How do you keep cats out of your garden?

[Fiona2011231]

I know that this topic is very common and I have read quite a few tips. But they do not work for my garden. The cats keep coming back.

I have tried:

Cat Repeller (Battery and mains powered cat repeller)

Cat Repellent Scatter Granules - 450g

But these did not work.

Could you pls advise? Thank you so much.

The obvious answer is get a cat.

No cat poo in my garden as my two use litter trays.

The dog and the foxes are a different matter

I was also going to say get your own cat! Mine chase any other cats away and bury their own poo discreetly.

...they bury their poo discreetly? I don't think I want buried cat poo in my garden.

An (otherwise fastidious) friend of mine swears by letting her kids wee around the edge of the garden because apparently cats don't like the smell. Haven't tried it myself so can't say whether it works or not.

Citrus peel with eucalyptus oil sprinkled on it. Always work for me and doesn't harm the cats.

Heide how much cat poo do you imagine is in your garden? Unless your garden is like Colditz or is concreted over, I suspect a fair bit...

Heide wee on the garden does work...

I heard about it on radio and tip was to collect wee for few days (smells stronger then) and sprinkle around garden. It works in similar way to "bought" repellents, in that it fools cat into thinking other animal has garden as it's territory. (because they wee around a garden - usually someone else's - to stake their claim)

We have also used Olbas Oil in the past on similar basis. ie smell puts cats off. However someone suggested this could be harmful to cats/ others animals so haven't done that any more.

One of my cats uses my freshly dug veg patch as a toilet! Some seeds I planted got dug up and it's a bit off-putting cos soon I want to plant some tomatoes! What can I do?

The citrus thing does work. Getting your own cat isn't necessarily the answer, we adopted two cats last autumn, they have happily used their litter trays all winter but as soon as I dug one of the veg beds last week one of ours has started using it as a toilet. I'd rather she did it in ours than those of the neighbours, so I haven't put out any citrus peel this time (it stopped next doors cats doing it last year). She definitely doesn't bury it though, just leaves it on the surface, same in litter trays.

Covering bare soil with twiggy cuttings helps as well.