How to keep CATS out of the GARDEN?

the pine cone suggestion is a good one. Any type of mulch that is rough on the feet of any animal will keep animals out, so I am told. I also know there are plants you can plant around the perimeter of any garden to keep animals out, but sorry I don't know what they are. I do know they are strong smelling. Look it up in one of your gardening books. I'll try find it in one of mine, and let you know.

I haven't tried it outside, but hmmm. An old lady once told me for cats getting into houseplants inside, to sprinkle red pepper on leaves and in the dirt. I did, and my cat stayed out. I wonder if this would work outside? Worth a try. Cats crap in my flower beds, so this spring, I'll give it a try, too.

You could try putting pine cones in the garden, anything that will irritate their little paws should discourage them.

This problem can be easily resolved. Get something that eats cats. I don't think a crocodile will crap in your garden. Here is a pain in the azz solution but it WILL work. Where I live multiflora rosa is abundant. It is a wild rose that has a lot of thorns. I am sure you can get find something that has a lot of thorns. Cut them into into 12 inch sections and line the garden with them. Like I said pain in the azz but it will work.

I hope you didn't end up shooting them with BBs . I heard that planting salvia works...

Really, the best thing to do is to decide you don't want cat sh!t in your garden anymore and then forget about it. The more you resist it I swear, the more of it you'll get. My mother's neighbor is always b!tching about the Forsythia bushes of my mothers growing through her fence and then she can't mow there. My mother started worrying all the time about trying to keep her Forsythia contained to her own side of the fence. I went out the other day as a birthday present to my sister who was planning on taking a chain saw to the backsides of the bushes, and she was dreading the job dreadfully... hehehe, but I'm good at pruning like that, so I went back there with my pruning shears and cut the individual branches that were growing in that direction off at the nub. It was AMAZING to see the numbers of branches that had started growing in one direction and then all of a sudden had just turned and started growing aggressively towards the neighbors house. That that you resist persists, and grows! If you want to DO something about it to help you forget about it, then I would suggest that you plant in clusters rather than rows. Not only does that help with weed control but once the plants get big enough the cats won't be able to utilize the area for their illicit purposes. If you catch them you should hose them down, they hate water and will eventually avoid your place entirely. Plus, my sister had a cat that was using her houseplants for a catbox. I think she put small bowls of bleach in the plants and that broke him of that habit.

just try to put a mouse near :)

I have heard it told that if you line newspapers around your garden - weighted down by a little soil - that the cats will not trespass that line. I had acquaintances growing up that would pile poison ivy all round their garden and it kept all manner of pests out of there.