Do you want to keep cats out of your garden? Of course, the easiest way is to lay a wire mesh on the ground, supported by bricks. Cats won’t step on it. But if you don’t have a net, one of the best organic gardening ideas is to throw thorny stems like brambles or rose clippings around the plants.

Other organic gardening tips to repel cats include placing sticks soaked in garlic paste, chili oil, or chamomile oil around their beds. You can also grow French marigolds (Tagetes patula) which have a strong scent. Or put strings of garam masala, curry powder or other spices. Cats hate strange and ferocious smells.

Alternatively, you can take some hot chili seeds and soak them in olive oil for several months. Soak cardboard strips in this fierce cat repellant and place it on your seedbed or prized plants.

You can even mix this strong-smelling oil 1:5 with water plus a little detergent and apply it directly to your plants. This will not only determine many insect pests, but the cats will also stay away.

The simplest cat repellant is citronella oil, available at health food stores. You only need 100 drops of citronella per half liter of water. Scatter it around your yard daily until cats learn to stay away. A quick substitute is fresh lemon or grapefruit peel.

An idea that is not organic, but works, is to sink small plastic bottles in the plot with a few teaspoons of ammonia. It’s harmless to cats because they won’t come within ten steps of that strong smell.

You can make a fancier cat repellent that will last for several weeks from a plastic screw-top bottle. take off the lid Fill the bottle with old nylon stockings, glass wool, or any absorbent substance that is inert and will not rot. Scoop out a piece of this so it comes out of the bottle like a wick. Fill the bottle with any of the strong-smelling liquids suggested here. The bottle will protect its strong-smelling contents from the weather and some of these little bio-repellents, buried or hung in your garden, will even repel Tom and Jerry.

Repel cats this way, if you dare

Organic gardeners have had good results placing sealed, perforated plastic containers on the sides that contain dog feces. This idea is not for fastidious gardeners, but the cats will freak out! Of course, you wouldn’t use the manure from a carnivorous animal directly on the ground, or even around a flower bed. It poisons the soil and can cause serious illness, especially among children.

A proven cat repellant is the urine of tigers, lions or any ‘big cat’. Banish all warm-blooded pests. If you’re lucky enough to live near a zoo, just ask.

Cats can be a nuisance if you have a bird’s nest. Simply grow something prickly like roses or brambles around the post or tree.

Another natural gardening idea is to get a large metal drum that once held cooking oil or food products. Cut it into a sheet and wrap this shiny, slippery metal around the tree or pole like a necklace. Cats can’t climb that; neither the squirrels nor the small children.