We are well into gardening season and your garden might already be flourishing with fruits, veggies, and flowers. But unexpected guests can ruin this, by guests, we mean those pesky critters. Gardeners know there’s nothing worse than having them eat away at your garden before you get to enjoy it.

Dogs and Cats  

As much as we love them, we don’t love them enough to sacrifice our garden! Dogs hate oranges, so it’s recommended to use citrus. If you want to stop your pooch from marking it’s territory on your prized shrubs-combine orange and water. Peel off a pieces of orange rinds and place it into a spray bottle, spray for an easy preventative hack, be sure to mark the areas that the dogs are marking.

The issue with cats and gardens is that they like to use them as their own personal litterboxes. For cats, they really dislike warm herbs. Use cinnamon and simply sprinkle it around the garden. Since cinnamon is a powder and will wash off in the rain, take cinnamon sticks and push them into the ground for a longer lasting method.  Another option to keep felines out, would be to plant lavender in your garden as cats also do not like the smell.

Squirrels, Rabbits, Chipmunks

For Alvin, Simon, Theodore and everything alike, be sure to place used kitty litter (if you have a cat). The smell of the cat on the litter will stop rodents from entering as they can recognize the scent of predators.  A common misconception is to use hot pepper powder/flakes, however this is harmful to rodents and can even burn their eyes.  Instead plant pepper plants around the perimeter of your garden. There is also a spray called Bobbex that works for these type of critters, it’s very strong so avoid any skin contact, but rodents do not like the smell and will avoid it at all costs!

Deer

Deer are very nose sensitive creatures, they will avoid all areas where they can smell predators. For deer we recommend a product called Super Hunter. This product contains a smell similar to fox/coyote urine- a scent a smart deer is sure to avoid!

Raccoons

Raccoons are omnivores and as we all know, they will basically eat anything, this means that there are very few scents that deter them. The only scent that will work to prevent racoons is human male urine. Yes that’s right, use human urine around the garden to prevent them from getting in. Mark your territory!