By Kelly Miller
Cats are wonderful pets, but they can be troublemakers when they roam freely outdoors. Keep cats out of your lawn or garden to avoid their unwelcome effects: waste in your garden beds, damaged plants, and harm to wildlife.
Compared to other garden pests, unwelcome feline visits can be particularly stressful. If the intruder is one of your neighbor’s pets, communicating your concerns might be an uncomfortable situation. Or, if the cat is a stray, you might not be sure how to humanely deter it or where to turn for assistance.
Cats are tricky trespassers, but there are plenty of strategies for discouraging their presence. Here’s everything you need to know to safely keep cats away from your garden.
Why Cats and Gardens Aren’t a Good Mix
In the US, it’s estimated that over 50 million cats spend time outdoors. These include feral cats, “community cats” that receive partial care from local residents, and roaming housecats.
Outdoor cats can be harmful pests in a lawn or garden. Common damages include:
- Trampling plants.
- Digging up soil and leaving behind waste.
- Damaging trees by scratching and climbing.
- If you’ve turned your property into a wildlife haven, cats can be especially harmful. Outdoor cats are one of the world’s most destructive invasive species, causing the deaths of millions of birds, butterflies, small mammals, and other creatures every year. While cats can help control small animal pests such as mice and voles, they also prey on desirable wildlife such as small birds, snakes, lizards.
- Cats may also get themselves into trouble in your garden. Exposure to chemicals, sharp objects, and wildlife can all result in sickness or injury.
5 Ways to Keep Cats Out of a Garden
1. Report Roaming Cats to the Authorities
If your neighbor’s cat is entering your garden, it might be helpful to politely explain to them that their pet is causing damage to your property. If they’re unwilling to keep their cat indoors, you may at least be able to agree on a compromise, such as using a bell collar to protect wildlife. The bell jingles as the cat wanders, alerting wildlife to its presence.
Depending on where you live, there may be an authority to report roaming cats to. If you belong to a homeowner’s association, they may enforce a no-outdoor-cats rule. Some local governments, such as Fort Collins and Loveland, Colorado, also ban free-roaming pet cats.
Many local governments also have procedures for collecting stray cats. Even if there aren’t resources for sheltering and rehoming strays, a local agency may provide neutering and vaccinations. These actions help to limit population growth and reduce the spread of disease.
Talking to a neighbor or reporting a stray cat may be helpful, but won’t always prevent future feline visits to your garden. For repeat offenders, try the next four methods described below to help keep cats out of your yard or garden.
2. Cats Don’t Like Prickly Surfaces
Around your garden’s borders, or in sensitive areas that you’d like to protect, create surfaces and barriers that cats won’t want to walk or climb on. They prefer to walk on soft ground, so prickly coverings are effective deterrents.
Try laying down these prickly materials as mulch or plant coverings:
- Twigs or pine cones
- Sharp stones
- Crushed egg shells
- Thorny branches or leaves
- “Prickle strip” mats that prevent digging
- Chicken wire on top of garden beds or wrapped around stems or trunks
Cats are smart enough to avoid harming themselves on these materials. If your garden doesn’t offer inviting surfaces to walk on, they’ll look for nicer places to visit.
3. Scent Deterrents for Cats
Smells have a strong influence on feline behavior, including where they choose to spend their time.
Certain plants have odors that cats avoid. The best plants for deterring cats include:
- Rue (Ruta graveolens)
- Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium)
- Lavender (Lavandula species)
- Scaredy Cat Plant (Plectranthus caninus)
If repelling cats is part of your long-term gardening plan, use these plants around borders and sensitive areas.
There are also faster ways to add cat-repelling smells to your garden. The most reliable scent for deterring cats is cayenne pepper, which can be sprinkled around borders or plants as an effective short-term deterrent. Note that while cayenne won’t seriously injure a cat, it can cause significant irritation, especially if it gets in their eyes. Therefore, some advocates do not consider cayenne to be a cruelty-free repellent.
Other options include commercial cat repellent products, in the form of sprays or granules. Just make sure to choose a reputable product free of ingredients that are toxic to plants or wildlife. Or, make your own DIY cat repellent with ingredients like citrus peels and vinegar.
There are also “predator spray” repellents that contain the real urine of predators such as wolves or coyotes. Unfortunately, these products often involve inhumane treatment of caged animals, and thus should be avoided unless you can verify humane sourcing.
4. Barriers to Keep Cats Out of Your Garden Spaces
Cats can climb most barriers, but you can catproof a fence by adding a fence topper or fence extender. These products add height to a fence and use curves or slick materials that make it hard for animals to climb over.
Remember that cats (and other pests) will seek out weak spots, so you may need to fix holes in a fence or trim nearby tree branches to turn a fence into an effective barrier to keep cats out.
Thorny, spiky, or dense hedges can also form effective barriers, either alongside or instead of fencing. Try thorny blackberry brambles, holly shrubs, or, in warmer climates, prickly pear cactus.
5. Use Water to Deter Cats
To create an unpleasant memory that discourages future visits to your garden, use water to keep cats out. If the cat intrudes while you’re present, you can simply spray it with a hose or a low-powered water gun. Just make sure the water pressure is low so that the cat won’t be harmed. Additionally, don’t use water as a repellent in cold weather, when getting wet could put the cat in danger.
Motion-sensitive sprinklers are another way to deter pests with water. Set them up around borders or sensitive plantings, so that any time a cat (or other pest) gets close, they get sprayed.
More Ideas to Bolster Your Garden’s Borders
One of the best ways to discourage cats and pests from entering your garden is with strong borders, such as fences or dense hedges. Find unique ways to establish property borders in our guide: Create a Living Fence with Shrubs.
0 Comments