HELP! Keeping Cats Out of My Garden

ExpatFamily06

Hello, I am hoping you ladies will be able to help.  Their is a very annoying neighborhood cat that keeps coming and crapping in my front garden.  I am getting extremely pi$$ed off with this and have no idea how to stop it.  I know it's a territory thing, but is there any safe remedy that I can lay in there to get the cat to stop coming and pooping there?  I have lavender planted and a shrub, that I'm not sure what it is and wood chips.  I just planted my lavender this year and I don't want to put something down that is going to harm my plants.  Thank you!

PurrBox

Maybe some others will have better ideas, but the only thing I can think of is putting a dog near the garden. That's absolutely no help if you don't already have a dog. Sorry, that's all I've got.

PurrBox

Okay. My above idea was ridiculous (but it's all I could think of that didn't involve chemicals), but ehow has more ingenious solutions.

Phantom&Tessa

Cats are meant to dislike citrus so you could try sprinkling shredded orange peel around the edge of flowerbeds. Otherwise there are deterrents you can get from garden centres.

malibuconfcenter

moonprincessd

Don't do the orange peel thing! You'll risk the safety of the plants, we tried that and it molds quickly! Mold = dead plants!

You could try planting cat nip to deter the cat to something else. Otherwise do you think you could catch it and take it to a shelter? (if it's a stray that is)

Get a sprinkler and turn it on, should scare the cat away

NestCayla

Do you have a fence already? Maybe that would be a good option -- even a small one that goes around the specific plants you want to keep safe.

where is the cat coming from?

Also -- the Pets board here in the community could give you great tips -- they don't cats very well and could give some helpful tips on how to keep your plants safe while not hurting the cat in any way!

ewill7911

I have a fence around mine, so no cats or dogs get into my garden, however I have heard these things work:
Fake snake(s)
Planting catnip somewhere else
Planting something cats dont like to smell, like a strong herb - pepper, rosemary

My parents have used the catnip idea to great success with no holes being dug in their flower garden.

Jennifer&Nate

Here's an article with some potentially helpful tips:
http://www.alleycat.org/page.aspx?pid=375