If your neighborhood cats are getting into your flower beds, spaying and neutering may help decrease undesirable behaviors like urinating on plants, spraying with urine, producing litters or producing any other nuisance behaviors such as spraying with urine. Additional effective techniques include physical deterrents such as scent and physical repellents as well as cat proofing techniques.
Planting aromatic herbs like rosemary and thyme to deter cats by invading their sense of smell can also help. Try spreading prickly pine cones or texture garden mulch across the soil surface as an added barrier against their entryway.
Plant Catnip
Catnip (Nepeta cataria) attracts cats into your garden with its scent, helping keep them away from other flower beds. You can purchase seeds at garden centers and plant them after the last frost date in your region in spring after sowing. Unfortunately, its rapid growth may become invasive quickly so its best kept contained or monitored frequently for best results.
Self-pollinating and inviting pollinators such as bees to your garden, this flower requires well-draining soil with sandy or loamy textures, light to moderate irrigation and should withstand drought conditions but should not experience heavy, prolonged rainfall.
Other plants that deter cats include lavender, sage, rue, geraniums, absinthe, lemon thyme and pennyroyal as well as rosemary, thyme or sea holly. Some gardeners suggest mothballs to deter cats; however these toxic balls could potentially pose a health hazard to children who mistakenly pick them up by mistake. Additionally, there are commercial products with strong scents designed to deter cats.
Install a Chicken Wire or Lattice Fence
Cats can be an eyesore in flower beds as they dig, destroy soil and leave behind poop and urine deposits – not only distasteful to look at but also harmful for plants as the ammonia from cat poop can kill plants, while urine damage them further; in dry soil environments this could even carry parasites that make you sick!
Fencing can be one of the easiest ways to keep cats out of your garden, often deterring most feline invaders. A 6 foot fence should do just fine.
Simple ways to prevent cats from accessing your flower garden include covering its soil with rough or prickly mulches such as pine cones, brush and twig debris or thuja or holly clippings. Also consider planting perennial geraniums which naturally possess sharp surfaces that deter cats. This will keep them away!
Make the Ground Textured or Rough
Cats love playing in soft soil, which explains why they like to explore flowerbeds and dig up your prize dahlias. Luckily, there are ways you can keep cats out of your garden without harming them or using harmful chemicals.
Spraying nontoxic cat repellent in areas you wish to prevent cats from visiting can help deter their entry. You could also scatter orange peel or citrus leaves around your garden as an effective deterrent since cats don’t like the scent – plus these compost so your yard won’t add unnecessary litter!
Make the ground less inviting for cats by covering it with prickly material such as rose bushes, holly or perennial geraniums; alternatively you could plant plants with spiked leaves such as Russian sage, lavender or citronella to repel them. If neighborhood strays or feral cats are marking their territory in your garden, reach out to an animal rescue organization in order to humanely trap and neuter them so as to reduce any nuisance behavior like fighting, spraying, yowling and producing more litters of kittens.
Sprinkle Your Hair
Cats use scent to mark their territories, and certain scents can act as effective deterrents for felines. Citrus peels such as lemon, orange or lemon will deter cats as will coffee grounds, vinegar, lavender oil, eucalyptus oil or blood meal according to Alley Cat Allies.
Human hair acts as an effective natural repellent against cats and other animals, so make a trip to your local barber and place the discarded locks strewn around your garden as a quick, cost-effective solution that works against rabbits and squirrels as well.
Repellants you can try include prickly foliage that makes it unpleasant for cats to walk on, such as holly leaves and rose thorns; plastic carpet runners or CatScat mats equipped with flexible plastic spikes will also work. Twigs, old chicken wire or the spiked edge of metal garden tools may also work effectively as repellents.