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More Tips on keeping Cats out of the Flowers/Garden

These from a newsleter I get:

***Those prickly round balls from trees called sweet gum balls, the kittys
don’t like to touch them with their claws. I know of some people on this website
that will send them to you (at least I’ve seen them post this before) they have
so many!

***I have had good success putting drops of citric essential oil at 1-2 foot
intervals around my beds. I renew once a month or so. Even here on the coast
this method keeps our cat our of my salad beds. (both orange and lemon work
well) The first time I used the oil I put it in the beds as well. After that
just around the perimeter seems to do the trick. Perhaps lemon scented herbs
would work as well.

***If you place citrus (orange, lemon, grapefruit) peels in your flower beds.
It really does work. We have three stray cats that used to use my flower beds as
a litterbox. Someone told me about it, tried it and they haven’t used it ever
since. The only thing is about every two weeks I have to replace the peels.
Which I don’t mind, if it keeps them out. Cats hate citrus.

NOT RECOMMENDED:

*** chili powder, red crushed pepper, cayenne pepper (NOT recommended), it
gets on the cat’s paws then they wash themselves and they get it in their eyes,
beware cats have literally scratched their eyes out because of this. Even if
it’s one cat out of 500 infected in this way, that’s one too many for me.
*** Don’t ever use mothballs or flakes. Those little toxic waste pellets destroy
cats’ kidney function, could seriously harm people who handle them, and yes,
contaminate your own garden soil. Their packaging even warns against using them
this way.

On a side note just to let any of you know that are thinking of using these
types of items, it can be linked back to you by the spca and there are laws that
protect animals against cruelty