Cats in your garden?

Anyone have issues with cats getting in your garden? Is it a problem?

I think it probably depends. For ME yes they were a huge problem. I never had issue with birds or gophers or dogs but car oh my- they made my blood boil when they used the bed as a litter box and then dog style covered it up so I'd fine kitty turds hiding and not so hiding. It was especially annoying when I was pregnant of course since outdoor cats can carry toxoplasmosis. I wanted to do bad things to the neighbor cat and my kids became quite familiar with my rantings of "stop crapping in our yard!" that I'd yell when I'd see the cat in our garden area in the mornings .

I have never done this.....

but some people plant cat nip and cat grass away from their garden as kinda like a "trap crop".

Seeds are cheap it's worth a try!

Jennie
Admin

Our neighborhood is rife with stray Tom cats so I must fence my plot and wrap clear plastic around it 3' up to keep the little devils from spraying my vegies .

One of our members uses plastic forks, stuck point end up, into the garden to deter cats. I just started using them (we are foster parents to Teeko, while her Mommy and Daddy are in Arizona from October to April) because Teeko, the neighbor's cat was laying on the warmed MM and sunbathing while crushing my baby lettuces.

I wonder if I could get forks to stick in my dining room table like that...

We have that problem too. What we did is put PVC hoops and bird netting on our 4x8 boxes to keep the cats out. I also purchased an electronic sound thing that goes off when an animal walks in the covered zone. I put this in an area I was preparing to plant in ground away from the raised beds garden area. After adding compost and fertilizer I turned it all over and made it look so good I knew it would be hit by cats so I tried my new battery powered CatStop deterrent. No cat problems for days till my curiosity got the best of me and I removed it for one night to see if it made a difference. That night it was used by a cat so I replaced it and I haven't had a problem since (about two months now). I'm not endorsing the product, just saying it is working for me in an area if about 12x24. I have also put mouse traps just under the soil to snap a cat but no luck with that idea.

LOL! What is the name of your "electronic sound thing"?

I am going to try the fork thing for sure. And I may look into other methods. Thanks for the tips. I never saw a stray cat in my neighborhood until two days after I planted the garden and the cat was sitting on my fence right above the garden. It could have been a neighbors cat that got out and chased up there by the barking dogs in everyones yards, but I want to make sure I don't end up with cat excrement in my garden.

Every year I buy a giant container of Red Pepper at Sam's Club. I sprinkle liberally and frequently all over everything. I have the cats and the squirrels as well digging everything up. They DO NOT like that pepper !! So far that has worked well for me..

I have a problem with cats too. They love my front flowerbeds especially in winter, when the roof overhang keeps the bed almost clear of snow. I am thinking of investing in a Rueger with a silencer since most other methods have not been working very well including the pepper.

Gwynn

I had a cat problem. I tried citrus peels and forks, but the cats laughed at those.

At the suggestion of some of the forum peeps here I invested in a motion-activated sprinkler: THE SCARECROW!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000071NUS

It does an amazing job, and has taught me that the cats are much quicker learners than me.

Never had a problem with cats last year. This weekend I went away and when I came back on Sunday several plants were sagging over. I thought it was due to the heavy rains we had. After inspection it was clear the plants were pushed over and made sort of a path and you could see places where something had laid down in the soil.

I will admit that I tend to prefer cats over dogs so I am by no means a cat hatter like some people but I definitely prefer my garden over cats. I placed forks in the garden last night and I will add some pepper in and around the garden.

Which pepper have y'all had success with cruched red pepper flakes (what about the seeds), cayenne pepper or some other pepper?

I'm not saying it will come to this but I'm not saying I am ruling it out either; if this cat where to remain a problem and I were to get my hands on said cat which garden item would compliment cat the best basil, rosemary or cilantro?

The scarecrow sprinkler that AndreHall mentioned is out of the question since my garden is right next to our driveway, garage, and door we use to get into the house but the user images on Amazon are a great laugh.

Critter cages keep out my cats, neighbors cats, bunnies, deer,etc.

Cats, bunnies, deer and a resident peacock....

I don't want to build a cage that I have to take off every time I want to work in the garden. The neighborhood cat also gets into my garage and makes a mess in there also. If I am building something then I am building something to get rid of the cat.

I might also try the CatStop thing mentioned earlier.

Used to but I built a critter cage around all of my boxes. Problem solved.

I tried forks last year. The cats in my neighborhood are pretty sly though and would find the one spot I didn't put a fork, so I had to keep buying forks and pretty soon it looked like I was growing forks instead of plants:



But when a deer and/or rabbit also came into my garden and literally stripped my pole beans of every last leaf, I decided enough was enough and put up an anti animal fence:



It's made with conduit and bamboo poles (what I had on hand) and deer/bird netting for the fence part, with a kind of door in the front that could be opened and closed. We replaced the conduit and bamboo with u-bars this year so it's much sturdier, but I'm still using the deer/bird fencing because it was cheap and it works!

I have had great success with coffee grounds keeping cats out
of places I don't want them, but you need to reapply every couple
of months. I go through enough coffee that's its not a problem
but I have seen posts here in the forum that suggest talking to
your local coffee shop for your supply.

Starbucks has a great program called Grounds for Your Garden. You can pick up their used grounds, just walk in and collect whatever they have on hand. It is bagged into 10-12 pound bags. My Starbucks puts it in these sturdy shiny bags --

Yes, a real bad one.

@llama momma wrote:Starbucks has a great program called Grounds for Your Garden. You can pick up their used grounds, just walk in and collect whatever they have on hand. It is bagged into 10-12 pound bags. My Starbucks puts it in these sturdy shiny bags --

Thats cool! Is it dry or wet in the bag? I air dry all of mine before I store it.

The grounds are damp.

I woke up this morning to find my biggest pepper plant in a sad little heap NEXT TO the garden and a big hole where I think a kitty dug and scratched. We have squirrels too, but this looked like it was courtesy of a bigger critter. We quickly replanted the pepper (hope it takes!) and I took several bamboo poles and surrounded the plant with them until I can make a better solution. Ohhh...my language for a Sunday morning was atrocious, I tell you!