How To Keep Cats Out Of The Garden Without Hurting Them

If you’ve ever Googled how to keep cats out of your garden you know there is quite a bit of advice out there on this subject. After trying them all with absolutely no success, I inadvertently found something that really works. The best part is that it doesn’t hurt them in any way and it will work for most any animals including deer and squirrels!

We have had a whole tribe of stray cats in our neighborhood for years. Yes, I feed them along with the neighbors but with the help of my daughter (a vet student), we have rescued many and have had many more fixed. The problem is they multiply faster than we can keep up. Another issue with this is when they decide to use my garden beds as their litter boxes.

Last summer I bought this motion–activated sprinkler* as a last attempt to keep them out of my front yard garden. Much to my surprise this actually worked! You attach the sprinkler to your garden hose and leave the water turned on. When anything gets near it, the sprinkler shoots off a round of water. It also makes a loud sound while it’s spitting the water out. Between the water and the noise, the animals get scared and run. You can control how much water comes out and how far you want it to spray.

The only downside is that it’s pretty sensitive and sometimes will shoot off when the wind blows. When it was in the front yard, it would also sometimes go off when a car went by. However, you only need to leave this set up for about a week or so for the cats. After that, they don’t come back to that spot for months so it’s not something you always have to have on.

This year the cats decided my wheelbarrow planter was their new favorite litterbox. So I went ahead and set the sprinkler up facing that.

In this situation, it’s not the most visually appealing especially since my flower pots haven’t filled in yet,  but like I said you only need to do this for a week or so to keep cats out of the garden. After a week, I removed it and they haven’t gone back near the wheelbarrow since.

In a more dense garden, you can barely see that it’s there.

I know this is not my usual home decor post, but there are so many people that have this issue with cats and especially deer ruining their gardens I thought it might be helpful. I have a friend who spent a good amount of money hiring a company to keep deer from eating up her beautiful landscaping and even that didn’t work. For under $50 this sprinkler really does the trick. And it definitely looks nicer than putting wire fencing around everything.

*This post may contain affiliate links, you can read my full disclosure here.