Cats will avoid your garden and stop ruining plants if you leave a 20p item outside. One woman was desperate to find a solution to stop cats from destroying her flower beds, and fellow gardeners shared a simple 19p trick that really works every time.
Gardener's Dilemma Solved
Cats can be deterred for just 20p, and it won't harm them. You can put in all the hard work to make your garden look absolutely stunning by following expert advice. But there's little you could do to stop those pesky — yet adorable — visitors from wandering in and treating it like their own personal playground and lavatory.
There's nothing quite as disheartening as taking pride in your garden, only for cats to come along and dig up your plants. Fortunately, a number of gardening enthusiasts have shared a humane deterrent that will send them packing, but "won't harm them at all." Cats are protected under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, meaning causing any injury to them could result in a hefty fine or even a custodial sentence.
Community Advice
Fed up with her neighbour's cats tearing apart her flower beds, one woman turned to the Gardening UK Facebook group seeking advice on how to handle the situation, because she was at a loss about what to do.
She wrote: "What do people do/use to stop cats digging up flower beds and pooping in their garden?"
"I've just 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 and used it as a toilet."
The most widely recommended solution was to scatter citrus fruit peel around the garden, as cats "don't like the smell" and it won't "harm or bother them at all."
Someone wrote: "Try citrus fruits. Use orange peel as cats don't like the smell of them."
Another suggested: "Orange peels have worked for me in the past. Put them down daily. It broke the cat's habit and it stopped coming for its daily poo quite quickly."
An avid gardener and cat-lover said: "I use oranges and orange peels, they are fantastic! I'm a cat owner and we've had to do that on occasions to stop the cat going for the corner of the wall etc."
"They simply won't go near it as they don't like the smell. Not that any of these suggestions are cruel, but they'll take one sniff at orange peels and walk off. Won't harm them or bother them at all."
A five-pack of oranges can be bought from local supermarkets for roughly £1, which means that each peeled orange will cost just 20p.
It's well worth a try if you're struggling with cats in your garden, but don't want to cause them serious harm, or genuinely scare them.
