How to stop my cats using vegetable patch as a litter tray

[TreasuredMim]

Having established a small vegetable patch I'm horrified to find my cats are using it as a litter tray. They have a perfectly good litter tray indoors and many areas of the garden to do their business!

How do I deter them. Would nets work?

We have a large planter in our front yard which a neighbours cat started using as a litter tray much to my disgust. After trying all sorts of things, to no avail, we have put chicken wire over it and the plants are currently growing through it. It looks a bit naff at the moment but its stopped the buggers!
Not sure what you can do in a veg patch though! Maybe build a removable poly cover for it?

Ground coffee I've heard works..

Lot of pointy sticks in it worked for me.

Unfortunately a nicely raked veg patch to a cat is an ideal litter tray.

F

Plant a small cat mint in a plastic pot into the soil, worked for me! They will still visit the latch, but only you to roll around 😂

Agree with PP, some chicken wire or lots of sticks in the ground, until the plants are established. I bought a cheap pack of wooden skewers from poundland to use, by the end of the season they had pretty much rotted away, so as a bonus I'd added to the soil!

Lots of twigs and wooden forks, eg chip forks, stuck into the ground 10cm apart, to make it hard for a cat to poo in the space. Also coffee grounds or even better, paprika sprinkled over the soil. Coffee grounds do actually inhibit growth and will affect the vegetable seedlings and yield (I have suffered). Bulk-buy paprika or chilli powder as you need to replenish the thin layer every week and every time it rains. Once the plants are established and there is no bare soil it will be better. So plant nasturtium and quick-growing annuals in between: No Bare Soil. Chicken wire sounds good for the beginning too if you have too much bare soil, hopefully It wont hurt birds or frogs though, laid horizontally.

Not my photo but this is what we do. Loads of sticks across. Also deters the birds. You can net as well but my cats use the nets as hammocks!

Also if you have a conifer that you recently trimmed, you could lay the trimmed branches down around the veg plants. I keep my Christmas tree branches each year for use in Spring.

Put lots of small upright sticks in it. The picture above has sticks lying down but I think sticking them in standing up works a bit better.

Another vote for upright sticks from me. I have an allotment and when it's freshly dug and sown with seedlings, the neighbourhood cats love using it as a litter tray. Like one of the posters above, I got a pack of cheap skewers and 'planted' them thickly anywhere I didn't want cats to go. Worked brilliantly, although it looked a little mad done across the whole plot... Like I'd lost the plot? Boom boom

We didn't use upright sticks after a day because our cats remove them! They are little buggers. But the laid down ones make it hard to tiptoe across. But whatever works

Plant wild garlic as they don't like it. Or plant cat mint because they do like it. Remove poo as soon as you can so it doesn't smell of them

I use that mesh that's like plastic chicken wire with larger holes. Lay it over the empty bed and weigh down the corners with stones. Seedlings can go straight in the holes or you can cut a space for larger plants.

Our cats would simply ignore sticks or anything moveable. I'd be concerned with 'natural' deterrents like garlic or coffee grounds that they'd eat it (one of ours has form for this).

We have tried to make some cages for the beds

Picture shows before the sides were added

We are less fussed by the cats than the munching deer and rabbits

Contech Scarecrow, worked 100%. It's a motion activated water spray. I love cats but could not cope with having toddler and a giant cat toilet for a garden. This spray was amazing and after a while you don't even need to have it attached to a tap as the cats learn so quickly not to go near it.

I suggest hoops (made from that bendy plastic pipe they sell in B&Q, you can cut it to the required size with a hacksaw) with agricultural fleece over the top and a few stones or bricks to prevent the fleece from taking wing in a strong wind.

That will keep out cats, pigeons, marauding hens (though they will peck holes in the fleece given enough time), black flies, carrot fly, cabbage white butterflies and a whole host of other pests that will also be queuing up awaiting their turn to attack your vegetable patch.

So many ideas - think I'll try a combination. Plant wild garlic and catnip; hoops; sticks and will investigate the motion activated water spray

Only been doing it a few weeks but orange peel scattered about seems to be working here.

Diluted jeyes fluid (or the ready diluted spray stuff) around, not on, the bed keeps most cats away as they don’t like the smell, although can be expensive as has to be re-sprayed after rain. Or dog poo around the bed, again the smell. I find they like it when it’s newly turned but once it’s compacted a bit they are less able to dig and will go elsewhere.

I agree that the cats are attracted to the freshly dug soil. Now it's compacted they seem less attracted. Or perhaps they are being more discreet....