As cute and cuddly as cats may appear, they can be monsters to your garden. See the tips below for ways to protect the garden and keep cats out.
- Felines are attracted to freshly-dug earth so after you’ve been digging or cultivating, insert brambles or thorny prunings into the soil. The sharp branches will keep cats from getting too comfortable in your newly worked beds. If that doesn’t work, try stretching some small-gauge chicken wire across the surface of the soil.
- Save breakfast leftovers because some of the food can be used as a deterrent. Cats won’t think of your garden as a latrine any more if you spread a pungent mixture of orange peels and coffee grounds around your plants. The mix is a great fertilizer, too.
- To protect the birds in your garden, keep their broods out of the reach of your cat’s claws by planting a climbing rose on the sunny side of a tree where birds like to nest. A collar of chicken wire will keep cats from climbing the tree as well.
- Cover your seedbeds with holly branches or rose trimmings, which will discourage cats in search of a comfort station. It will also discourage neighborhood dogs looking for a cool, soft place to nap.
- Keep cats out of your vegetable garden and add mulch to growing vegetables by placing conifer branches that you’ve trimmed off among garden rows. The needles serve as a prickly barrier that keeps animals from digging in the garden, while the dropped needles provide mulch.
Terry Adams/iStockphoto
They may be cute, but cats can cause a lot of destruction in the garden.
