Gardeners - How do you keep cats out?

[bobblehat]

Hi,

We have a fairly bog standard garden, but a few months ago a new family moved in next door with 3 cats. These seem to have decided that our garden is their toilet, and the other day we managed to fill half a carrier bag with cat muck, a lot of it on the area we use for veggies in the summer.

We've been chasing them out of the garden when we see them, but I think a lot of it must me done at night as I'm here most of the day and rarely see them.

Any ideas for keeping them out?

For vegetable plots I use netting. I have gone to the trouble of actually making a frame from some softwood that gives me enough height to plant under. I bought netting from Harrods Horticultural (spency but long lived), use pegs to hold in place.

Works very well and I am happy to serve the food that we have grown ourselves.

That's the thing, in the state it is at the moment I really wouldn't want to eat anything off it. And I don't want the dc playing in it, because the cats are doing it on the lawn as well as flowerbeds/veggie patch

Cocoa shell mulch only if you don't have a dog as it is toxic to them.

coco shell mulch, I'll have to investigate that. Caught one of them sniffing around the rabbit earlier...

battery operated cat scarers work really well. Don't work for rabbits though ( i have wild ones). Getting your cat is the most effective.

I agree with Chestnutx3 about the cat scarers - I've tried using citronella and those granule repellents, but the sonic repeller is what solved my problem. I looked on Amazon, they do quite a few, but I went with this one because of the reviews (and it was cheaper than most others!): www.amazon.co.uk/PestBye-Battery-Operated-Cat-Repeller/dp/B004SGC75S/

Cheaper really than having to keep buying refills of repellent, just remember to use rechargeable batteries.

Thanks, but before I order a cat scarer. do you know if it affects rabbits, as we do have one of those?