Cats are charming pets that play an important role in gardens. They help to protect your garden from pests like rats and moles that can harm your produce. While this is great, your cat can also destroy your garden in different ways. As a cat parent, you need to learn how to keep cats out of flower beds and gardens.
In this post, we will show you how to do this as well as home remedies to keep cats away from your plants. Without further ado, let’s dive straight in.
How do you keep cats from digging in flower beds?
Cats are very playful animals and one of the things they do in a garden is to dig in your flower beds. Even if you don’t own a cat, your neighbor might, and your garden will always attract it. Wondering how to keep your neighbor’s cars out of flower beds? We will share a few tips in this section:
Scent repellents
Cats are highly sensitive to smell. Just like humans and other animals, certain scents are unpleasant to cats. You can make use of these scents in your garden to keep cats from digging in flower beds. Here are a few of them:
- Chicken manure. Spread it around in your garden to deter cats. This substance performs a dual function as it also doubles as fertilizer.
- Lemon and orange peels.
- Herbs like pennyroyal, lavender, and rue.
- Coleus Canina.
Texture solutions
Cats love to dig in soft, loose dirt. Wondering how to keep cats away from your garden naturally? You can consider altering the soil texture. This method is very effective in preventing cats from digging in flower beds. Here are a few helpful tips:
- Add a few pine cones to your garden mulch before spreading it around the flower beds.
- Place rocks or pebbles in the beds.
- Put some chicken netting or wire on the ground in the garden. The best locations are places where you just turned the soil over.
- Cat scat. This is an organic repellent that consists of plastic mats cut into tiny pieces. Press them into the soil to change the texture in the garden.
Scare tactics
One of the easiest ways to stop cats from digging in flower beds is to use scare tactics. Cats get scared easily and you can use this to your advantage. Check the tips below to find out how:
- Install motion sprinklers in your garden.
- Place fake wriggly snakes close to your plants (cats are afraid of snakes).
- Ultrasound approaches like Cat Stop.
- Commercial repellents like Renardine, Silent Roar, and Shake-Away imitate predator urine.
How do you stop cats from peeing and pooping in flower beds?
A cat sees the world as its playground so every dirt mound is a potential litter box. It doesn’t matter if you own cats or not, you don’t want them making a mess in your flower beds. What home remedies to keep cats away are available? We will share a few of them with you in this section:
Also Read:
- How to get rid of rats in your garden without the use poison
- How to use preen in a vegetable garden
- Get rid of boxelder bugs in your garden
Natural cat deterrents
You should have a few of these in your kitchen cupboard. Cats don’t like citrus so lemon and orange peels come in handy in this situation. You can also try spraying some pepper mixed with water around. The challenge with peels and pepper is that rain can wash them away.
Another very strong natural cat deterrent is vinegar. Dilute it and soak some rags in the solution then drop the rags around the garden. You can also make a repellent spray with essential oils, dried mustard, and cayenne pepper.
Plant deterrents
Are there plants to keep stray cats away? Yes, certain plants help to deter cats from peeing and pooping in flower beds. Some of them include pennyroyal, lavender, rue, Coleus Canina, lemon thyme, and lemon balm. Cats don’t like these plants so you can plant them around your garden to prevent cats from digging and defecating around.
Commercial cat repellents
Many manufacturers have come up with commercial cat repellents to help protect gardens. If you have been looking for how to keep your neighbor’s cats out of flower beds, this is a good option. Walk into any pet store and purchase a commercial cat repellent. Spray it around your garden to deter cats from peeing and pooping in flower beds. Ensure that you purchase deterrents that wouldn’t affect your plants adversely.
Will coffee grounds keep cats out of flower beds?
This is a very common question among people who want to know how to keep cats out of flower beds and gardens. There is just one answer to this question, YES! Cats don’t like coffee and they wouldn’t step into your garden if you have a coffee smell around it.
How do you apply the coffee grounds? Take fresh, wet coffee grounds and spread them all over your garden. One of the main benefits of this method is that coffee grounds are biodegradable. As such, they decompose after a while to enrich the soil.
Why don’t cats like coffee? It contains caffeine that is dangerous to cats. Cats can suffer ingestion for life from coffee overdoses and it can even lead to death.
How do you keep cats out of garden beds?
Cats are friendly and playful. While they protect our gardens from pests, they can also harm our plants. We have shown you how to keep plants out of flower beds and gardens in this post. in rounding up, we will state a few items that you can use to rid your garden beds of cats:
- Bitter apple
- Floral wire
- Rose branches
- Stinky plants
- Hot pepper spray
- Tape
- Bird netting
- Sandbox
- Motion sprinklers
Try out everything we have discussed in this post to protect your garden from cats. What other methods do you know? Kindly share with us in the comments section below.
