Prevent neighborhood cat from using flowerbeds as litter box

I use extra sections of wire fencing laid on the ground. It’s to prevent cats from doing any digging, which I’ve read they instinctively do when they poop. It’s not very sightly, although I didn’t add it to my garden until after growth had already started. It’s kind of a messy tangle now, but the plants do at least hide the fencing somewhat.

There are also these sheets of flexible plastic spikes that work on the same principal. You lay them in the dirt, and the plants grow up around the spikes. The spikes aren’t dangerous, just unpleasant if stepped on.

Contact your local animal control agency or animal welfare group and have the cat picked up and re-homed.

Try spraying the area with ammonia.  This works for keeping dogs from crapping in my front yard and the ammonia does not seem to harm the plants.

Cayenne pepper spread around keeps most animals out.

You might even try bobcat urine granules. The ”presence” of another cat might deter the stray from using the flower beds, and I don’t think the smell of the granulated urine would be detectable to humans.  

You should be able to find it in the same part of the garden store as deer repellent and the like.

Mothballs generally deter most animals from inhabiting enclosed spaces. You might want to put a bunch out in the area to see if it would be equally effective in your situation.

There is a plant sold by Richter’s seeds called ”Piss Off” that you can plant a few of in the bed with the other plants in order to deter both cats and dogs, the smell of which they can’t stand.

Some advice from Alley Cat Allies:

• Scatter fresh orange and lemon peels or spray with citrus-scented fragrances. Coffee grounds, vinegar, pipe tobacco, or oil of lavender, lemongrass, citronella, or eucalyptus also deter cats.
• Plant the herb rue to repel cats, or sprinkle dried rue over the garden.
• Use plastic carpet runners spike-side up, covered lightly in soil. They can be found at local hardware or office supply stores. Or, set chicken wire firmly into the dirt with sharp edges rolled under.
• Artfully arrange branches in a lattice-type pattern or wooden or plastic lattice fencing material over soil. You can disguise these by planting flowers and seeds in the openings. You can also try embedding wooden chopsticks, pinecones, or sticks with dull points deep into the soil with the tops exposed eight inches apart.
• Obtain Cat Scat™, a nonchemical cat and wildlife repellent consisting of plastic mats that are cut into smaller pieces and pressed into the soil. Each mat has flexible plastic spikes that are harmless to cats and other animals, but discourage digging. Available at http://www.gardeners.com.
• Cover exposed ground in flower beds with large, attractive river rocks to prevent cats from digging. They have the added benefit of deterring weeds.

Mothball crystals are your buddy. The round mothballs are too concentrated and don’t allow the naphthalene to be distributed around. Shake the crystals out evenly and the odor won’t be too heavy, either.

I’m not sure about cats, but we did something like what Hungry recommends to keep our dogs from digging nests in the shrubbery.  We used wire hog panels because they are stiff and lay flat, being made of wire that’s about 3/16”, with openings about 4” x 6”.  We put a couple inches of dirt on top of them so you can’t see them, and the dogs find it very unsatisfactory to dig there, now.  Maybe you could do something with a finer mesh for cats.  It’s a long-term solution that will only require re-doing when the mesh rusts away in 10 years or so.

Our 1980’s Sunset Gardener’s Answer Book suggests using slightly crumpled chicken wire. Cats really do not like to walk on that. It isn’t strong enough to hold them up and their paws can sometimes go through the holes.