Before doing anything else, I'd remove all soil that smells like pee, or leach it through with tons of water, then spray a cat repellent generously. You have to break them of the habit of peeing there. As long as it smells of pee, they'll keep trying. You'd have to renew it every few days and after rain. It doesn't work well unless you remove most of the pee smell first. The repellent doesn't smell much better to humans. We can't smell it when it weakens after a few hours, or a couple of days, but the cats still can.

Once you've removed the smell, chicken wire laid flat just two or three inches off the ground works pretty well. You can't really put it over larger shrubs but you can save anything newly planted. They won't walk on chicken wire. Another method is pointed sticks stuck into the ground, point up, close together enough that the cats can't get between them. Neither solution is attractive, but neither are dead plants! There is no quick and easy fix, I'm sorry, but you can succeed with some effort.

Does anybody know who those cats belong to, or whose cat had kittens resulting in strays? You could try live-trapping them, attaching a list of the prices of plants they've destroyed, and taking the cat in the trap to that neighbor. If they aren't interested in covering the costs of their pets' damage, you could remain calm and say you'll take the cat to the animal shelter instead, then do it! Or you could give them the cat back this time, but tell them you won't contact them next time, just take the cat directly to the animal shelter. Around here, the next step wouldn't be the animal shelter but a .22, and I would tell them so. They don't have a right to keep animals who damage the property of others.

Jeanne

I feel your pain!

I had the same problem with cats, although they were not peeing on my plants they were peeing under my dryer vent so all of my clean clothes smelled awful! I was told to put some coffee grounds where they pee and that it would repel them. I have a family member who has connections with starbucks and I was able to get 5 gallons of coffee grounds (used). I sprinkled generously under my porch and all around my dryer vent. I haven't had any problems with cats since. I don't know if the coffee grounds would hurt your plants, but if they will not it is worth a try. Also another idea is ground cayenne pepper (they don't like stepping on it because when they clean themselves they burn their tongue), this repels them also.

You may try planting some catnip away from your other plants and see if they will go to it. Maybe it will distract them from peeing on everything else. As for the coffee grounds, I think they're good for most plants. You might want to make sure before you put out quite that much though. ;-)

Nancy

They won't pee on the catnip, just roll in it or eat it. I'm afraid you wouldn't have kept them from peeing in the already-peed area, just made your yard even more attractive. Now, perhaps if you planted catnip in their owner's yard, you could get somewhere!

A friend of mine put out tons of coffee grounds (she used all of a Starbucks' grounds) over the winter, right on top of the snow, over all her beds one year. Come snowmelt and spring, almost nothing came up. I think it all rotted. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use coffee grounds, just use them judiciously. If everything in the peed area is dying or dead anyway, you have nothing to lose by overdosing the coffee grounds. If it works, you might want to sprinkle some grounds over most of your beds, lightly. Let us know how it came out! It would be nice to know an easy solution.

Jeanne

Ok this finally worked!! Yay! I know it's been a very long time since I posted my please help me god!
I found after hours at night watching these cats that my area has probably 30 cats from the townhouses behind my condo building. Ya, I could have gone over to all of them and told them to fix their animals then beaten them over the head but I kept my cool. Now this some people might not aprove of but it worked. I did the coffee grounds and that worked so well I couldn't believe it. They didn't come back after i put them down and I didn't us much at all. Plus now its a regular thing for me to do that not just because of the cats but my roses.
I had a mini pink rose bush thats about 4 years old. Now the thing always stayed about 2 feet high and bloomed a few times in the year. WELL!
She now grows about 5 and a half feet tall and on one branch will bloom 20-40 blooms and thats remember each branch and thats every month! Its a mammoth and it smells soooo nice too. And now the blooms have gone from little 1 and a half inch things to 3-4 inches. I am soooo happy about that!
Now lets get back to the cats.
there I found was one cat that didn't care about the coffee. He was a pain in the butt. I figured fine, I'm not going to kill it physically but this thing ate an iris that took forever to get and cost a pretty penny then killed off 3 hybrid daylilies by pulling up the tubers. I was sooo angry I wanted to kill it but again, i kept cool. I couldn't figure out who's it was, just that it was coming from the townhouses. So, I put a notice in all of there mail boxes with a picture of the cat saying kindly keep your animals off our private property or they will be captured on our property and then taken to the human society. Well, no one liked that because 20 minutes later the police were here saying there I uttered death threats. I know messed up huh?! It was taken care of and the cops laughed it off.
So I went to my garden place in town and picked up 3 foxglove mini strawberries and 5 salvia D plants. I know see now a lot of people said that it could be really bad to do this but. It nearly killed so many more plants then it already did and I figured to hell with people who don't take care of their animals. Besides if I came outside I would have taken it to a vet anyways and paid for it myself.
Anyways, so the next day I came out and the cat was sleeping on the lawn totalyl dead to the world, and thats at 3:00 p.m.!! So I left him there for a few hours (don't worry he was alive) then went back out and got him. I brought him upstairs and let him sleep it off. He's fine!! Just seemed like he had a major hang over! the next morning I took him back out and he still visits, just does'nt come anywhere near my plants anymore! So if this helps anyone great!! Just yes use caution with foxglove and salvia D. The plants can kill, and if you don't want something to happen thats drastic then don't do what I did. Also check your local laws of what the you could do and not do to stay on the right of the law.

Enjoy!

Katherine

I have heard orange peels repel cats also. They say to just tear a peel up in pieces and spread it around your flower bed and the cats hate the smell.