Cats are cute pets and many people enjoy having them in a neighbourhood, but unsupervised cats can get up to lots of mischief, and can even destroy gardens if gardeners are not careful.
Although we love our furry friends, it can be a pain to have someone else’s cat using your garden as their toilet, and making the area smell awful. Curious felines are known to dig up plants, nibble at flowers, scratch garden furniture or even disturb natural wildlife, or just be pests while lounging about a garden.
There are many annoying garden pests. Slugs and snails can be deterred with various hacks, and strategically using certain plants get keep some pests away. So, how does one keep cats away?
There are lots of solutions to keeping cats out of the garden available on the internet, but according to celebrity gardener David Domoney there is a lot of poor gardening advice when it comes to keeping cats away.
READ MORE: Plant roses in autumn so they bloom beautifully with ‘spectacular results’
In a blog post, David Domoney wrote: “Cats are a nuisance in the garden, and there are lots of ‘solutions’ being offered online to stop them coming in. However, these are not always effective.”
How to keep cats out of your garden
Luckily, David Domoney has a few simple tips to keep these furry friends at bay which should work. The easiest way to get rid of cats is to prevent their access, and David Domoney says gardeners should try to observe how cats are getting into the garden.
He wrote: “If they are coming through a hole in the fence or hedge, block it up. If they are climbing over the fence, you can attach a string 10-15cm above the top of the fence, running along the panel.
“This makes it hard for cats to balance on the fence panel. Or you can apply a grease like Vaseline to stop them from using it.”
However, there is also a natural way to stop cats wishing to enter a garden, and that is to plant flowers and herbs with strong fragrances as cats have a highly developed sense of smell.
Strong scents will overwhelm a cat and make it less likely to stay in area with smells they find unpleasant or irritating.
David Domoney wrote: “Try putting lavender, rosemary, and curry plants in your border. Some people also recommend using cut citrus peel – apparently, it smells too strong for the cat. Rubbing raw onion in places where cats frequent has been said to steer them away. I have never tried it though. Citronella is also said to be effective.”
Due to their territorial nature and keen sense of smell, David Domoney’s final tip is to make sure you keep removing any animal faeces in your garden as if it is a cat, more cats will come to try and mark their territory.
David Domoney wrote: “I would recommend making sure to remove any cat poo from your soil – the smell of it will attract other cats.”
