Had the same problem myself, cats doing their business in my lettuce bed, not nice :(....i purchased a box of citronella sticks, they're especially for keeping cats away, 4 in a box and last 10 weeks, rain proof aswell, fingers crossed i haven't seen a cat since.You can find them on ebay or amazon, hope that helps

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Dan

They dislike the plastic bird netting loosely laid on top of soil & plants. You can prop up empty water bottles/jugs on sticks to help support it in places.

Some people have good results with orange peels scattered around, but it didn't work for us unless I put out peels daily.

would garlic/hot pepper spray help?

Otherwise - physical barriers or a terrier.

I second the bird netting. Just drape it around the plants so all the ground is covered. Rain will easily still get to the roots but cats hate it. Good luck!
Edie

I've read that planting lavender in your garden will work, I'm going to try that next year.

This year I've ground up habenaro peppers and mixed with water and a tablespoon of vinegar and poured on the perimeter of my garden, it works but has to be repeated every 5 weeks or so.

I use chicken wire, cut in pieces to fit around on the ground area. They do not like to walk on the wire. I found this was the only way I could keep my cat from using my pots as well as my raised beds as a cat box. They enjoy worked soil as it is easy to cover afterwards.

Hot pepper spray would be harmful. They get it on their paws and when they groom themselves it can get in their eyes. If you've ever gotten pepper juice in your eyes when cooking, you know it's painful. It's known that cats don't like the smell of citrus which is why Corrine1 had success with orange peels. Perhaps you could find a cat deterrent spray at a pet supply store that's used to keep them off furniture. I have cats and I've noticed they won't use an area that I've mulched with shredded cypress(commonly sold around here). I'm thinking it's more the texture than the smell. Maybe try lava rock mulch since the shredded bark can affect the nitrogen content of the soil. They prefer sand and soft garden soil. It sounds like the cat sprayed your cukes rather than peed 'on' them. Mostly un-neutered cats will do territorial spraying, but neutered/spayed cat will occasionally spray also. There may be more than one neighbor's cat out there. We have a sand-based play are here on the grounds and a lot of neighborhood cats use it(including our own)on their way to the vacant lot next door where they all like to hunt. The tenents here would like to have another medium under the 'jungle jim' but HUD safety regulations will only allow a soft medium like sand or ground rubber(and the housing authority would never pay for ground rubber). On the up side, we don't have a rodent problem here.
Sorry to go on so long. I like cats and my garden and try to find ways to have both. Hope you can find something that works for you and report back to us.

I love cats, but not when they spray on my property! We put out a Havahart trap with a little bit of tuna or cat food set behind the trip thingy(sorry can't think of the proper name of it). After catching the cat, they get soaked well with the garden hose, let them stay in the cage for an hour and soak them with water again. Only had one cat dumb enough to return to our property again!

Thanks, everyone for these suggestions. THe strangest thing happened: the next 2 cucumbers I brought in had no cat smell at all. Same plant, etc, so I think I'll just wait and see if the cat doesn't come back. Thanks, again.

I wonder if you grew some catnip away from your garden, you couldnt possibly get them to go there instead of in your garden. Give them something to distract them from where they want to go.

Catnip may not live around cats. I planted 6 very large and nice plants and my cat was able to kill everyone of them in over a months time. I should have put the chicken wire around the base to at least save one.

I just had a cat trash two corners of a newly-seeded bed ... not pleased. I want to be able to get in to thin and weed. The bed is surrounded by logs, which the cat hopped over.

I could lay some netting or leftover fencing material loosely on top, and remove it to work the bed. Do you think this would work? Or would the cat just push it aside to get underneath?

22 cal pellet gun, works like a charm.
plant em if you got em.
Sam

Years ago, a couple of my cats did like to go to the bathroom in the newly seeded vegetable rows. The soil was so friable and smooth, they couldn't resist. I used pieces of fencing lay flat on the ground and it worked like a charm. They don't like to walk on it. Chicken wire, wire fencing, bird netting would all work.

The upside of having cats in the garden, if you have a good mouser, is that they control the chipmunks, moles, and voles, which can do much more damage than a little pee or poop.