Keeping Pets Out of Your Garden

Some people absolutely love animals, some hate them (I am one of the former incidentally) but whichever you are, there's no doubt that both cats and dogs can be a pest in the garden and the vegetable plot.

How many times have you spent ages preparing a seed bed, sowing and nurturing seeds, only to find that they have been scratted up.

You can't win - if you want to get rid of cats in your garden, the cat lovers hate you. If you want to control old Rover, the dog lovers hate you. You can both hate me.:-)

Use Water:

Cats don't like it. Spray them with a hose or connect up a "scarecrow", a water sprinkler controlled by a motion detector. These are available at garden centres or through mail order catalogues and are supposed to be very effective

Dogs are variable on water - some hate being sprinkled while others will see it as an invitation to romp.

Use Repellents.

There are quite a few repellents (Scoot, Scent off etc.) marketed for garden use. It is however, debatable if whether or not they work, some people find them very effective, others don't. It all appears to depend on the animal itself, perhaps they are like humans, what one person likes the smell of another finds totally offensive.

Some cats find ammonia placed strategically around the garden to be offensive. Put ammonia in jar and sink jar in ground so it doesn't tip over but it will need refreshing after rain. Dogs don't like it either. Often both just avoid the cans rather than avoiding the garden.

I have heard mentioned that whizzing up some citrus peel in a blender, mixing with water and poured around the garden edges with a watering can will deter cats. Hot cayenne pepper is another highly recommended avoidance tool. Sprinkle this around the garden edges or where the animal enters. This has to be reapplied after a rain or after a few days when it seems to wear off.

Fences

These work for dogs (well most dogs, I have a dog lives near me that climbs over 6 ft fences - I think it must have had circus parents or something) but obviously cats will jump them. Cat lovers often use this as a demonstration of why cats are much more intelligent than dogs but as a dog lover I just ask why the cat wants to get away from home in the first place.

Other Methods

There are a number of electronic devices on the market now. These work by emitting a high pitched sound that humans can't hear but animals can and find offensive so keep away from the area. Here again, I have heard mixed reports if they work or not.

There are reports that cats do not like cocobean mulch and will not go near it but it is not effective against dogs. I have actually seen a dog eating freshly laid mulch as if it was chocolate (Well, I suppose it is really).

Personally, I have always found the easiest way of keeping animals off my seedbeds is to lay twiggy stems over the area. This is particularly effective if spiky twigs like hawthorn is used. Another way is to lay welded steel mesh over the area temporarily, animals do not seem to like walking on it. I have seen people use fine black thread strung criss-cross over the area but personally I am not in favour of this as there is a chance that an animal may get tangled in the thread and injure itself.