With summer just around the corner, many of us will be out in our gardens bedding in new plants - but having outside space means accepting that we have to share it, intentionally or not, with a variety of creepy-crawlies and creatures.
You may find that local cats love visiting your garden, particularly if you have a lot of exposed soil - which to them looks like a nice big litterbox. While it can be frustrating to find your plants dug up when cats have been making way for a place to poo, it's important to use deterrents that don't harm our feline neighbours, who will no doubt be someone's beloved pet.
Luckily, there are several nature-friendly ways you can use to keep cats at bay, from making tweaks to your garden to putting down leftovers from your kitchen. One desperate gardener found this out as they took to the Gardening UK Facebook group for advice, asking: "What do people do/use to stop cats digging up flower beds?"
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"Recently done a new flower bed out the front of my house and every night a cat has come and dug some of it up," they added. People quickly came to the rescue by offering up their own tried and tested methods that had proven successful in their own gardens.
Several people recommended putting down orange peel or lemon peel, as cats are known to dislike strong citrus smells. "Slices of citrus fruits all along your border," one person suggested.
Other tips in the group included making additions to your garden that will help to scare off cats with their noise or movement. "I use small wind chimes," one person suggested.
Another advised: "The only thing I've had success with is children's handheld windmills stuck in the ground, I presume it's the constant movement hopefully with a breeze, it scares them off and never had any problems since."
And an alternative hack was finding creative ways to cover your soil, to help prevent cats and other wildlife like squirrels and foxes from digging. "Cover with a thick layer of pea shingle or coarse gravel, works for me," one member of the group said.
Another gardener shared: "I put decorative pebbles in my larger pots, it makes it hard for the cats to dig."
This is also one of the suggestions put forward from experts at Gardeners' World, as well as recommending citrus peels or coffee grounds as a deterrent. "Make beds and borders less attractive to them by covering areas of bare soil with twigs, pine cones or holly leaves, or laying down chicken wire," they advise.
You can achieve a similar effect by being selective with what you plant - using ground cover plants like hardy geraniums, lily of the valley or heather can help to cover the soil while making your garden look beautiful at the same time. Gardeners' World also suggests adding plants to your flowerbed with a strong scent that will help to put cats off, such as lavender, rosemary, lemon balm or coleus caninus - which is often nicknamed the "scaredy cat plant".
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