Cats can be the bane of every gardener’s existence, digging up flowerbeds, spreading soil across them and using them as outdoor litter boxes. Furthermore, cats may destroy plants or nibble on flower pot foliage. Find out how you can humanely deter cats from your flower garden without harming any living creatures!
Plants known to deter cats include rosemary, lemon thyme, rue and lavender. Scattering orange peel on flower beds also makes an effective barrier while composting in its turn. Motion-activated sprinklers that release short bursts of water when the cat approaches can also prove effective.
Physical Barriers
Cats are naturally curious animals who may explore your flower garden by digging and ruining it, so the best way to prevent this damage is with physical deterrents such as rough surfaces or odor repellents that provide physical deterrences against their entrance.
Others swear by ground black pepper, which doesn’t leave an offensive scent and easily blends in with soil and mulch. Others prefer attractive but effective solutions like marigolds.
Scattering cat-repellent powders such as rosemary, lavender, rue or pennyroyal is one way to deter cats. Plants with thorny or prickly leaves such as spiky hedging plants, sea holly or globe thistle may also deter them. You could also try startling them using a spray bottle with water; just be cautious as cats in panic may knock over plants and sustain injuries from panicked movements.
Spray Bottle
Cats are natural predators of rodents and other pests, yet can also wreak havoc in gardens by digging (leaving deposits behind), using flower beds as soft napspots and chewing on plant leaves. A variety of safe repellents such as scented sprays with eucalyptus, rosemary, menthol or hot pepper extract can deter cats without harming them; try sprays that contain these fragrances.
Other options for protecting the flowers may include using tin foil, which cats hate walking on, and motion-activated sprinklers which dispense water when they detect movement in your garden. Many systems such as these can even be programmed to automatically spray when best for your flowers.
Some have also had success using an inexpensive and simple technique: filling an old 2-liter bottle with water and placing it near plants to startle and scare away cats. According to reports, sunlight reflecting off its surface reportedly startsle and scares cats away.
Sprinkler Systems
Cats can be an enormous hassle in the garden, digging up flowerbeds and defecating on your lawn, damaging young plants, stealing pollen from them and generally being an eyesore. There are however, ways of deterring cats safely and humanely without endangering either them or your plants.
Motion activated sprinklers can be an effective solution to deterring cats from coming in your house, particularly if placed strategically near where they tend to enter. The best solutions only activate when movement is detected so as not to waste water on unwarranted visitors.
Ammonia’s scent can also act as an effective cat deterrent, so try spraying it in your garden beds or burying small ammonia-filled jars in flowerbeds until their rims reach soil level.
Electric Fence
Cats don’t like being shocked by electricity and may avoid areas with the risk of electrocution. An electric fence is an effective and nontoxic deterrent that can protect your flowers from cats and other pests.
An energizer converts continuous electricity from batteries or solar panels into intermittent high-voltage pulses that run along a wire and conduct through the ground to produce harmless microshocks when anything touches them. A wire from the energizer connects directly with an embedded metal rod in the ground for complete electrical circuit connectivity.
If the cat that visits your garden is feral or stray, a local cat rescue organization can help humanely capture and relocate it in order to reduce kitten production while preventing future breeding in your yard.
Oscillate Fence
Cats can damage gardens by digging up and scattering flower beds, using them as litter boxes or simply trampling on plants. Humane methods for keeping cats away include setting up obstacles or using scent repellents that do not harm cats.
Rough mulches like coarse pine chips or thorny rose clippings irritate cats, making it hard for them to traverse soil surfaces. Plastic fencing used for protecting ponds or chicken wire will keep out bold garden cats who attempt to access soil surfaces by digging.
A scat mat contains rows of plastic spikes that will irritate but not harm cats and is an effective means of deterrence. Planting closely-spaced shrubs or growing prickly coleus caninus plants (which smell of urine) may also discourage cats from tromping around in your flowers.