Cat deterrents!

[thefatpotato]

How can I keep my cat from digging up newly planted seedlings and generally using my raised bed at a toilet?! It's my cat so no one else to blame but myself!

He has only dug up a few bulbs so far but after I started to get my beds ready a few weeks ago he's turned them into his own personal restroom. I'm going to be gutted if he decimates my seedlings once I plant them out!

Holly clippings work well

My go to recipe is, spent coffee grounds mixed with orange or Lemmon peel, mixed with a teaspoon of Vicks menthol rub.
Animals have a heightened sense of smell a go to familiar places that they’ve marked before. Although this mixture will not smell to us, it’s UGH!!! To a cat.
Failing that I buy wooden, thin, kebab skewers and poke then into the ground, making a barrier until the plants grow.

I use metal mesh to keep my animals from squashing everything. A sheet of mesh with bricks or stones under to keep it off the seedlings.

I have this issue with the neighbourd cats and I ended up buying a plastic mesh over the raised bed, but the dastardly cats just ended up walking over it to do its business. I will have to try out the kebab skewer trick instead. I did try out the holly deterrent years ago on the flower bed, but forgot about it later in the year when it came to potting and weeding. It wasn't the best deterrent for them, more likely for me instead!#