An effective feline deterrant suggestion
By Muddywellies
8 comments
One of the bugbears of gardening amidst neighbours who love cats is discovering their toilet whilst you are weeding. If you also have young children playing in your garden who you want to encourage to share in your gardening pleasure the problem is still more loathesome…..
I tried the sonic devices which are expensive and not foolproof by any means. Or may be my neighbours had deaf cats! Anyway . . .
I found growing Berberis to be a surprisingly useful plant. B. darwinii is the prettiest with bright orange/yellow flowers about now (April) and B. stenophylla (I think) has perhaps the longest thorns but any berberis may be used. My B. stenophylla is located harmlessly (for me) in the back corner of one border where my neighbour’s cats USED to enter. It’s now five feet across and eight feet high and I enjoy the bright yellow flowers to boot!
Around the same period I had an evening primrose running along the top of a low wall beside the lawn in the front garden. It used to annoy me no end to sit down of an evening after work, gaze across the lawn and see felix snuggled up and supremely comfortable amidst my primrose after doing his/her toilet elsewhere in my garden. Until that is, when I snipped off some berberis branches left them in the greenhouse to dry out and lose their leaves over a few days. Then one day I lifted my primrose and slipped the bare branch with its natural deterrent underneath. I never saw a cat there again. I just have to remember not to sit on my primrose!!! LOL (As if …………)
5 Apr, 2008
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Comments
Well done muddywellies - I think the berberis trick is one we can all use. Serves the little furry darlings right if you prick their err .... conscience :-)
5 Apr, 2008
Muddywellies berberis is just one of the many tricks I tried as one of my neighbours has four cats but has bricks in all her borders and can't be bothered to build an outside poo pit for them.
Needless to say the berberis cuttings did work for a while at least but she has one well'ard cat that didn't seem that bothered with the odd pricking, tried sticks in the ground that covered the whole bare areas that worked really great too, the teabag thing also Ken although it did look a right state with them, I ended up buying one of those sonic cat scarers and those work fine now a few teething problems at first but we got there in the end.
I have three scarers for the gardens and I pity any stray cat roaming on our turf in summer as I'm sure hubby has asked the summer fairy for a water pistol! Lol.
Good luck with your plot Muddywellies I hope you stay cat free as there really is nothing worst than cat poo or pee in the garden when your on your knees weeding.Hel.xxx.
5 Apr, 2008
Some good tips there from you all, I will be trying.
5 Apr, 2008
GET A DOG - I keep telling you! Henry chases the marauders out!
5 Apr, 2008
Lots of gr8 tips here. I amd beginning to have a cat problem and will be trying some of them. Many thanx!
5 Apr, 2008
Me too, thanks.:) I shall start with the easy teabags one.
16 Jun, 2008
Oh muddywellies that balloon trick did make me laugh!!! I am so sick of all the neighbourhood cats using MY garden to poop in, our cat Toffee seems to be a wimp and does not chase off any other cats!
Spritzhenry...my daughter wants a dog so badly but hubby says no, it would solve it altogether but be hard work as no matter how often she promises to look after, hamsters, cats etc., its mum who ends up doing it!!
18 Feb, 2009
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Just a couple of tips for your local moggies.
If you dig a hole in the area they use. Then blow up a balloon, put it in the hole and cover back up again with just a thin layer of soil, the moggie will shift like something possessed when he bursts the balloon!
Another method that I use is to plant Coleus Canina, the Scardy Cat Plant, aka the Pee Off plant. I have a few in medium sized pots and place them in the area where the moggies come into the garden. You have to propogate from cuttings and they are very tender for frosts. There's a plant stall on our local market that's selling them for £2.25 - far too expensive, or you can get them from Thomson & Morgan - 5 young plants £7.99. I got my originals from a garden centre for 75p each, but that was 3 years ago.
Be careful with them, because they have a very pungent smell. That's why cats don't like them.
Another trick is to dry out some tea bags and soak them with Olbas Oil or Ralgex and lay them around the area that they use.
5 Apr, 2008