Keeping cats out of your garden

Keeping cats out of your garden

Whether you love cats or not, having them use your garden beds as their bathroom can be downright annoying. And it’s especially frustrating when you’ve spent money, time, and many hours of loving effort to care for your flowers and plants.

Now if the cats causing the problem are your own, the best way to stop them from using your garden beds as toilets is to simply keep them inside at all times. What’s more common though, is that stray cats, or cats who belong to someone else, are running loose around your neighborhood, and have taken a liking to your pristinely cared for flower beds.

There are a wide variety of tools, products, and techniques which can be used to keep stray unwanted cats out of your garden though. Some, such as automatic water sprinklers which will squirt anything that moves, might be more costly than you’d prefer.

The automated water sprinkling system is activated by the motions of a cat - or any other creature - entering your yard. The sprinkler will spray the cat with water, which usually scares it off. In most cases, after just two to three times of this happening, the cat will actively avoid your yard in the future.

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Garden Tip...

There is no sight more attractive in a window-garden than a fine Ivy vine trained up the casement, over the wall and ceiling; its dark, rich, glossy leaves, and thrifty look, make it an object to be admired. If grown in pots in the house, the soil will soon become exhausted, if the plant is growing rapidly, and it should be changed or enriched with decayed manure at least once each year, care being taken not to disturb the roots to a great extent. It is a mistake to allow Ivies too much pot-room, they will do better if the roots are considerably confined. Soap-suds or liquid manure if applied once a mouth when the plants are growing, will promote a luxuriant growth. When dust accumulates on the leaves, as it will, if grown in-doors, wash it off with a damp cloth or sponge; if this is long neglected, you need not be surprised if you soon discover the leaves to be covered with red-spider or scale-lice. Cold water is the best wash, when washing be sure and treat the underside of the leaves as well as the upper surface. I would recommend the "English Ivy" as being the best sort for general cultivation.
~ James Sheehan
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A similar device is one which emits a high pitch sound which can only be heard by cats, dogs, and possibly other animals. The ultrasonic sound is said to be annoying to the animals, thus they’ll leave an area to get away from it. Some of these devices are also based on motion, so they’ll make the sound only when triggered by movement in your garden.

There are other, more natural and less expensive ways to help keep cats out of your flower beds and gardens too. Certain herbs for instance, which give off a lemon or citrus smell usually do quite well to keep the cats away. You can also just scatter orange or lemon peels around your garden beds, and this may work well too. Scattering moth balls in the same manner has produced successful results for many people too.

You can try planting various other flowers or plants which cats won’t like much too. Something prickly like cactus or rose bushes with thorns might help for instance, and things that have strong smells such as marigolds or lavendar will often do the trick too.

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Last but not least, try different kinds of mulch. Cats don’t like to walk on certain materials for instance, but they love bare dirt. So often just putting down a bark or gravel mulch material will take care of the problem. Pinecones are another one which deters them though, and small sticks usually keep them away too.
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Garden Tip...

If a new lawn of any extent is to be made, it should first be plowed deep, and if uneven and hilly, grade it to a level surface. The surface should have a heavy dressing of manure, which should be lightly plowed under, and then the surface should be dragged several times until fine, and then rolled with a heavy roller. The seed may now be sown, after which it should be rolled again. The spring is the best time to do this work, although if the fall be dry, it will answer nearly as well to do it at that time. The dryer the ground in preparing it for the seed, and for the sowing of the same, the better.
~ James Sheehan
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