Cat People

How do you keep your furry felines from using your garden as a gigantic litter box? Because our three cats seem to think the garden is the only prime dirt around. UGHHH. Unimpressed is an understatement. Please tell me your secrets... lol

My cat is an indoor only cat with supervised outdoor time (on a leash) so I can't answer that. I would be interested to hear what people have to say as the neighbour's cat thinks my flower bed is his personal litter box 

My garden problem is the quail population using my newly planted corn rows as their dust bath area!  I am considering putting chicken wire down to deter them.

well, you could have your husband put up a lovely shelter in which to park his motorbikes and store seasonal things like rototillers, etc.  They'll love to use that.
or
build a small greenhouse, they love the dry dirt in the corners and as an added benefit love to scale the poly sides which greatly improves the ventilation
or
have a corner planter by your front door, they'll happily poop to their hearts content there.

DON'T put a litter box in the barn, they WILL NOT use that!!

for the garden I put up a mesh fence, that is working pretty good.

I planted Piss-Off plants around my garden, but ended using netting as the darn chickens were in there constantly digging lunar landscapes....

I read somewhere that coffee grounds will keep them away?    Not sure, never tried it.  Probably the wire is better.  Good Luck.

I never see a cat poo anywhere and we have 6. There are four litter boxes in the garage where they sleep and if they have to poop when they are out, then they hold it, and wait for the garage door to open, or they must be heading out to the fields.

I do know if you keep the ground wet, they don't like it. Water the garden more often, perhaps? Oh, we also have stucco wire around our garden to keep out the goats, sheep and geese. That probably helps.

Sue

As Sue mentioned, water more, then have a dry area you would like them to use. Cats love sand.

Haha lilfarm, that's about it.

Prairiedog, you sound like my husband, and he's supposed to be the cat person around here, heh.

Ok, I'll try keeping the garden soil wetter and hope for the best I guess. These are all outdoor cats, one is our old boy (16+ yrs with us) and other two are fixed females that came with the farm. The previous owner couldn't take them to his retirement home and we didn't have the heart to rehome them after living here all their lives. Suckerrrrrs. lol
But after dealing with scooping a kiddie pool litter box all winter long (betcha can guess who got that job) I refuse to have to do it during summer too.