Rather than an open house, the idea is to create a contained area where cats will do their business without disturbing your plants. Choose an out-of-the-way spot in your yard, fill it with oh-so-tempting catnip, and add a sand-style litter box.
Cats are supposedly turned away by the sharp smell of citrus peels, such as lemon, orange, and grapefruit. Toss the peels around your raised beds and plantings, and let the cat’s powerful sense of smell do the work.
You can plant wildly fragrant herbs around your raised beds and most prized plantings, or grow them in containers so they’re portable and easily moved when you have a new cat problem.
This unusual but attractive flower (an herb in the mint family) is meant to smell like a skunk, and it only gets worse when it’s brushed against. So any cats going past on the way to the bathroom may decide to turn around.
Cats like a nice and even ground when they go to the bathroom, so pine cones and branches are off-putting. Placed in and around your garden beds, cats can’t scratch at the soil surface and find themselves getting poked uncomfortably.