Q: What can I use to stop my cats from doing their business in my flower gardens and tearing up plants?
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A: My cat was clearly an emperor in a past life, or at least thinks he is in this one. He’s got free rein to do whatever the hell he wants – that is, until he starts to poop next to my tarragon.
That’s when I start hissing, clapping and lurching at him like a woman gone mad.
Most of the time I’d rather he do his thing outside, where I don’t have to stoop and scoop as long as he stays far away from my edible plants. I even created a clearly designated latrine area for him away from my veggies and herbs.
Basically, I turned up some soil near established flowers (cats love loosened earth) and scooped some of his dirty litter into the spot to signal as clearly as possible “Cat loo this way.” I might have to dig a new spot if the flowers start crowding him out.
Physical deterrents like caging veggies inside chicken-wire fencing can work well, but it has to be done right. I put chicken-wire netting around my old veggie garden to keep my furry friend from tearing up my lettuce patch, but he soon figured out it was about as sturdy as a house of cards and smugly found his way back to his favoured poop patch.
All this to say the caging has to be solid enough to keep a persistent feline from figuring out a way around it but draped loosely enough so it can’t be easily scaled.
By far the smartest and most discreet physical deterrent I’ve found is to lay chicken wire down on the beds themselves. It seriously impedes cats’ digging. This is easiest in the spring before you put in plants, when you can simply cut holes large enough for them to grow through, but it’s never too late to lay pieces of netting down in problem areas.
Since my cat recently turned his preferred sunbathing spot next to my tarragon into a new loo, I plan on digging it out and laying down some wire this week before I replant.
Cat repellents that claim to be all-natural and rely on the “secret ingredient of fear” can be bought online or from pet and home improvement stores. This is no voodoo trick – just granules made from the urine of a natural predator.
Sounds like a harmless Darwinian ploy, except for the fact that, just like the raccoon repellents I mentioned last summer, these products involve caging and siphoning off pee from otherwise free and noble animals like foxes and coyotes. Please avoid ’em.
Others, like Get Off My Garden Dog & Cat Repellent, work by releasing a “strong, highly perfumed odour” that can also aggravate scent-sensitive humans. Even though the active ingredient in this one is sometimes derived from herbal rue, that doesn’t make it benign. The label warns that it shouldn’t come in contact with food crops, pets or people either directly or via drift and could cause vomiting if swallowed. Too intense.
Havahart’s Chemfree Critter Ridder uses natural irritants like black pepper, piperine and capsaicin in its granules and sprays. It’s officially approved for use in organic gardens, but the risk of getting hot pepper juices on your cat’s paws (and potentially eyes) freaks out many pet owners. Still, if your cat is smart enough to use his nose before he goes, he’ll get the drift.
You might stumble across some weird online repellent recipes that involve mouthwash, chewing tobacco and even birth control pills. I don’t have to tell you that burying estrogen pills in your garden is a bad idea ecologically speaking.
Napthalene-laced mothball recipes should also be avoided like the plague since the stuff causes cancer in lab animals, triggers respiratory problems and is strictly forbidden for outdoor use in Canada.
Instead, try mixing coffee grounds and/or orange peels into the top layer of soil of your plots. Some gardeners suggest hanging dried rue leaves or borax soap in old stockings throughout your garden, but that might look bizarre.
Pet trainers will tell you a squirt bottle full of water works as a trusty and totally non-toxic training tool. (Direct water their way when they beeline for your oregano.)
Some people get really high-tech and purchase motion-activated water repellers that squirt two to three cups of water whenever their infrared sensors are triggered.
That’s just too aggressive for me. I wouldn’t, after all, want to piss off the emperor.
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