How can I stop pets or animals bothering my plants?

How can I stop pets or animals bothering my plants?

Outdoor plants often have to put up with lots of pets or wild animals bothering them.

Some plants will make your pets very ill if they eat them - remember to check their product page for toxicity detailson the Patch website to check this. And alternatively, you might just want to protect your plants from curious cats, squirrels, birds or foxes who dig up, pick at or crush your them. Thankfully there are any number of DIY methods out there to keep animals, both wild and domestic, away from your urban garden. Here are a few of our favourites.

A super easy, and very popular, method for keeping many different animals away is sprinkling spices around your plants. Cayenne pepper is a great all-rounder, helping to deter cats, squirrels, dogs and certain bugs. You can sprinkle it around your plants, or mix it with water to spray them with.

Cats don’t like walking on uncomfortable surfaces, so covering your soil in slate pieces, gravel,  or pushing twigs into the soil at small intervals, can help keep them at bay. Cats tend to hate citrus smells too, so putting some lemon peel around your plants may deter them.

Pigeons can be scared away by hanging shiny objects that will reflect the light, like old CDs or bits of foil. You can also protect your plants by covering them with cloches or netting. You can even make cloches yourself from old plastic bottles, too.