If you have a garden, it can be very annoying if cats and other animals decide to make your garden their home. If you stick to your guns and do your part, you can prevent them from bothering your garden or your crops any more.

Securing your Boundaries

Your first line of defence when keeping cats out of your garden is to make sure that you have your boundaries secure. If there are any gaps in your fence, you should make sure that you block them to prevent any low access. Cats are very agile animals, and can jump very high.

Cat Repellants

If a cat has made his way into your garden, it may be hard to get him out. Most people choose to use dogs, simply because dogs are known to dislike cats.

Some plants give off smells that cats dislike. One such plant, Coleus canina, goes by the common name, "scaredy cat plant." Other plants often recommended for keeping cats away from yards are rue, lavender, pennyroyal and marigolds.

Cats are well known for their dislike of water. If you spot a cat in your garden, water almost always gets him out. All it takes is a bucket of water or a well aimed squirt with a garden hose to make him run away. You can also buy motion activated sprinklers so you don’t have to be permanently on guard with your hose pipe at the ready.  Once you install the sprinkler system and a cat comes into the area, the detector will pick up the cat's presence and immediately shoot out a jet of water that will douse the cat. After the cat has been sprayed with water several times, he should get the hint not to come back anymore.

Sound devices that feature high frequencies are also a great way to scare off cats, although they aren't annoying to humans. You can find several different models, there are ones that stay on all the time, and those that are motion detected. To use this type of device, you'll need to make sure that the model you have is strong enough to cover the entire area.

Protecting your Plants 

Protecting your plants is a different story. You can use mothballs or citrus fruit peelings around your plants, garden borders, or even along the fence. There are other natural repellents that you can use as well, such as tobacco, lavender oil, citronella oil and mustard oil. There are also commercial repellents however they shouldn't be used near any food crops due to their high chemical content.