There’s a leftover food scrap that you can put in the garden to help keep unwanted animals away (Image: Getty)
Foxes coming into gardens can be a nuisance, and as we head into spring, their presence will increase as they look for food. However, a gardening expert explained that a leftover food scrap from your kitchen can be the answer to sorting out your problems.
Foxes can be particularly active in the spring when they’re young, on the hunt for something to eat. This means you’ll need to be on the lookout for any lingering foxes that may be digging up and eating your plant bulbs. Here’s how you can deter them using some leftover coffee grounds.
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How to deter foxes from gardens
Coffee grounds are a great natural resource for deterring foxes and other rodents. Lucie Bradley, garden and greenhouse expert at Easy Garden Irrigation, told Ideal Home: “When using coffee grounds, the strong, acidic smell can overwhelm their sensitive noses and make them feel in danger, so they won’t want to be in areas where the bitter smell is.
“In addition, the strong scent of the coffee will mask the scents they would otherwise find to tell them food is in reach.”
The reason coffee grounds work so well is because foxes can’t stand the overpowering smells. This is because they have a strong sense of smell themselves.
Sprinkle a thin layer of coffee grounds near the entrances to the garden that foxes use (Image: Getty)
Place the coffee grounds in areas of the garden that the foxes use as entrances. They also may be enticed by rubbish bins, so the expert recommended placing a thin layer of the grounds near there too.
The experts at Atlas Sheds suggested mixing citrus peels along with coffee grounds to overwhelm the senses. Other ingredients that could also work are garlic and chilli.
Atlas Sheds wrote: “For this, you can make a homemade repellent by boiling garlic cloves and chopped chilli peppers in water, then straining it and placing it into a spray bottle. Apply this to areas of your garden where you have spotted a fox or two.”
Do not use instant coffee, as it will dissolve quickly in the rain, and also avoid using coffee pods, as they contain plastic, which will not break down properly in soil.
Reapply the coffee grounds every few days, or after it has been raining or after it has been really frosty.
Coffee grounds can also be used to help add nutrients to your garden plants by using it as fertiliser. They can be added to plant feed, mulch or directly onto the soil.
Coffee grounds contain high levels of nitrogen, as well as potassium and phosphorus. Oxford Garden Design explained that plants which love acidity are the best ones to use coffee grounds for. These plants include azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias, hydrangeas (blue varieties) and Pieris (Japanese Andromeda).
However it’s good to remember which plants and vegetables don’t like coffee grounds. You should avoid putting them on the likes of tomatoes, lavender, rosemary, succulents and cacti, and clovers and legumes.
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