Cats can be useful companions in the garden, yet can also cause considerable damage by nibbling plants, scratching at compost piles and using prized garden areas as glorified litter boxes.
There are effective methods available to you for deterring cats from sniffing your flowers. Unpleasant smells, sharp mulches and areas which make cats uncomfortable are effective ways to do just that.
Install Motion Sprinklers
One way to prevent cats from causing damage in flower beds is with motion-triggered sprinklers that spray when someone comes too close. These sprinklers will eject a torrent of water onto cats that come too close, which should make them uncomfortable enough that they move on elsewhere.
An alternative solution for discouraging cats from coming near is planting cat-repelling plants such as rue, lavender, lemon thyme, pennyroyal or geraniums in your flower garden to deter their approach. Their fragrance will irritate cats and discourage their return – it may even keep the squirrels out too!
Try covering your flower garden’s soil with rocks to discourage cats from digging into its beds and upsetting the roots of its flowers. Another approach would be placing a layer of sand at the base of each bed to make it harder for cats to walk on top of it and disturb its roots.
Install Chicken Wire
Use chicken wire as an effective and cost-efficient deterrent against cats to keep them out of your flower garden! It will not interfere with plant growth and can even be placed beneath soil or over topsoil to stop cats from climbing onto plants and entering beds.
Cats are usually put off by rough surfaces that can hurt their delicate paw pads. You can create an effective visual deterrent by scattering stones, eggshells or holly cuttings over soil or flower beds; alternatively you could try products such as Bitter Apple that provide taste deterrence while remaining environmentally safe.
Catnip and valerian plants will help dissuade cats from trampling on your flowers. You could also construct an outdoor litter box filled with dry sand which will convince them to ignore your blooms.
Install Netting
Cats make great companion animals, but they can be troublesome in the garden. Cats love digging into the soil to dig out little litter boxes in which to store waste and chewing up leaves of plants for entertainment.
Chicken wire can be an effective solution to keeping cats out of flower beds because it’s difficult for them to climb it. As an effective and affordable barrier option, it works perfectly if placed over top of beds or down garden pathways.
Make use of ripening bananas to deter cats from your garden by scattering them across it. Cats do not like citrus scents and these fruit will deter them from coming near flowers and petals.
Install Oscillate Fence
Cats love tearing apart flowerbeds and creating holes they then use as litter boxes outside. One way to deter this behavior is covering the soil with prickly mulch such as pine needles, crushed eggshells or holly cuttings which allow water to pass through while also aiding plant growth.
Other deterrents for cats in your garden could include planting rue, lavender, lemongrass, pennyroyal and geranium plants in the garden and using oil extracted from their leaves as a spray bottle refill to mist soil and flowers daily – this way both cats and their waste will be deterred!
Plant rosemary around your garden as it has an unappealing scent that repels cats. Also try saving orange, lime and lemon peels and scattering them across your flower bed as their strong odor will further deter cats.
Try Tape
Cats can be beneficial in the garden by keeping rodents at bay and creating less damage, but they also create some havoc by getting into flower gardens and ruining them with their fur. To prevent cats from ruining your flowerbeds altogether with some simple strategies.
Rosemary, lemon balm, rue and pennyroyal plants provide natural deterrents against cats; other organic repellents include citrus and holly leaves. You could even mix some drops of rue, lemongrass, pennyroyal or geranium oil into a spray bottle and spray around your flowers to deter cats!
By providing rough surfaces in your flower beds, it will make cats less inclined to walk through them. Try placing prickly holly leaves throughout or use pointy objects like plastic forks, toothpicks or short sticks as a deterrent and they should feel uncomfortable enough to move along quickly.