There is nothing more annoying than finding little “presents” in your vegetable garden, left there by your own or some neighbor’s cat. The unmistakable odor of spray markings is equally distasteful. Short of completely fencing in your property with special cat-proof barriers, there must be other less expensive ways to deter the neighborhood felines from visiting your property and marking it as their own.

It is not just for the annoyances of feline deposits that one should consider steering cats away from your gardens, it is for health and sanitation reasons. Cat feces can harbor pathogens harmful to humans due to their carnivorous diet. You definitely do not want this in your vegetable garden or stirring it up between your flowers, and do not put it in your compost.

As a cat barrier, chicken wire works great, is inexpensive and easy to install. If you have not yet landscaped, cover the dirt or mulch in your flower beds, cutting holes with wire cutters as needed for flowers and shrubs. If plantings are already in, lay the wire down between them and stake in place.

Landscaping with crushed rocks or gravel will deter cats from digging and even walking where it is.

My sister made a garden path with crushed walnut shells left over from shelling her harvest. It was attractive and made a nice crunching sound when walked upon, and was a very green idea. It would work equally well for keeping cats at bay.

Planting roses, cacti and other spiny specimens unattractive to cats will help. Or try plants giving off unpleasant (to cats) odors such as lavender, rue, pennyroyal, and Coleus canina (scaredy cat plant) as alternatives.

Commercial repellents, either in spray or pellet form, need reapplications to be continually effective. One simple granular one is blood meal fertilizer which lasts quite awhile and is beneficial to some plants.

Water is a great deterrent, but I can’t see adding a moat around your castle. There is, however, a product called the Scarecrow Sprinkler, which is motion sensor activated and shoots a water spray at any intruder, including you if you happen by.

There are even high tech products out there that emit high frequency sounds supposedly unbearable to cats.

I’ve also read that mothballs work, however I did not find them very effective in keeping a neighbor’s cat from hunting birds on my front porch as they came to drink and bathe in a fountain. The mothballs just made my front door area smelling like my grandmother’s closet. If you do try them, be sure to enclose them in a glass or plastic container with holes in the lid as they are toxic.

One thing I have tried that works is covering my vegetable garden with those black plastic trays you get at the nursery with your seedlings. I’m talking about the ones that have the 3” holes for the plastic pots. These holes are the perfect size for seedlings and the tray can stay in the garden all during the growing season and be reused.

If any one out there has any other ideas that have been effective, I’d love to hear them. Good gardening to you all.