deterring cats?

[LynM]

Free range Springer Spaniel works really well in the back garden, but it's the open plan front one where I have problems. On another forum an American guy said that he used prickly fir cones...might make a change from bark to cover the bare ground...but you may need a lot!

I've tried the water bottle method and it does only really work when the sun is out or it is a bright day.

[Fireweed]

Yes, the bad pussies!

We also have grey squirrels and a fox that comes into our garden. I think the fox may occasionally poo because we get surface faeces, and I am assuming cats usually scrape a depression. The grey squirrels dig! They dig in containers aswell. Actually we encourage them by feeding them - deluded into the theory that providing squirrels with their own feeder reduces their use of bird feeders. For all poo and digging problems we just use short sticks stuck into the ground or container.

Whenever we cut back a woody shrub - like buddleia - I cut suitable bits into sticks for this purpose.

The water bottle trick sounds really interesting - but would it also deter the squirrels?