Keeping cats out of the garden?

I've used a commercial repellant. The active incrediant was paradichlorbenzine, which is the stuff used in those little pink cakes in the urinals. It worked, and wasn't that pricey. I wouldn't use it where there was a lot of personal contact, like a kid's sandbox.

Spraying the cat with water every time she goes there? might be somewhat time consuming, i suppose... Nails and needles? Or some other prickly if not life threatening material?

There are other ways to do this, involving more or less work. Basically, your friend must make the garden unattractive as a litter box. Think like a cat. A litter box is filled with loose dry materials, easy to dig. Soooo....

Plan A: (a lot of work) dig up the garden and put chicken wire on top of the soil. Put plants through the holes of the wire and spread a thin layer of mulch over it. When the cat tries to dig the potty hole, it will be frustrated by the chicken wire.

Plan B: Densely plant the garden. They want to dig a hole, and most cats (but not all) will not disturb a plant to do this ~ so if the garden is densely planted, there's no place to dig.

Plan C: There is a herb that cats detest -- I just can't remember the name of it right now. But it should be an easy internet search. Find it and plant lots of it all over.

Plan D: Use a mulch that cats don't like -- fist sized river rocks for example.

Plan E: Get a dog and train it to protect the garden. :wink:

The good news is that once the habit is broken, and the cat has established an new favourite potty area, it's likely that the garden can be changed back to the way it is now.

It seems like I've heard mothballs will deter felines--but I'm not sure of the effect on the actual plants...

No moths, either, I assume.

cayenne pepper sprinkled on the dirt..

Thanks, all. I'll pass all of these great ideas on to my friend.

Yep, cayenne pepper works here, too. Just be sure you use LOTS of it.

You may want to replace the dirt in that section of the flower bed before replanting. The ammonia content will be too high, and you don't really want to be digging in that with your hands anyway.

My mom used moth balls in her outside garden because the cats used it as a litter box. It stopped them.

I think the only problem with moth balls (besides that smell that I can't stand) is that they are poisonous ~ a potential danger to dogs perhaps and small children.

My neighbor uses straight lemon juice.
Cats HATE that smell..

the only problem I would see is , they would make a bee line to the ONE spot, you forgot to spray.

On top of that, I think the lemon juice is too harsh for plants to absorb. So it may not work in a living garden.

Thanks for all the tips. I just got another email stating that 'they' are working better than he'd hoped. I'm not exactly sure which one(s) he used but things seem to be improving.