Neighborhood cats and my flowerbeds as litterboxes.

[Skidmore]

Okay, I don't mind the neighbors cats normally but they've taken to using my flowerbed as litterboxes. Any suggestions for keeping them out?

[Xithras]

1. Dogs?

Hehe.

Seriously, there are many ways to do it. Any decent gardening center should carry an organic cat repellent for your beds. Generally, these are powders made with either herbs that the cats find offensive, or dried urine from predator animals that cats fear. If you don't want to buy anything, peels from citrus plants are offensive to cats, but you'll need to replace them regularly. Mothballs work too.

There are a few plants which are offensive to cats too, but they're generally hard to fit into an existing flowerbed (rue works, but the plant gets very large). You may also see ads for a plant called Coleus canina. It's more effective and better looking than rue, but most dealers and nurseries won't mention that it has short range. Like 6"-8".

No matter what you do, make sure you remove their feces from the bed and neutralize any uric odors before bothering. Cat's aren't stupid, and if they smell their own poo from the last visit, they'll assume the spot is safe and poo there again no matter WHAT you put down.

I have dogs.

[susanna]

13. It's funny you say first thing is dogs...

I have grown a garden for ten years, and until early 2006, I had a dog. She died in January that year, and I kid you not - the cats went haywire in the gardens that very summer. Like they KNEW she was gone, (which I suppose they did). I evidently even had a feral mother cat pick my garden as the ideal birthing place for her kittens - lots of foliage. She was removed without me ever knowing, due to a call from a neighbor (DH and I both work all day and didn't notice what was up, but our neighbor did).

Now I use, of all things, cinnamon. It seems to deter them - no cats this summer at all. I keep moth balls and such around as well in a pinch, but the upshot of the story is...I think I need another dog. :-)

[Gormy Cuss]

2. For flower beds, scented plants are a good start

Rue works wonders but as Xithras noted it can get rather large. I have rue in containers near my raised veggie beds.

Cats also are not fond of garlic or red pepper and for container plants I've spread a paste of garlic,cayenne, flour and water at strategic intervals along the inside rim -- it usually works.

Other than scented plants and dogs, the other method to try is making the soil feel uncomfortable to their soft little paws. Gardener's supply sells Cat Scat mats (see below) but we've used toothpicks, and small wooden branches culled from other plants, etc to do the same.

[badgerpup]

4. I've heard that burying small-gauge chicken wire ...

...about an inch or so below ground level works well too.
Snags their claws and they don't like that and will take their 'business' elsewhere. :hi:

[susanna]

8. I'll piggyback on Gormy Cuss because I always read his posts...

I'm shameless that way.

My tactic for cats has become a blend of cayenne pepper and cinnamon. Because I have a very small urban space, I use square foot gardening (vegetable-edible) in raised beds. As an animal lover, I (now) know cats look at them as outdoor litterboxes. Unfortunately cats do not understand why I, a human food gardener, am really sensitive to feeding people residual cat poo, regardless of the spirit in which it was deposited. :-)

I had horrible problems my first year, but a mixture of cayenne and cinnamon this year kept all cats out of the beds, thankfully.

Not so squirrels, but that's another story. They just like to (spring) roll in the earth and (fall) bury their treasures for the winter. I'm still working on that conundrum.

[susanna]

14. ON EDIT: responding to my own post and not knowing it?

OK, I've really lost it. Sorry folks.

on edit: I'm dumber than a box of rocks. :-)

[China_cat]

3. Plant a patch of catnip

In your neighbor's yard.

No, plant some well away from where you want the cats not to be.

[bleedingheart]

5. perhaps you have moles or voles?

ever think Mr. Kitty is doing some hunting in your flower bed?

[Gato Moteado]

6. call michael vick....he'll take care of them

seriously though....i had this problem for years. i started trapping the cats and taking them to the city animal shelter. the shelter would call the owner (if the cat was tagged) and inform them to come pick up their cat and the owner would have to pay a fine. untagged cats were put up for adoption.

my experience was that when a cat owner had to go pay a fine and pick up their cat from the pound, they learned not to let it run free outside without adult supervision.

[RedEarth]

7. I had the same problem and but found the solution

The only thing that solved the problem permanently was pine needles. I have have pine trees in my yard so every few months I rake them up and use them as mulch in the flower beds. Prior to using the pine needles I had literally tried everything. Called vets, pet supply stores, etc. and then I called a local nursery and the lady I spoke to said the thing to use is pine needles. And sure enough, it works.

[susanna]

9. Oh my...thank you!

My next door neighbor has oodles of pine needles. I think I'm going to ask for some. :-)

[flying_wahini]

10. well, pine needles don't stop them here in Houston,

and I have tons of them.... hate to rake them up because they
frequently have goodies in them..... these are the long type,
maybe the short type work better....

[Gato Moteado]

11. pine needles work great, if.........

...you can shoot them at an extremely high velocity out of the end of a tube and aim them at the cats' asses.

;)

[Blue Gardener]

12. Paul James, of Gardening by the Yard

On HGTV says cats don't like the smell of citrus, so try orange peels. He's usually right on target with his gardening information, but I don't know about this one.