How To Stop Cats From Pooping In The Garden
If you have a cat and a garden, chances are you’ve had to deal with the unsightly problem of kitty litter. Cats have been known to use gardens as their own personal toilets, leaving behind unsightly piles of feces and urine that can ruin the look of your yard. So how do you keep your cat from using your precious flower beds as its own personal bathroom? Here are some suggestions for keeping those pesky felines out of your garden:
Install motion-activated sprinklers.
Motion-activated sprinklers are a good temporary solution. Your cat will walk in and be scared away from the area, but as soon as you turn off the sprinklers, they’ll come back. These sprinklers can also be expensive to install because you need to trench your yard with PVC pipes and wiring for power.
Make your own repellent.
- Make your own repellent. Spray the mixture on the soil, but be sure to use gloves when applying it.
- The repellent will be effective for about a week, after which you’ll need to reapply.
Cover the soil with chicken wire or horticultural fleece.
If your cat has a tendency to dig in the garden, then you can use chicken wire or horticultural fleece to cover the soil. This is an excellent idea if you have an outdoor cat and want to prevent it from digging under your plants or flowers.
You can purchase chicken wire at any hardware store, while horticultural fleece is available at most garden centers. Either option will work well for covering your soil, as long as it covers the entire area where you wish to protect it from cats. The more thorough your coverage of the soil, the less likely it will be that your cat will be able to dig through and make a mess of things!
Grow plants that cats don’t like.
If you’re looking for plants that cats don’t like, consider growing citrus trees, lavender bushes and peppermint plants. These are all plants that cats don’t care for because of their strong scents. Eucalyptus is another plant that many cats dislike because it’s so strong-smelling. Finally, marigolds are easy to grow and make your property look nice but also repel cats due to their strong scent.
Cats are attracted to warmer and looser soils, so if you make the soil more difficult to dig in they will be less likely to use it as a litter box.
Cats are attracted to warmer and looser soils, so if you make the soil more difficult to dig in they will be less likely to use it as a litter box.
You can also use an odor neutralizer, such as vinegar or baking soda, on the soil in your garden beds. This will help eliminate any smells that cats might associate with their bathroom needs.
Cats are great pets, but they can be a bit of a headache when it comes to keeping them out of your garden. If you’re tired of your cats using your flowerbeds as their personal litter boxes, there are plenty of things you can do to keep them away. We recommend trying these approaches in order from least expensive (sprinklers) up through most expensive (horticultural fleece), so that if one doesn’t work for you, then try another!
