HELP! How do I keep cats from using my garden as a Sand Box

Does anyone have a method of keeping neighborhood cats out of the garden and using it as a sand box?? I don't want to kill them, just want them to stay away...

Deann

They love loose, open soil, so cover it with ground cover plants or a heavy mulch like bark chips or rough-edged gravel. In the vegetable garden, try stringing cotton thread a few inches off the ground above your seed rows.

A cat hating dog is a good deterrant! Also, if you can catch them in the act, squirt them with a hose and aim for the face. A nice coarse shredded mulch will also deter them as well as burying some chickenwire around the plants.

But consider this, cats keep mice, moles and voles in check as well, and squirrels learn very quickly to stay away from cats.

We had a feral colony in my neighborhood until this year .. I think they finally all died of kitty aids and leukemia as I haven't seen any this year. I have also noticed an increased number of vermin in the yard which is another indicator of the missing cats, which means that I will be chasing more snakes out of my yard when it warms up.

X

I have found an organic product that truly works if you prefer just to spray to keep cats and other pests away.

http://www.liquidfence.com/

Saved my garden from a stray dog I've named "Digger"! Now she can visit me but does't go in to my beds!

My neighbor uses bird netting to cover her soil. She holds it down on the edges with tarp clips or dirt and then easily cuts a center hole for her plants. It is easy to cut to shape and cheap. The rest of the growing plants come up easily thru the mesh and you can't see the mesh unless you look very closely. She has been doing this for years. There are at least 10 cats running around on our properties at any given time...and she has had great success with it.

You can do the same with chicken wire, but you have to get it down before things start to sprout. And then you can't hoe, you have to pull weeds by hand. I'd try the liquid fence before I'd do all that work. Someone down south suggested those little round prickly things that come off a southern type tree. Can't for the life of me remember what the name of them is. Cats don't like to walk on sharp prickly things. Come to think of it neither do I.

Ladies........thank you all so much for the tips............

Deann

D:

Spread some moth balls around the perimeter of the garden. The cats will be broken of their habit within ten days and by then the moth balls will have sublimed and disappeared. They will find it hard to cross the moth ball scent barrier

Also, if there is a specific area that they use, work in some moth fkakes into the dirt and VOILA!!! .

L

You could always plant a patch of catnip elsewhere to lure them away. I have a patch in my backyard and that's where my cats head when they sneak outdoors. They don't even bother the rest of the garden. Since it sounds like these are stray cats needing an "outhouse", maybe a sandbox just for them away from your beds?

meezersfive, were you referring to sweetgum balls from Liquidambar styraciflua? My town has these trees planted curbside which makes walking down the sidewalk quite difficult at times. I read in another post that these were good to prevent cats from digging in flower beds.

Try this link to a thread that offers more advice about deterring cats; including links to products that some gardeners have had success with and are recommending. I hope that you find a feasible solution soon.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/709943/

Sweet gum, that's it!! I'm sure I'll forget it again.

The following worked great for me.

MOTh FLAKES, spread around the perimiter and worked slighhtly into the soil. The cats won't cross that barrier. Whitin a week or two at most they will never return.

NOTE: Using flakes will mean that you might have to re-apply within a few days as they will sublime into the air more quickly than moth balls. Moth balls will last longer but there might be a danger that small children might pick them up as candy.

Good luck

Moth balls make everything run away.....the stench. I didn't know about these so called flakes.
They sound sublime! haha