They may be cute and cuddly, but cats may be destructive in your yard because they see no difference between a bed of soft dirt and a litter box. Keeping cats out humanely requires deterring them in destructive behaviour, and you don’t need to buy expensive products to do so. Homemade feline deterrents can help to save your garden away from digging cats.

Chicken Wire

Chicken wire is not just for chickens. You can lay it down on your garden beds and cover it with a light layer of mulch to prevent cats from digging in the bed. The texture of the chicken wire is uncomfortable for cats to wander, and the holes at the wire prevent cats from digging in the dirt.

Citrus

Cats have sensitive noses, and they dislike the smell of citrus oil. The maximum concentration of citrus oil is located in the rind. Ron Smith, a horticulturist from North Dakota State University, advocates coarsely chopping up lemon, orange or other citrus peels in a blender and sprinkle them on your own garden beds once a week until you no longer see cats arriving around. After that time, you can usually block the citrus treatment because the regional cats will have learned to remain out of your garden.

Peppers

Just as cats don’t like citrus, they’re also sensitive to chile peppers. Try sprinkling cayenne powder around your garden, but don’t do it on a windy afternoon or the pepper could blow to your eyes, which is very irritating. The City of Berkeley animal shelter also advocates pipe tobacco or coffee grounds to utilize on your garden as feline deterrents.

Stakes

Wooden stakes placed at 8-inch periods on your garden produce barriers that discourage rodents from penetrating the planting area. Some discover these stakes detract from the visual appeal of the backyard, though. One “Fine Gardening” magazine reader submitted a job to the magazine that turned the stakes into garden art. The reader wove natural sticks together to make a barrier around the edge of a huge planter. It also made the planter appear better than an empty bud until the plant growing in it sprouted.

Mulch

The mulch you are using may be attracting cats rather than repelling them. Should you utilize fine-textured mulch that feels like kitty litter, then the cats in your neighborhood will not be able to tell the difference between the two. Change your toenails into your coarse mulch with a rough texture. River stones placed atop the bare patches of dirt on your garden serve the identical function.

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