How to Keep Cats Out of Your Mulch

People love cats. But if your cat continually is messing up your garden with poop, then you're looking for a solution. Nobody wants to work in a garden with the repugnant smells of cat dung around them. So here are seven ways to keep cats out of your garden.

I'll try to list these from the least troubling and/or troublesome solutions. If one of them doesn't work, you might move down the list to the next one.

1. Make your garden repelling.

Cats are like people; they avoid places with stenches. If a cat doesn't like the way your garden smells, then the cat will stay away from the garden.

For a simple solution, try ammonia. It's a smell cats just don't like. There are forms of animal dung which cats avoid, too. You can find these in your local pet store.

There are certain kinds of fertilizer than aren't much to a cat's liking. Fertilizer made of dried blood components is one of them. Any kind of cat repellant will do though.

2. Make the mulch less comfortable for the cat.

Cat's like to lay in soft, fresh soil. When it's time to answer nature's call, they naturally are going to go in the nearest patch of soil. So you have to make sure it isn't that comfortable for them to hang out in your mulch.

Sprinkle some prickly stuff on your mulch. Consider something like pine cones or pine needles. If every time the cat lays down, it gets a little prick, then the cat will fine somewhere else to lay.

3. Try the more elaborate forms of "less comfortable".

There are slightly more elaborate ways to make life in the garden difficult for your cat. If the prickly solution doesn't work, it's time to head to the store and get some new supplies.

Consider laying wire netting over your mulch. Cats aren't likely to want to lay on it.

If you want to take it to the next level, then use stone mulch. Cats won't want to go in the stone mulch, because it will be too much trouble for them to dig around in it. Also, stone mulch will be less comfortable for them to rest in.

4. Practice border control.

Put up an electric fence around your garden. The cat will get shocked a couple of times, then stop risking it.

A lot of people don't want to have to shock their cat to keep it out of the garden. You don't like the idea of your kitty getting shocked by anything, much less something you erected. It's effective, but if you're a member of PETA, this solution won't work.

5. Keep the little thieves out.

Put in a garden security system. You can find them at the local hardware store.

Sounds crazy? Not really. You can put a motion detector in your garden. In this case, the motion detector is hooked to a water sprinkler. When the cat enters the garden, the sprayer turns on and the cat gets sprayed. The cat quickly will learn to stay away from the garden.

If you are a gardener and have a cat, then you've probably sprayed your cat to get it out of your garden. This does it for you.

6. How about a reefer cat?

People try to build a sandbox. The cat is happy to go there, but just as soon prefers to go in the garden. So you need to give it extra enticement to go outside the garden.

So get your cat stoned. Put a bed of catnip somewhere on your property. Believe me; the cat will hang out where the catnip is.

7. Put them in the slammer.

If the offending feline is your neighbor's cat and your neighbor won't take care of business, it's time to take matters into your own hands. You'll have to decide whether this option is worth whatever ill feelings might arise from trapping your neighbor's cat.

Put out a cat trap. These can be bought at the pet store. Basically, it's a box that closes when the cat enters. The cat isn't harmed; it's just trapped.

Your neighbor eventually will start looking for the cat. When not finding kitty becomes inconvenient enough or worrisome enough to the owner, the owner will be more fastidious about keeping the cat out of your yard.

If you really want to play hardball, you can call animal control. Your neighbor will have to go downtown to bail out his or her cat. This should teach your neighbor a lesson about cat control. Once again, you're the best judge about how this will affect neighbor relations. But if your neighbor is letting the cat poop in your garden, how good are neighbor relations anyway?