My cats are using my new flower bed as a toilet

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I dug a new flower bed and have planted Jasmine and clematis but have noticed the cats are using it as their toilet area. They've got to go somewhere, but will this kill the new plants? Is there anything I can do so the plants don't die?

Yep, they'll do that! Pepper, apparently, helps.

I don’t think it will kill the plants.try covering the area with short sticks planted vertically into the soil about 4 inches apart

Cats love to use newly dug soil as a latrine; mine watch me digging with their tails twitching in anticipation.🙄😅 That said, I've never lost any plants as a result of their bathroom habits.

Some people use lemon or orange peel to deter cats from their gardens.

If you put down things to stop them using yours, they will use some else’s.
Be considerate. They are your cats.

It's unlikely to kill the plants, but it's horrible to find. Mine do the same 🙄

All you can do is cover the soil. Sticks are possible (mine just poo on them), holly might work better if you have one you can cut from. You can get cat scat mats off Amazon, again mine just poo on them though.

Alternatively, plant it up so they aren't interested anymore, as they like bare soil. You could scatter seeds in a few weeks and have it covered soon enough.

Putting sticks in as MereDintofPandiculation has mentioned is what worked for us when next doors cat's were digging up our bedding pant's every night. I used old lolly sticks. Once our bedding plants filled out they lost interest. If they can't fit to sit then they can't s**t. But it's also about the females not being able to get their paws in to dig a hole, the males don't usually bother,.so make sure the sticks are in firmly and put a wee pebble or pine cone in between the sticks to deter them.

My mum moved into a new house many years ago. The builders left a pile of sand behind. She was going to get rid of it, but then realised the cats were using it as an outside litter tray.

As an avid gardener she decided to keep the sand pile and just regularly cleaned it up. It kept her cats off her flower beds.

So perhaps set aside a tiny bit of garden out of the way with ideal conditions for the cat to keep them off your beds. Best if you tell the cat to keep off that new area, and they will definitely use it!!!!!

Put some netting over it until the plants cover it. I've heard lemon peel puts them off as well.

Do they have a litter tray? Our cat never goes in the garden (or any neighbour's garden for that matter) because she prefers to return indoors to use her own litter tray.

Thanks all. I don't want to stop the cats, they've got to go to the loo somewhere and better in my garden than the neighbour's. Just worried about the plants. I think I'll pop some cheap bedding plants in and see if this makes them vary things a bit or go somewhere else in the garden until the plants are a bit stronger. Hopefully they'll be ok.

At least it’s your cats and not someone else’s. Nothing worse than a hard day’s gardening to find a load of fresh cat shit the next day from who knows where.

We have had great success dotting these about on flower beds.

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