I know this may sound crazy, but the more fertilizer the better. I used dog dung for my garden and ended up with the most flavorful peppers you could imagine. Just dont tell your guests :)

No, that is crazy. Any mammal poo from a meat eater is a potential serious contaminate!!

Red pepper flakes sprinkled or sprayed in the garden perimeter is said to help repel cats.

Cats hate citrus, so scatter all your lemon and orange peels around the area, or (more expensive) sprinkle citrus essential oil around. A bit of fencing wire on the garden wouldn't hurt, either. I suggest you approach the neighbours and ask them politely to keep their cats confined to their own gardens. It can be done! Cite 'allergy problems' if you have to.

I don't know if I'd have the courage to do it, but I know somebody who did! Gather up the daily offerings into a bucket, and donate them to the owner of the cats on a regular basis. You don't have to be sneaky about it. Just knock on the door and present the bucket, saying, 'These are yours. Your cats left them at my place', then leave before they can say a word. Hopefully after a couple of times, they'll get the idea. They'll be speechless the first time, after that, maybe not so speechless! But you have to get the message across.

Get a cat trap, catch the cat & turn it into the humane society. That is the only thing that will stop inconsiderate neighbors. Contact your humane society regarding laws for animal trapping & they will probably provide you with the trap. I have a neighbor that does that & I throw all their animal waste back into their yard.

Try to work it out with the neighbour first. You may need a bit of grace yourself sometime.

Use the cat repellent methods suggested and also stop at a pet store or vet clinic to get their suggestions. If you actually see the cat in your yard, a long distance water gun or well-aimed hose spray may discourage them from returning.

BTDT... and I agree with Sharon, I'd be cautious about offending the neighbors, it's just not worth it. And, like jalapinogrower said, fertilizer is fertilizer and, while certainly distasteful, is no more harmful to you than anyother fresh manure..... unless you're pregnant, and then that's a whole 'nother matter.

In addition to the already mentioned deterents there are plastic mats with soft spikes that you can lay down and the cats won't walk on them.

Good luck!

I used pieces of chicken wire that I cut into smaller pieces and laid them around my plants, worked great!
I've also been interested in a impact head sprinkler that is called the Scarecrow. It has a motion sensor in it's 'head' and it blasts short bursts of water when it detects motion.

Also if you has assess to pine cones, put them around your garden, because the spikes deter cats and lots of other animals that might be using your beds for a "bathroom". And as mentioned above hot pepper spray and citrus will deter cats. And don't plant anything like cat nip or cat mint which will encourage the cats to visit your yard. And spraying the cats with a water hose will help to keep them out of your yard without harming the cat.

A friend of mine had armadillos that kept pulling up her plants at night, so she got a motion detector light and attached a radio to it and turned it on high volumn. It sure scared the armadillos out of her yard, and it might help do the same for the cats.

I'm sorry to rant, but cats aren't the only violators. I don't know where you live, but I live out here in the country, and it's not the cats that bother me, . . .well with the exception of the bobcats and cougars, but it's the armadillos, raccoons that get into my greenhouse and leave droppings all around, opossums, skunks, snakes, geckos, lizards, frogs, especially tree frogs that leave droppings all over my windows, deer, coyotes and much more. It just seems that the cats haven't caused us any problems when you take into consideration all of the other animals that we deal with. But then we did choose to move to the country after living near downtown Houston for 20+ years where I also had problems with raccoons and opossums. Could some of the droppings possibly be raccoon and/or opossums?

And being a cat lover (my cats are indoor-only cats but not my neighbor's cats), I would be very angry if by chance one of my cats "escaped" and was trapped and taken to a shelter. BTW, I try to make sure that my cats never go outside, but rather use their indoor litter boxes.

So like suggested above, try to talk to your neighbor and see if they might be willing to keep their cats indoors for the "safety" of their cats.

Mulch!

My neighbor has 3 male cats and I have noticed that they only use the beds as a toilet where there is no mulch or I've just dug up a new bed....cats like to paw where they do their business just like in the litter box and the mulch prevents temptation. I mulch with straw or landscape gravel depending on the area. Other than that I have 3 cute garden buddies who enjoy following me around and lay about the garden when I'm not out in it :D

Vera

I don't think the neighbors have any intention of their cats using your garden as a box... mine use my garden, and I provide an outdoor box for them too. I have to chickenwire my garden... :o( And before my cats came to this house, there were FERAL cats that came... sigh... Now my neighbors who walk their dogs and let them use the front yard, now THAT's the owner's fault.

The neighbors cats may not be the one. You might have feral cats that use your flower beds or other animals. Better the flower beds than on the window of your car as the raccoons have been doing when they over eat the ripe plums on my trees.

One thing to think about when you start blasting loose cats is what would you be able to grow without them. I have a problem with voles. When my 18 year old cat was alive I did not have any problems now she is dead the voles are having a field day. What people consider wildlife can only catch and control a few rodents and other pests. If all of the cats were locked up inside of houses and the rest destroyed we would be over run with all kinds of mice, rats, voles. All of these will eat birds and birds eggs. I would like to have every animal even the pests taken care of but I think sometimes the solution ends up being worse than the cure.

I lay garlic cloves on top the soil in my flower beds and the cats don't like it so stay away. You could also sprinkle garlic powder. Please don't use any kind of pepper as some suggest. Cats wash there faces and get it in there eyes. It's not the cat's fault that there owners don't privide them with a proper place to go. I have the same problem with my neighbors cats. Also cats don't like water so a sprinkler system with a motion detector works good.

Happy Gardening,
Pam

I am lucky to have neighbors in both sides who have indoor cats. One of them takes the cat out to their yard sometimes, but they never let him go beyond the fence. I really appreciate this. There is also a person next block who takes her cat for walks on a leash. We have seen her for the past 3+ years, sometimes talking to people walking their dogs.
One would wish more people were that civilized. We have many cats in the neighborhood, so in our yard we have to have:
--a super soaker at hand, which we use to run after the cats when we see them.
--a motion sensor sprinkler -it works, but not in late fall, winter or early spring because of the ice.
--small pieces of chicken wire in open areas, because cats don't like walking on it.
--spikey plant barriers like roses in the flower bed, and borage and cucumber in the veg garden.
--dry branches cut 6in long, and pushed vertically into the soil every 4in or so. This makes it uncomfortable for them to walk around.
--citrus peel all over. Cats dislike the smell, supposedly.
--cocoa mulch, even if a thin layer over the regular mulch, is also unfortable for them to walk on.
--In areas under the porch or stairs, I replaced the tree bark mulch with rough rocks, because cats were moving the mulch away and doing their business (saw them doing this). Cats like dry soil.
--I have also planted rue, a really stinky plant which is suppossed to deter cats, but it doesn't work for that. Good for japanese bettle though.
After a few years of running this circus/fortress against cat invasions, I can tell you that they do not control mice. One neighbor a few houses away has a tendency to leave the garbage out of the bin, and I see rodents there all the time. Our friend has dogs and we have used the hair they shed to make sure the rodents do not come by. We have a webcam to our backyard wich captures images every minute and then makes a movie for the 24 hour day, and we can see that the super soaker stopped cats from coming by day, but they still come at night if the motion sprinkler is off. We also have coons, skunks and possums in the area, but they do not visit near as often as cats.

Airsoft gun, from a reasonable distance, of course. Not lethal, but sure scares the heck out of 'em! I personally don't care for cats (prefer dogs - they're dumb & need me!), but I don't really want to cause any injuries if at all possible.

OK, whenever any "cat issue" comes up on the forums, tempers fly, both ways. I'm not angry, but I'm not only a cat lover, but an animal lover in general. And maybe Chicago cats don't get rid of rodents, but they sure seem to keep the population down here in Texas including moles, voles and gophers. I guess because it gets so cold up there in Chicago that rodents are harder to get rid of. And why would anyone leave garbage out where rodents visit?

OBTW, rue Ruta graveolens is an herb that can often causes skin dermatitis, so you might want to be careful being around it. It doesn't cause dermatitis with everyone, but many people are affected by it. Website Rue states the following:

All parts of this plant are poisonous in large quantities[19]. It should not be used at all by pregnant women since it can induce abortions[165]. The sap contains furanocoumarins, sensitizing the skin to light and causing blistering or dermatitis in sensitive people[200].

On the good side, its leaves are eaten by the black swallowtail caterpillar.

Also be careful about cocoa mulch because it has been documented to kill dogs. I will never in a thousand years use something that could harm animals.

I love cats and dogs and all animals, and I have 8 cats and 4 dogs, and even manage to keep a clean house. And anyone that thinks cats are dumb has obviously never had a cat. And I have never had a dumb dog either. I think it is how you raise an animal that determines whether they will be animals that people want to be around.