Thanks! I needed something besides chicken wire to keep my beds from being used as cat boxes by the whole neighborhood.

I might try tieing them together ... these cats are pretty lazy and might give up if they can;t swat the cones aside. But MAN am I tired of finding those lumps in the soil!

(pine cone mulch ... I'll try anything!)

Hmmmm....wonder if this would work to keep the chipmunks out of my containers. Certainly worth a try.
Great tip!

Great tip for those who have cats.
Linda, the chipmunks might just eat the pine cone seeds?????

I put skewers around my one houseplant in our bay window.. the one yorkie we have refuses to stay out of it.. only because she is taller to look out the window and bark at people.. of course the soil ends up everywhere with her jumping in and out... she pulls the skewers out and chews on them... so that was no good... I ended up putting a small boarder fence around my container.. boy she is good

Great idea. I have tons of pinecones. Never thought of it. Thanks Pat!

I'm tired of cats using my containers for their litter box too. Going to start saving the pine cones that fall in our yard. Thanks for the great tip.

good idea b/c they are light and plentiful. I have used flat rocks that I find at the beach, but living in Dallas area forces me to pack them in luggage when on vacation in Florida, which doesn't happen often enough.

Need to keep those darn squirrels out of my containers. They jump up to the containers and start digging and bury nuts.

Have to figure out between now and next Spring where to get pincones and lots of them, cuz I have lots of containers.

Great idea. Maybe I'll buy a cat.

You need a cat, Boo.

I used to use pine cones for that purpose, but they almost always had earwigs in them, so I stopped bringing them into the house, and now I use sea shells instead.

I've given up on the outdoor containers.

Cute cat photos Zuzu..are these your pets or strays! Reminds me so much of the strays that hang around my garden

My solution was to go out in the woods and find the canes of thorned plants, like Smilax rotundifolia. Those have really nice thorns. Then cut the stems to length and cover the soil with them. That put a stop to the cat problem in a fast hurry.

Oh yeah, Becky - I am surprised you don't already have cats, you strike me as a cat lady.

I can't believe how timely this tip is - I just put a plant outside that our new stray has mistaken for a litter box (despite the 4 upstairs, grr....) Do you think pinecones work better than rocks?

Those darn squirrels used to bury one of my succulents Haworthia reinwardtii - always...I guess the texture of this succulent feels like that of a peanut



What deters the cats from the pine cones? Is it the scent?

dave said:My solution was to go out in the woods and find the canes of thorned plants, like Smilax rotundifolia. Those have really nice thorns. Then cut the stems to length and cover the soil with them. That put a stop to the cat problem in a fast hurry.

Dave I do that for squirrels...in fact I submitted it as a tip, but it hasn't been used yet

"Nice thorns"

Heh!

Zuzu, those cats in the pots are so funny! They do love little cozy spots, don't they?

I am actually a dog person but I know a lot of cats personally.

My cats won't stand on or move the pine cones because the cones are "stickery" to their paws. The fresher the pine cones, the better they work. I tried cypress mulch, rocks, citrus peels, and cat deterrent spray, which stinks by itself, but the cats still used the pots, even though they have four regular litterboxes and a Littermaid handy. When our youngest cat started to remove cones last winter so he could bat them around, I added the stakes to make removal more difficult. So far it's working, and I am not constantly having to dig out and replace soil to be able to stand having the ficus and satsuma trees in the sunroom.

I don't think I've seen another tip get so many responses so quickly!

Zuzu that was so nice of you to put all of those fine containers around your garden for your cats to lounge in!! The cats are all so cute!