if you have any spikey berberis lay a few brances around edges

Cats like soil to use as a toilet. I provide areas of my garden where there's bare soil, for my cat to go there ... so that she doesn't use other people's gardens. It's a pity more cat owners don't do this, but these days most seem to want wall to wall lawns (like my neighbours) ... which is very boring, and no good for cats :o(

You don't seem to mind the cats using your garden as a toilet, but I hope you'll be able to prevent them before you plant things in your newly dug patch. However, I don't know how you're going to do it. Once they start, it's difficult to stop them, because their scent is there, and they'll keep going back to that place.
Blame their owners !

Other cats don't use my garden as a toilet, because my own cat chases them away.

Thanks for your reply,
I have bought a electronic cat scarer which emits a high pitched noise when the pir is crossed it should keep the cats away from the bird feeding area if not I hope it gives the them a headache ? Ha ha
Happy new year!

They love bare soft soil. The long term solution is to fill the area with plants and not make the soil around them easy to dig. Meanwhile it would be interesting to hear if your cat scarer works, as lots of people have this problem.

I found the sonic cat scarers very effective. Although it was a couple of years ago since I used it, the local cats still don't use my garden now

i had a sonic mole scarer,they love it