Home-made solution to spread on borders to deter cats?

[hudyerwheesht]

This year we gave our garden a makeover and it's left us with 2 long borders which I've covered in chipped bark and am slowly filling up with various shrubs but next door's cats have obviously seen this as 2 brand new dirt trays.

I'm already in a losing battle with one of them peeing on my lawn so I've been spreading various shop-bought deterrents but we have a lot of ground to cover (100ft long, mostly grass) and it's proving expensive plus I hate the smell of it, especially the powdered stuff.

There's too many ways they can get in (including jumping the fence) so I wondered if there was some sort of homemade harmless solution I could try - anyone recommend anything?

I've also planted lavender and mint around but she doesn't seem too bothered by that. I've also tried to keep it damp/wet as I know cats prefer drier soil.

They usually take off as soon as I open the kitchen door but I can't be there all the time.

The only thing that I have found that works (and doesn't smell too foul) is old tea bags with a few drops of olbas oil on it placed at regular intervals. It has deterred a neighbour's cat who insisted on doing the worst smelling poos imaginable right on top of the border by my front door!

Ooh that's a good idea. I wouldn't mind the smell of olbas oil nearly as much! I wonder if tea bags soaked with some lemon juice would work too...

Thanks for that, I'll give that a go.

Garlic and coffee

Would ground coffee work just sprinkled around? Bonus, as it's good for the soil too, isn't it?

Or do you mean tea bags soaked in coffee?

I heard lemon peel under the wood chip is also a deterrent.

I tried boiling peppercorns and using the water spray but every time I do it, it seems to rain.

Once on an expat thread someone suggested going to the zoo and requesting some lion poo! Don't know how successful it was!

Found a disgusting "gift" in the middle of veg patch - given the amount of rain due not sure Olbas oil will last long. Is the rain likely to be enough to put them off?

I have a feline visitor that leaves me poo presents and digs up my plants too.

I've attempted the plastic fork method and filled water bottles. I also added a solar stake light to poo corner. I don't think the cat can have visited last night (first night in ages) because nothing was disturbed. I'm waiting to see how tonight fares.

Plastic fork method? I was thinking of cutting some of the dead rose branches and laying them out over the veg patch until the plants are bigger. It's all of 3'×3' so not exactly as big as the OPs borders.

It's true, several days of rain have now rendered the tea bags quite ineffective although a favourite spot right under my washing line (where I left 4 tea bags) has remained undisturbed so that is some progress.
I'd also like to know what the plastic fork method is?

I'm on day 3 of plastic fork (and the knives and spoons that were in the same pack) and plastic water filled bottles. So far no digging or poo gifts

man piss.

I think it depends on the cat, they're meant to dislike citrus but mine merrily chews on orange/ lemon peel! When we were trying to keep our own cat out of our mud/ grass in our small garden (he had a litter tray he'd merrily been using up until we moved there and we've paved over it now) I used peppermint oil instead and he hated it. But then my dad used the same and it didn't deter the cats in his garden!

I had a sonar cat scarer when we moved into a house with a popular cat toilet for a garden while I was pregnant. It seemed to work!

So do I just stick plastic forks in the earth? ( at slighhtlyglitterbrained) - doesn't that look a bit untidy?

The sonar things don't work for very long and don't have enough range to cover our garden. I have a photograph of a cat lying happily stretched out next to the one we tried out once.

Where do I get cocoa shell mulch?

It does not look as fab as you'd hope but I bought clear plastic cutlery not white which helps a bit. It looks better than mud spread everywhere dug up plants and dollops of poo.

My daughter said it was cruel because the pooing cat may not see the clear cutlery until it feels a fork on its bum. I did point out a had also put a tall solar stake light there as well!!

My Mil has given 2 Yucca plants. They're very prickly. I've spent this evening planting the Yucca into Cat Poo Corner and moved my bedding plants to pots and other borders. Cutlery and bottles remain for now as I want to break the habit this vat has.

*cat

Ah, clear plastic, makes more sense.

I'm going to give that a go as well, thanks for the tip.

I use wooden kebab sticks, they don't look too bad sticking up out of the soil.

I'm taking mental notes and will try all of these if the rain ever stops long enough for me to get out there, thanks all.

I'm taking mental notes and will try all of these if the rain ever stops long enough for me to get out there, thanks all.