20 ways to keep cats off your garden
We love cats, but what they leave behind in the veg patch can be dangerous to your health.
Both cat and dog poo contain nasty pathogens that can cause toxoplasmosis, a serious parasitic disease, if consumed by humans via home-grown veges. Even touching the soil where a cat has toileted can expose you to nasty bugs - that's why it's always a good idea to wear gloves when tending your plot.
Here readers share their tips to keep cats out of vege gardens.
1. Sprinkle with pepper
I no longer have a cat, but use this method to deter the neighbours' cats. I buy packs of white pepper and transfer them into a sprinkle container. When I've sown seeds or have vulnerable seedlings, I simply sprinkle it around the area. It keeps the cats away, doesn't harm plants or the garden and is easy to re-apply after rain or watering. (Ray Anderson)
2. Cat repellent
I too detest felines digging in my vege and flower garden and leaving their deposits behind. My solution now is a cat repellent. The solution is napthalene crystals and while it smells quite fresh and clean to humans, felines detest it and it certainly works. It is not harmful to animals or birds apparently. (Mavis Clifton, Lower Hutt)
3. Citronella tea bags
Keep your used tea bags and soak them in citronella oil available at hardware stores, the type that's used to burn in barbecue lamps to keep mozzies away. They need to be re-squirted with the solution every 3-4 days and dispersed around the garden. (Peter Thorburn)
4. Cover with lawn clippings
Upon advice from a local gentleman, I cover any bare earth with thin layers of grass clippings. I was sceptical at first as did not think this would keep them off, however it works well. You do need to keep topping the areas up but it is worth it. (Chris Sorensen)
5. Plant catnip
I sell herbs and vege plants at a local market and one of the plants I (try to) grow is catnip. The plants have to harden off outside and the catnip is always either upended or lying on its side in the pots and covered with cat hair. We don't even have a cat! I don't know who the offender is, but I have my suspicions. I'm thinking of potting up a special one with a ribbon around it and giving it to the perpetrator for Christmas! (Dianne McConnell)
6. Protect with arches
I've cut up pieces of wire trellis that I bend into low arches over my new seedling patches. They don't look too bad and also make it easier to chuck frost cloth over in a hurry. The cats won't do the hard work to go in my seedling patch when there's a far more accessible spot next door! (Diana Moyle)
7. Scatter sheep pellets
Living in an area with a lot of cats, including one of my own, and being one of the few people with a garden, mine became the communal gathering place. I noticed the only garden they didn't touch was my vegetable box where I had spread sheep pellets on top but hadn't dug them in. So, I did this with the rest of the garden and watched cats sniff the garden, then back off and make other ablution arrangements. Repeat the application once they start to break down and you are not only cat-free, but are adding nitrogen to your soil. Spread about a handful of pellets every couple of square metres. (Mari Hewson, Waimate)
8. Protect with netting
My cat Missy adopted me. I came home from work one day and she was on a chair in my living room. I love her, she is friendly and gets on with the neighbouring cats. The worst thing is that her mates leave a calling card in my garden. I've tried all sorts, including leaving citrus peels and placing plastic forks around precious plants which seems to be working. I also lay plastic netting over freshly dug soil to stop them scratching out my seedlings and newly planted garlic. (Carol Jane, Te Awamutu)
9. Scatter cat biscuits
Scatter dry cat biscuits around the area and replenish as required. Supposedly cats won't "toilet" where there's a food source. (Maureen)
10. Use rose prunings
I stick my rose prunings through my vege garden. Not only does it stop my cats, you also have the chance of the prunings rooting and having some free roses. (Katrina Christison )
11. Make a moggie fence
Making a simple, portable, re-usable or permanent fence is your best bet. My photo shows the carrot rust fly fence surrounding my carrot bed, but you can make a much stronger version for keeping out moggies. Determined felines will climb wire mesh fences like a ladder, so use bamboo stakes and wide mesh cloth bought by the metre.
If enough stakes are used to make the walls rigid and the mesh is wide enough to give a reasonable height, it should work well. If the sides aren't rigid they may just use it as a hammock! Mesh cloth is sold as wind break cloth or insect mesh. It comes in varying widths sold by the metre from large rolls and is usually a modest price. The width of the mesh becomes the height. Use long bamboo stakes pushed into the ground (or steel waratahs if you have them).
12. Old hanging baskets
Whenever I plant seeds or seedlings, I always put old wire hanging baskets over the plants and seeds to protect them. (Fay MacDonald, Whangarei)
13. Use mothballs
Just pop mothballs around your vege patch and they'll repel cats every time. They slowly break down with the rain, but at a couple of dollars a pack it's a cheap, effective solution. (Rose Brown)
14. Plant lemon balm
We had trouble with cats at our kindergarten, always pooing on the bark area. We planted lemon balm along the fenceline as a deterrent. I'm not sure if it really worked but we had plenty of lemon balm for our herbal tea! (Maree Riordan)
15. Use coffee grounds and plastic milk bottles
I have about a dozen cats that visit my home, probably because I don't own a cat. I appreciate them for dealing to rodents, but I didn't like them doing their business in my flower and vege gardens. I solved this by sprinkling spent coffee grounds around the plants. I also use mesh to stop the birds and cats from digging up my newly sown seeds and cut milk bottles for seedlings. When transplanting pumpkins, I sprinkle the grounds around the young plants and in the morning I pick up and deal to all the snails sitting on top of the coffee.
When the seedlings reach the top of the milk bottles I pull them off. Cats and birds don't touch my seedlings when they are like this. Mulching around the seedlings when I first put in them is easier with the plastic milk bottles in place. And if it's windy, I'll push a stick into the handle of the milk bottle to stop them from being blown away. (Linda Power)
16. Electric fence unit
I use a battery-powered electric fence unit which works extremely well. The cats only visit once and usually kick up quite a bit of dirt on take-off. If you're lucky enough to see this, it's quite spectacular. But don't blink or you'll miss it! (Roger Clement)
17. Make a fence out of tree prunings
I used our apple tree prunings to make a fort-like fence around the garden edge. It was quick and easy to roughly trim the sticks to a 30-40cm length, poke them in the soil then using the more "whippy" prunings, I wove them in and out of all the upright prunings. I also do this to deter the labrador from taking a shortcut across the flower garden! Eventually the fence falls apart so I then use the sticks as kindling. (Niki Davidson)
18. Use vicks vaporub
I think cats do this to claim an area, so remove poo quickly so other cats don't try to reclaim it. Smear rocks or sticks with Vicks VapoRub and push them into the vege garden. (Candice)
19. Cat-proof pot covers
Using old plant pots with bamboo stakes to keep cats at bay really works wonders. It's extremely cheap and is a great way to use those old plastic pots. The cats can't position themselves comfortably nor get a good rake at the ground to disturb your plants. (Carol Garnett).
20. Distraction
Cats can be problems particularly if they're not your own. As a veterinary nurse for many years, I still don't have all the answers! However, I do find that distraction is best. Try planting catnip as far away from your veges as possible. They just love it and will spend more time around that plant than your vegetables. Or fill a litter tray with compost and attract them to that instead.
My three cats go where I have laid an area of mulch. They seem to prefer it there rather than among my veges. For people who are troubled by other people's cats...the answer is, get your own cat! (Barb Hyde, Manawatu)
First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.
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