My new neighbors cat seems to think my balcony flower-pot makes a nice toilet, as I see him climbing over every day, doing his stuff in my balcony-flower-pot-thing, and then kicking the dirt everywhere as he attempts to bury his crap.

Is there any kind of thing I can buy/make to put in my flower-pot that would ward cats away? Some kind of "kitty land-mine" maybe? <-That's a joke, cat lovers. I abide by Geneva Conventions I don't feel like buying a dog. I was thinking about a fence for between the balconys, but cats are pretty agile, and it would probably wouldn't work, altho maybe worth a try.

Any other humane suggestions would be welcome. If none of them work, then I'm open to inhumane suggestions <-I'm joking again cat-lovers.

I've read - here I think even - that it is possible to get lion urine or other natural scents which will help deter other animals from coming near as it makes them think there is a lion there.

Who knows how the stuff itself smells but at least you don't have to worry about a handful of cat doo when picking tiny weeds from potted plants.

Cats are apparently averse to black pepper. Crush or grind some black pepper, sprinkle it in your flower bed.

Ask your neighbour to put out a box of kitty litter on their balcony.

There is a product that is a green gel type thingy. They have it in pet stores and Landi.

I can't remember the name but will update you if it comes to me.

Or some small sticks in the pot to stop him going on there maybe?

Update: The green gel type thing is called Get Off.

The neighbor's new cats seem to prefer freshly tilled loose dirt - whenever I dig a new garden bed or refresh the soil in an old one I can look forward to about a month of daily deposits before the soil packs down and the cats move on to pastures new. I've found that if I heavily mulch with a fairly big mulch - say, rough wood chips - the cats appear to be less enthusiastic about my new beds.

If you can't find lion urine, you might try the more pedestrian approach of mulching your planters. Coop's Prix Garantee mulch is a good mulch for very few pennies, or you can go to a garden center and get custom decorative mulches for many, many pennies.

A neighbor who has a beautiful rock garden went that route because of problems with wandering cats. She uses a fairly sharply cut gravel (I think it may be granite chips) as a kind of mulch around her plantings, says it keeps the cats away. That might be a solution for your planters - but do be careful about the heat stone mulch can create.

(Of course, mulching may mean that you just end up with woodchips/gravel splattered all around your balcony... Cats are cats - I find it easiest to just accept that, get zen about the whole thing. Take it as a compliment that they enjoy your garden as much as you do. )

buy a water pistol, - give the cat a squirt when you see it doing it's thing, - it'll soon find a safer place

The water pistol thing works. Very theraputic but if you want a life as well, go and get some wooden kebab skewers, put in pot at random angles with 10 cm showing.
When kitty goes to pull his hairy trousers down, he'll get a spike up the ole chocolate starfish ...
It's learn quickly that there are better places to dump!!

There is also a plant you can buy, i can't remember the name of it at the moment. They have a tag attached with a picture of a scared looking cat haha. I bought a couple from Obi, Bau and Hobby sells them too, as a neighbours cat was constantly going to the toilet on my newly dug over patch of earth where i had planted some bulbs.

So i planted a couple of these cat deterrant plants in the patch and the cat never went to toilet there again.

Just found out it is called Coleus Canina, otherwise known as pee off plant or scaredy cat.

Please dont laugh at this but go to Basel zoo and get a bag of lion poo.
Or any other big cat dung. Mix this in to the pots, to us it is no more smelly than horse crap but cats will NOT come anywhere near it! And you will have beautiful full roses.

Peg a suggested lion urine but this leaches ( washes) away very quickly the dung stays a lot longer.

Forgot to add the plant you may be looking for is Rue. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rue Wiki doesn't say it but it also acts as a cat deterrent.

Or get a shotgun!

Good luck

In the UK I used to buy that green gel stuff and it was very effective but needed replacing every 2 to 3 months. But my neighbours said it was toxic for other animals (eg hedgehogs). No idea if that is true and hopefully you don't have too many hedgehogs and other garden mammals visiting your balcony. It was sold under the name "Get off my Garden"

That is sooo good, need a solid foundation though, I was going to suggest something in 220V.

Do they sell it or you pick it up yourself? I would love to see that!

I know one guy who was bothered by neighbourhood cats back in Australia, borrowed a humane cat trap overnight (he already had a heap of parrot cages). Stayed up all night, setting the trap, taking the captured cat and putting it in a parrot cage, resetting the trap ... in the morning he loaded them all in a trailer and took them to the local RSPCA. Over half had no ID, but the other ones could be retrieved by their owners when they eventually noticed Tiddles wasn't coming home for breakfast ... for a small fee ...

You could cut a lemon into pieces and put the pieces in the pot. Cats don't like the lemon smell.

I had a cat problem and read to put orange peels around the area. That's what i did. Either the cat moved, died or the orange peels worked. Try it. Can't hurt.

Another trick is to remove the labels from 2L plastic bottles, fill them with water and plonk them in the flower beds. Cats apparently hate this too as it confuses them. This is also effective for preventing flies. Perhaps a bit unsightly though.

Its a game to cats, the more you try the more they enjoy it..my old neighbour in the UK will tell you that nothing works, even running out and shouting at the cat is tempory.

Buy a couple of these from Landi, and strategically place them in the plower pot:



They're the bigger rat variety. I'm sure in the confines of a flower pot they wont actually "trap" the moggie, but just make a noise and jump in the air. But this could be counter-productive, as it could scare the crap out of it.

I've had mixed results with the green gel stuff. Water pistol is OK if you're quick enough (or a cup of water, thrown). Coffee grounds are also supposed to deter them too.