The easiest humane way to keep cats out of a garden is to lay chicken wire, supported by bricks, over a prized plot. Or scatter old holly leaves, pea sticks, or bramble stalks. When this is impossible, plant rue around the bed. Cats hate it. (Alas, so do all the other plants. A beneficial companion, rue is not.)
It is said that cats also hate garlic, chamomile and tagetes. And I have been reliably told that the thorny restharrow (Ononis spinosa) determine cats. That advice is totally useless, of course, for those of us who wouldn’t know it from a toilet brush.
However, in my experience, citronella is also a proven organic cat repellent. Spray the edges of the seedbeds with 100 drops of citronella per 1 liter of water. Reapply daily until your cats are retrained. Orange, grapefruit or lemon peel is easier to obtain and I have found effective as well.
Chili oil laces, curry powder, garam masala and the like also repel cats. The next idea is a bit controversial. It is also not organic. So if you’re a cat lover, I have to tread carefully (unlike my neighbor’s cats who once used my hotbed as a running track).
I surrounded my plot with small plastic milk bottles, sunk into the ground without lids and each containing a few teaspoons of ammonia. It didn’t hurt the cats because none of them came within ten feet of those ferocious-smelling bottles.
A powerful cat repellent.
Another idea, if you’re not fussy, is to put dog faces on margarine jars that are closed and well perforated on the sides. Place them around your vegetable bed and the cats won’t get close. Neither do dogs. They have a keen sense of territory and will not invade another dog’s “land”.
Do not put dog, cat, or human feces, or the feces of any other carnivore, on the ground itself, including around inedible flowers. The residue persists in the soil and can be toxic. Kids to have they go blind after cleaning their eyes with dirt contaminated with feces.
Clay pellets impregnated with lion or tiger urine are now widely on sale. Said to be nearly odorless to humans, it scares away cats, dogs, foxes, wolves, opossums, yetis, and bears. But they, too, are better protected from prying fingers in perforated pots.
If cats raid your bird boxes, grow roses and brambles on the trees or posts that support the boxes. Or order at your local fast food store a large empty drum that once held cooking oil and cut it into a metal collar. Two necklaces will girdle even a large tree. Attach it around the support four feet above the ground, with the shiny surface facing outward, and such a sash will protect bird boxes from cats, squirrels, and small children. If it is placed lower, it will prevent rabbits from gnawing in the trees.
Practical Uses for Pets in an Organic Garden
Small pets sometimes have practical uses. For example, brushed coat hair from cats or dogs (or from horses or any shaggy animal) can be placed in bean trenches to add slow-release nitrogen.
In fact, human hair swept from hairdressers is a wonderful addition to your compost bin, if you’re not picky. Hung in net bags around orchards, it will also repel deer and wild boar just as effectively as rotten eggs. (Hydrogen sulfide emitted from proprietary poultry egg waste was, in laboratory tests, even more effective at deterring four-legged pests than repellents.)
Culinary ways to scare away cats
Grow red hot chili peppers in your greenhouse, not to eat, because only Lucifer could taste them, but to grind and soak in vegetable oil for the winter. Rub this noxious paste on cardboard strips in spring and place them around your seedlings or any other plants you want to protect. Cats will not only poop, but the smell of fire will also repel many insect pests.
You can also mix such an organic (but human) nerve gas 1:5 with water mixed with washing up liquid, strain, and spray on aphid-infected plants, caterpillars, and all things that crawl, twitch, or fly. Kill or deter almost all of them.
A fancier cat repellent…
it is made from a discarded plastic glue or dishwashing liquid bottle. Remove cover. Poke in several old nylon socks, some glass or rockwool insulation, or even the foam interior of an unemployed teddy bear. This makes a wick. Make sure the wick fits snug and sticks out from the top.
Fill the bottle one-third full with your fiercest human nerve gas (see above) and make sure the wick is soaked to the top. Sink the bottle next to your most select plants. The wick will then diffuse the cat repellent into the air.
Several of these bottles in a hotbed, replenished regularly, should put off even Tom & Jerry’s.
Keep in mind that the above pest repellents will not harm beneficial insects, birds, or any of your pets. Unless they eat them, which they won’t. Just keep small children away.