“How can I keep stray cats out of my garden?” is a question that is often asked and unfortunately there is no one easy answer. There are a number of steps you can take to deter the feline intruders ranging from barriers to protect the soil to commercial repellents of various types. The advice is to try to think like a cat and imagine what you would prefer to avoid. I came across an article by David Beaulieu on the About.com website which describes ten methods you can use to keep cats away from your garden.

I am often asked how to keep cats out of the yard. Cats are unpredictable, so there are few sure-fire cat repellents. But below I consider some of the best approaches known to stop strays and other feline intruders from using your garden as their own personal litter box.
Broadly speaking, we can label all of these diverse approaches as “cat repellents,” since they are all designed to repel unwanted cats from a specific area.

But I will also provide an example of the commercial products more narrowly associated with the label, “cat repellents,” namely, products that come in a can and are sprinkled on the ground to keep cats away.

A Cat Repellent for Before You Even Begin

If you have not planted a flower bed yet, but you anticipate having trouble keeping cats out of your yard, be aware that one of the most effective cat repellents is readily available at most any hardware store: chicken wire.
No, I am not going to suggest you erect a chicken-wire fence. Instead, lay chicken wire down on top of your soil (or mulch, if you are using mulch in the bed), across the planting bed, before you plant. Why? Because cats disdain walking on chicken wire. Using wire cutters, you will be able to open up pockets in the chicken wire sufficiently large for installing your plants.

After-the-Fact Methods: 10 Ways to Keep Cats Out of Your Yard

But what if it is too late for the chicken-wire option? Not to worry. The 10 cat repellents on which I focus below are all intended for existing garden beds. While on the subject of wire, I will begin with electric wire fences.
1. Like rabbits, cats can be kept away humanely with the popular Mr. McGregor Fence, a fence so safe that even ResponsibleConsumer.Net recommends it.

Go to the next page to see more suggestions of ways to keep cats out of the garden.
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