So sorry to hear of such a tough year you had last year. Boy, life can sure through you some hard stuff. I am glad to see you look forward to the future with hope and determination! For the cats, try sprinkling citrus peels in that area. I have a granddaughter who loves oranges so each day I put the peelings out in mine. I don't see evidence of cats out there, so maybe its working! And good luck for a great garden this year and better luck in everything!

I love cats but a cat using the onion bed as a bathroom would disgust me also. The loose soil is attracting it and cats are creatures of habit. I have animals and a cluttered yard. I use pieces of wire and fencing to redirect animals. I don't know what you have available to cover the area. You can buy plastic wildlife netting or fence fairly cheaply at Lowes. I would build a barrier of some sort.

I do not know about in a vegetable bed, but we had a neighbor's cat using a planter box near our front porch as a kitty-box. I am a cat lover, have three myself, but that was just gross and over the line. I went to TLC (an OKC garden store) and got some cat/dog deterrent granules. I don't know if it was safe for vegetable garden use, you may need to ask at the garden store or read the directions. It was a granule that was strongly lemon scented, and came in a shaker container. Just shake it over the bed at the frequency it said (I remember if it rained you needed to reapply) and within a few weeks, no more cat deposits. I also used it when all my neighbors were walking their dogs along our corner lot and not cleaning up after them - just sprinkled it in the grass to deter the little beasts. May be organic methods that work on the same principles that would be safe for edibles.

It's not the type of thing to use in the house. They do sell bitter-apple type stuff to train your cats not to chew or whatever (one of ours loves to gnaw on the cable line) but I think she thought I was just adding seasonings. We spray-trained all of our cats. Keep water-filled spray bottles at hand and when they did stuff we didn't like, you just spray them. Worked to train them off the Christmas tree, clawing the carpet, etc. Like anything, takes consistency to see results. If you don't want the cat on the furniture, you might look into spray training.

P.S., after the outdoor cat stopped using the planter box, I still couldn't shake the grossness, so shoveled out the top 5-6 inches of dirt and disposed of it and refilled with fresh dirt. I'm often gardening bare-handed and couldn't shake the feeling I might be bare-handing cat pee!

Gina,

I am sorry to hear of all your hard luck. I thought I would share my cat story with you. I don't have a cat but I put out food out in the shop often enough to have the strays drop by pretty often. Well I had one that liked it here and stayed for a while. The cat used my garden, which I did not like. As the plants got larger I noticed that the cat stopped using the garden. During this time I pulled in a trailer load of compost and parked it next to the garden. The compost sat there for months and I did not know why the cat stopped using the garden until I went back to unloading the compost.

The cat is gone now and I still have compost on the trailer. If I had this to do over I would fix up a nice soft cat potty area next to my garden in hope that the cat would like it better than the garden.

Larry

I have the most horrible time with this myself. My neighbor actively told me that she encourages her cat to poop in other people's yards! I was so ticked. I still am, but I cannot fault the cat for the owners bad behavior. Last year I went on daily poo patrol and scooped as soon as I saw some and figured the soil was not sterile when I got there, so what harm is it? The summer and fall let the bed weed over with what cover crop I planted and the cat has not poo'ed in it. They don't like to poo where things are growing, and now I am investing in a motion sensitive sprinkler that I am attaching to my drip irrigation I am installing this year. That will keep that cat out. I got so mad at the neighbor not watching her cat, even though I had kindly spoke to her, pleaded, all but begged her to not let her cat do that. The sprinkler is my last resort. At this point I think I have spent hundreds of dollars trying this and and that.

I feel your pain, boy I do!

Hope it helps...

An old neighbor of mine used to feed and breed the feral cats (cat hoarder) The cats liked my garden of course, and I am sorry to say we had to take some desperate measures...but one of the things I use is chicken wire(1 inch opening)lay it on on top of the beds and covered with mulch-cats can not dig through it, it also makes easy cleanup for the spring plant.

Gina,

Cats will use loose soil wherever they find it. My favorite solution is to place some sort of material (landscape fabric, burlap, black plastic, etc.) over the loose soil to deter them. You have to use something to hold down the material, or they'll just scratch at it and move it out of their way. They will turn away and go elsewhere. I planted my cats their own bed with catgrass, catnip and catmint and left some loose soil there close to their cat garden bed, but not too close. That semed to help.

I also squirt them with water that has a little ReaLemon juice in it. They don't like that, and I yell at the cats if they start trying to dig a little spot in the garden to use, and they don't like that either. I have yelled at the cats so many times for attempting to use the veggie garden as a litter box that often they come inside, use the litter box and go back outside. lol

You also can push plastic forks down into the ground with the tines sticking up a inch or so above the soil and they'll usually leave that area alone because they don't like being poked by the plastic fork tines. If you have a sweetgum tree, the prickly sweet gum balls can be placed in a veggie bed and the cats don't like those.

My biggest issue with cats in my garden has nothing to do with house cats, but with bigger cats that come to the garden to hunt for birds or animals to eat. Consider yourself lucky that you're only dealing with what happens after they eat.

I am sorry you've had a rough couple of years, and hope your DH's health is improved. I do remember when he sprayed the weedkiller!

Dawn

I too had cat poop issue in garden, now Lucky is restricted to flower beds with also grow catnip and catmint. I exactly fallowed Dawn tricks. She was using her little box but stared avoiding later part of the year when she become used to our garden. I used to yell at Lucky when she start scratching in vegetable garden, I used soak vegetable beds with water wherever/whenever she start preparations, she hate wet beds. I was not not aware of lemon though. Now she uses her litter box very rarely, mostly she use flower bed. Cat love to have poop in fresh air! she often request me to open door in the night go out and stay few minutes their to get fresh air and then come in and sleep in her catnip bed. They are very intelligent creatures,she never sleep on our beds, I yelled at her whenever goes on beds, after few time she stopped using that place. Now she is very well behaved cat -Chandra

Thank you all so much for the suggestions. I can't spray the cat because I have never actually seen it. But I might resort to real lemon and water for getting my husband'S cat to stay off the furniture. He weighs over 30 pounds so when I spray him water he just turns around and looks at me like "is that all you got?" of course it doesn't help that my husband thinks he should be aowed on the furniture, since this is, after all, the cat's house..

As far as the garden i think i will try the forks first since i already have those. I can't put a compost heap there because i live in a residential neighborhood with small yards.hopefully someday we will put a fence up but those are $$.

it just grosses me out with what is in there. i think i will feel better replacing the top few inches of soil especiay since that is where i am planting my onions.

ezzirah- I can't believe your neighbor. some people are just horrible neighbors. I think if she was my neighbor and said that to me, I would call the pound on her cat. then maybe if she had to go pick him up from there just once she would start keeping him inside and out of your garden more. maybe I am just mean like that. I also don't like cats that much, though. or mean neighbors :-)

I really love the idea of chicken wire with mulch on top. may use that for flower beds even though I have not noticed any cat droppings there. I just hate removing/digging through mulch at planting time.

I told hubby about the motion sensor sprinkler. he might see if he can do that- he wants to see if he can put the sprinkler on a timer when we go out of town anyways.

My step-dad had a problem with a cat getting in his garden and set a live trap and caught the cat, he then took a corn stalk and beat the stuffins out of the trap with the cat in it. It did not hurt the cat or the trap but it scared the cat enough that he did not come back.

ginak - one neighbor did trap the cat and take him to the pound. It did no good. If this person truely cared about her cat she would just keep him in. Poor Kitty....

I had this problem last year. They didn't poo in the beds with the hard clay, only the ones with the new top soil I added. I laid down chicken wire on the top of the soil and staked it with landscape fabric stakes. Problem solved!