Cats can be a nuisance in the garden, but there are ways to deter them from using your flower beds as a toilet – and one gardener shared her top tip for keeping cats away
Cats can be a nuisance in the garden, but there are ways to deter them from using your flower beds as a toilet – and one gardener shared her top tip for keeping cats away(Image: Iuliia Bondar via Getty Images)
Cats love exploring outdoors and will often view carefully tended flower beds and pristine lawns as ideal spots to relieve themselves. Whilst this can prove irritating for garden owners, it’s simply natural feline behaviour, reports the Express.
They’re not deliberately being destructive to your cherished plants. Whether it’s your own pet or a neighbour’s, every cat behaves differently. Some deterrent methods may prove more successful than others.
Gardening expert Linda Ly shared on her Garden Betty blog one of her “favourite ways to safely and humanely keep unwelcome cats out” that “works long term”. Whilst fragrances can discourage cats from entering your garden, this doesn’t always deliver long-lasting outcomes, but something that does is introducing obstacles that will make felines feel “uncomfortable”.
Cats prefer conducting their business on solid, level ground, so Linda suggested employing plastic fencing or chicken wire surrounding your garden plots to establish a “weird and uncomfortable surface,” one that “cats will avoid since they don’t like the feeling of mesh under their feet”.
Use plastic fencing or chicken wire around your garden beds to stop cats pooing on them(Image: Getty)
She highlighted: “They also try to stay away from gravel and any areas covered in stone and pebbles.”
Her preferred type of plastic fencing is UV-resistant hex netting or square mesh fencing.
She explained: “The flexible material is easy to cut and move around. With any leftover fencing, you can use it to create an effective barrier around saplings, seedlings, and delicate plants to protect against other pests as well.”
But does it work? Linda said: “It works as a good, long-term solution. Instead of using your fencing vertically, cut your fencing to size and lay it flat in your garden beds.
“The plants can grow up and around it, and the fence can be removed or rearranged when necessary.”
For more clearly defined beds, try lining the edges with pea gravel or chunky stones, or adding decorative touches like ceramic fragments and shells on the soil to “make the ground less hospitable to cats”.
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