft soil just before planting. I cover with hardware cloth, sometimes elevate it a bit with sticks, but forks sounds like a great idea, too.

[Jojo F.]

On another thread someone suggested a motion sensored sprinkler

Another thing is spraying around your garden with vinegar, cats and dogs do not like the smell.

I have to admit I have been out in the yard and saw the neighbor's cat and sprayed it with the hose, not hard though. Also a dog that comes around and pees on my plants:

[Rikki Jean]

this is all good to know, as some of tge neighborhood cats seem to really like our yard. there is also a dog that runs loose allllll day and into the evening, and i've been a little worried that he'll start getting into our yard once i get stuff going.

[Twwly]

Richters sells a "Piss Off Plant".

[FarmerCathy]

Originally Posted by serenetabbie

No one likes a fork in the butt.

: That is so funny! Seriously though if my cats didn't stay out of my 3-4 foot fence I would be using that method. My kitties are so good at staying out. They have the rest of the yard to plant thier poopies.

[Aletheia]

I have to second the citrus suggestion. We had strays in the alley of our old house that would taunt our newly-made indoor cat; he would sit inside and yowl at them and sometimes pee on the door. Ugh.

I started putting grapefruit rinds along the perimeter of the yard in those places they were squeezing in, and they stopped right away.

[SwanMom]

Thanks for all of the great ideas!

[nattybo]

I had great succuss with the citrus rinds too. I also put orange oil on rocks through out the gardens too. But I had to re-apply after a rain.

[serenetabbie]

Thanks Cathy! I used that line for my presentaion and got a good laugh (in addition to "awwwww" of the photo of your baby and dog overlooking the big garden!)

[FarmerCathy]

Aw, that's so cool!