If you’re having to search this up, the chances are that you’re already dealing with this problem, increasingly frustrated by what’s happening to your garden as of late, or became careful about cats in the garden.
Whatever the reason may be, you need your problem resolved. Many domestic cats, feral cats, and homeless strays find their way into gardens out of curiosity, hunting, mating, or looking for food. If they find food in your garden, you’re going to have more frequent visits by the cat.
Eventually, it might create an attachment to the place because cats inherently associate things with the spaces they are in. They thrive in familiar spaces and rarely move or like to be moved.
You’ve invested time, money, and your labor into the garden. You use it as your safe haven or for family gatherings with a safe environment. But local cats aren’t as receptive to your requests, and you find a surprise or two any time you visit the garden. New seeds and plants are being dug out, and your plants are being pooped on.
Why are cats even a problem for the garden?
Cats are adorable creatures; they are friendly and great cuddle buddies-if you can manage to get them to give you a hug! They love their personal space. So, for those who are new to gardening and wonder what the fuss is all about, here is why,
- Cats’ feces contain parasites or pathogens that aren’t present in herbivore manure. These parasites can be dangerous for the vegetable garden you’ve been growing. Moreover, their poop does not get decomposed easily; you’re going to have to toss it out by yourself.
- Your garden naturally attracts pollinators, which is also ideal for a garden with multiple uses like a vegetable or fruit garden and a nook for relaxing. Roaming domestic cats kill around 140 million birds and small animals, especially songbirds, each year. This means your garden is going to experience a lack of pollen, thus reduced growth.
How to keep cats away from your garden?
To discourage cats from soiling your garden or digging into the beds of your vegetable garden, you can try a few products that might deter cats. Before you do so, make sure they are safe for the cat. Change your tactics regularly because many cats might visit, and a new cat in the neighborhood might not be as sensitive to your usual methods.
Use their sense of smell to your advantage
You can use odor barriers as a way to stop cats from coming to your property. Cats have a highly sensitive sense of smell. In comparison to you, who has 5 million odor receptors, cats have 200 million of them. This means cats not only sniff out their preferred places well, but they can also stay away from places that have offensive smells.
You can buy a commercial cat repellent to use the odor barrier method to discourage cats from entering the area. You can sprinkle the repellent onto the problem area.
However, there are some natural ways, with products in your home, that you can create an odor barrier for cats. You can use citrus fruits like grapefruit, oranges, or vegetable peels around that area. Some people also use mothball for the same purpose, cayenne pepper flakes. However, these can be toxic and sting the cat, causing them pain. There are humane ways you can deter the cat; these, however, will be unnecessarily painful.
Consider buying plants that cats dislike due to their smells. One such is Coleus Canina, its common name a “scary cat plat”. It can even keep your dogs away from your landscaping and not take away from the beauty of your garden.
Deploy physical barriers
Safe physical barriers will have the cat running in another direction when you install them. Some options that are discouraging for the cat but will not harm them are chicken wire or mulch across the planting bed before planning.
Use a wire cutter to cut holes big enough for your plant to grow but too small for a cat to enter. A mulch can be made with dried-up pine-cones, eggshells, or stone mulch on the top soil. The cats will be put off by the rough surface and look for other areas to do their business instead.
Installing motion-activated sprinklers might help as cats are known to hate water and will run in the other direction if they sense water near them. Or you can try squirting at the cats with a water gun if you find them in a forbidden area. This will eventually reinforce the areas that are allowed to visit and those that are not.
Install sound motion detectors
Much like a motion-activated sprinkler, installing a sound motion detector acts as a deterrent that emits a very high frequency when they detect movement. These sounds are usually very off-putting to cats but are hardly heard by humans. Try placing them at entry points as they cover a small area of the garden.
Put up cocktail sticks
Cats don’t prefer doing their business in a place that isn’t comfortable. Thus, this works well because cats aren’t able to find a good enough place to squat, resulting in them leaving eventually.
These don’t have to be cocktail sticks specifically; you can also use whatever disposable cutlery you have lying around. Put them around your plants or where the cat usually does its business. However, this might require covering the whole garden if you want cats to go away completely.
But the way we see it, none of us really hate innocent cats that are just looking for a place to do their business or are curious. We just want them not to soil our garden in areas it matters most. So, you can also choose to coexist with these frequent visitors while making sure they are behaving well in your garden.
Have you got any other tips on how to avoid cats in the garden? Get in touch!