As adorable as they are, cats entering your garden can often spell trouble if they decide to use it as their toilet.
That’s why a gardening expert has shared an affordable hack using one common fruit to keep felines away from your beloved lawn.
TikTok creator @viewfromthepottingbench, who mainly focuses on gardening tips and tricks, uploaded a video to the platform demonstrating the trick.
In the clip, he uses a lime and it’s said to be very effective, but any citrus fruit would do the job.
After some research, the gardener surprisingly found out that cats dislike citrus fruit.
To deter local neighbourhood cats, as well as his own cat, from using the areas where his children play as a toilet, he grated lime peel onto those spots.
He said: “For cats, the scent is just too overpowering and strong for them and it’s said that adding citrus juice etc to areas like our bark play area, will put them off, so – I’m trying it!
“And…the results! So far so good!! Since adding this last week, not one poo.”
However, it seems the method received some pushback, which the gardener also commented on.
He added: “I’ve had a few comments saying that citrus is poisonous to cats, and while I appreciate that may be true, daffodils, peonies, tulips and lilies are also potentially toxic to cats too as are basil, thyme, and coriander (and we all grow those without even a thought).
“So just worth adding some balance to the conversation there.”
Other plants that could deter cats from the garden include the Scaredy cat plant, lavender, rosemary, pennyroyal and chives.
Additional deterrents include citrus peels and coffee grounds, which are the least offensive smells to people but are off-putting to cats.
