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Cat deterrents Okay, people, I need your help.

What effective methods have you used to keep cats out of your garden? It seems the neighborhood cats have decided that our new beds are giant playpens.

They have already turned one of our planters in front into a catbox, but I don't care so much about that one. This is going to impact my direct-seed growing if they are in there digging about.

Any suggestions? Please? Help!
Posted by Crunchy Chicken at 10:00 AM Labels: gardening P~ said...

Yes! I have exactly the same issue! I finally identified the cat last night and hosed him down pretty good. I have been watering my empty beds really well at night so that they are wet underfoot, it helps, but the darn cat seems to know when the dirt is dry enough to dig in. It has already scraped up a couple of the pea seeds that I direct seeded. Pesky devil.
I'd appreciate any input as well. Perhaps I'll post this same issue on my blog and see if I get any responses that I can share

April 4, 2007 at 12:11 PM 
I also have some neighborhood cats that roam my gardens and leave their messes. One started to use my crabapple tree as a scratching post. I wrapped the trunk with chicken wire fencing, and that stopped that. If the cats would chase the rabbits away, I'd welcome them, but they don't, so I'd like to figure out how to deter them as well!

April 4, 2007 at 5:02 PM 
Try putting chicken wire over your beds directly on top of the dirt - your plants will still be able to grow, but the cats won't be able to dig.

April 5, 2007 at 5:07 AM 
I plant cat nip on the outside of my garden and in various spots that I don't mind them getting into. It keeps them occupied. Of course this doesn't work with all cats, but I don't have kitty problems.

April 5, 2007 at 6:27 AM 
I was just reading some comments over on GardenWeb and, among other odd suggestions, someone said that putting bamboo skewers about every 6 inches in their beds worked.

Supposedly this helped keep the cats away.

Anyway, check out the link - there are a bunch of other suggestions. If the bamboo doesn't work I'll try the chicken wire.

April 5, 2007 at 1:33 PM 
C.C. I read about sticks in the garden bed, as well as reflective items as deterrants for cats. I put out a bunch of sticks in my empty garden beds yesterday. I also put some round shiny things I scrounged from the construction site trash pile next door. I will post some images of them tonight and let you know how it works out. I also thought about stringing some shiny, noisy things and putting a stick on either end and then streching them across the beds to just be in the way. Who knows?

April 5, 2007 at 2:12 PM 
To keep cats out of my raised beds, I lay recycled field fencing pieces down. The chicken wire another reader mentioned is good, but harder to weed through and pull up in the fall. And, once the plants get big enough to deter the cats, you can gently raise up the field fencing and store it away... or use it somewhere else to prop up vegetation or whatever. To keep DOGs out of flower beds... put a little pile of dog poo between plantings... just here and there... they don't like it and will keep out!

April 9, 2007 at 1:53 PM 
I finally posted my results and pictures of the cat deterrant methods that I tried. I really had pretty good results.

April 10, 2007 at 10:40 PM 
okay, I'm not a gardener and haven't tried this but I've heard that putting droppings from large, carnivorous creatures in your garden keeps cats (and all small animals with a sense of smell) away. Try your local zoo?

April 11, 2007 at 7:00 PM Lori V. said...

Hi! I just found your blog today. I've read that cayenne pepper sprinkled around helps. It makes sense, considering their heightened sense of smell.

April 13, 2007 at 3:34 PM 
A 12 gauge shotgun has proven worthy in these cases. The down side though is that you then need to clean up the carnage which can easily be dumped into the crater left by the blast, then neatly covered with the scattered dirt. This to will leave the infamous "Scent Of Death" which will without a doubt send a message of fear to the rest of these crap dropping machines!

October 13, 2008 at 9:26 AM