Preventing cats from accessing your flower garden may seem impossible, but there are various strategies you can employ – planting cat repellent plants, chicken wire coverings and even coffee grounds can help.
Commercial sprays that smell strongly to felines may also prove effective, making flowers taste bad to them and shocking them when they least expect it. Motion-activated sprinklers also serve to frighten cats when they least expect it!
Scarecrow
Cats can be deterred from exploring flowerbeds when they know that humans do not welcome them there. A scarecrow can serve as an effective, visible deterrent while adding character and charm to your yard.
Plant cat repellent herbs and flowers in your flower beds to deter cats from your blooms. Plants like lavender, lemon thyme and rue have proven their effectiveness at keeping cats away. Marigolds, geraniums and impatiens also work to ward them off!
Use a motion-activated sprinkler like the Contech ScareCrow to provide non-toxic animal control that sprays a burst of water when motion is detected in the garden, acting as a humane alternative to poisonous animal repellents and toxic animal repellents. This device offers effective animal management without harm to pets or plants in your garden.
Tape
Cats typically dislike being sprayed with water, so a motion-activated sprinkler is an excellent way to keep unwanted cats away from your flower garden. The device detects movement and sends out bursts of water toward any intruders who enter, startling them into fleeing immediately.
Tape can also help deter cats from your flower garden in an eco-friendly manner; its sharp edges can make walking over it uncomfortable for cats, leading them to avoid it in future visits.
Commercial sprays to repel cats may be harmful for the environment or wildlife, or they could even harm pets and wildlife. Natural solutions, like citrus peels or rosemary plants can make a better alternative. Their scents make cats uncomfortable but soon wear off over time or rain.
Water
Unwanted cats intruding on your flower garden can be an enormous source of irritation. Luckily, there are several effective strategies available for deterring them that won’t harm either plants or pets in any way.
Motion-activated sprinklers may also be effective at discouraging cats from returning, and spraying water over their heads. This method also works well at detecting deer or raccoons.
Simply layering the soil of your flower garden with coarse mulch or materials that make stepping on them unpleasant for cats is another simple yet effective strategy, like pine cones, twigs or even plastic carpet runners with their nubs facing up can all work to protect the soil against cats’ attentions. Alternatively, chicken wire or pieces of plastic fencing could also be laid over it to cover it further.
Hot Pepper Spray
Homemade sprays made of hot pepper or commercial varieties deter cats by taste and scent, so regular applications may be necessary to be effective. Gardeners who grow plants that repel cats such as rosemary, lemon thyme, rue and lavender in their gardens to keep cats away may also benefit by planting rosemary, lemon thyme rue and lavender plants to repel cats as well as those with prickly leaves such as sea holly globe thistle and colus canina (known as Scarey Cat Plant) which reportedly also repel cats with its scent.
As each cat can vary considerably, identifying effective strategies to keep cats away from flower beds may take time and trial-and-error. Combining methods may offer long-term protection of blooms: planting cat-repellant flowers or plants; providing physical barriers like fences or mesh cloth coverings; using objects with strong scents or even motion sensing sprinklers – or coffee grounds!
Bird Netting
Cats can cause extensive damage to flower gardens by digging them up, eating their blooms and leaving behind their waste. There are several humane, inexpensive methods of deterring cats from flower gardens without resorting to harmful sprays that may harm people or pets.
Some deterrent methods rely on surprise, while others make it harder for cats to approach flower gardens. Examples include placing up a scarecrow, using a motion-activated sprinkler that sprays cats with water upon entry or placing half-full plastic bottles near borders of flower gardens; another way is hanging bird feeders away from flower gardens to discourage cats from visiting them.