Hi,
I hope one of you would be able to help with this problem. One of the neighbours cats (theres three in the area) has decided that a large flowerpot in my garden is the ideal place to park its breakfast.
Can anyone advise on a cheap, legal and safe way of detering it?

I know that theres probably some similar topics in General Discussion but it's a pain to trawl through the rubbish about shotguns, boa constrictors, poisoned meat, lion crap etc so I thought I'd get more sensible advice here (hopefully).

Lion crap apparently does work quite well
There are plants they don't like eg rue, lemon grass, lemon balm. I've heard citronella oil works well too.
Then there are the ultrasonic deterents. You could squirt with a super-soaker, though you need to hide from the cat else it will just check if you are about before doing its stuff.
Trouble is with all these that some cats will react, whilst others couldn't give a **** - you may need to try several things.

Ah, I thought that the posts were talking about trotting round to the local zoo and buying a wheelbarrow full of lion poo. Anyway I've now seen that you can get pellets for about a tenner which supposedly do the same thing.
I'll have a crack at citronella before trying these. Thanks

If you have roses or holly in your garden, put cuttings where you don't want cats. They don't like prickles on their bums.

Interestingly, after putting bark down in all my beds as a mulch and weed surpressor, I noticed that the local cats stopped using my garden as a toilet. They seem to prefer bare soil to do their business!

My ultrasonics deter all but two local cats - one being deaf and the other being simply brazen! My main object is to protect the birds - which is why I moved here in the first place. That said it isn't nice if you regularly have to deal with cat sick or cat turds or if plants in finely tilled soil keep getting dug up.
They also reckon a sprinkler does the trick.

A shiny old CD swingng from a bush has worked for us but the dog does an excellent job these days

mythbusters did the lion poo thing recently, it didnt work at all

cats are supposed to hate any citrus smells,you can buy sprays from pet shops which are usually citrus based...but if its a cat like one of mine who loves all the things hes supposed to hate, he goes mad for citrus and hates catnip, he will run towards spraying water and plays with it!

black pepper is supposed to stop them as they sniff before they dig and so is tin foil because they dont like walking on but im guessing covering your garden in tin foil isnt an option

could you put a higher fence up to stop the cats getting into your garden?

They definitely prefer bare soil. I've had cats all my life and it's like a giant litterbox to them.

Orange peel. Cats hate orange or lemon.

The cat comments you get in the General Discussion forum can be extremely unpleasant. Always best to post in the pet forum instead, it's a lot nicer here

Small mouse traps and old rose cuttings have done that trick for me in the past. Bloody horrid when a neighbours cat decides to use your garden as a toilet .

I can help you with this. I am not a gardener but I was getting EXTREMELY frustrated with cats coming into my car port at night, climbing onto my car and sleeping on it overnight. Sometimes they had a pee, sometimes they scratched the paintwork, very frustrating.

I eliminated this cat problem quicker and easier than I thought possible and it only cost me about £20 if I remember right - thanks to an ultrasonic cat repeller. Battery powered and weather proof, these things totally work.

Get yourself onto Amazon and buy one. Actually I need to switch mine around to the front garden cause a cats poo'd right in the middle and Mrs ain't happy.

There's not a huge selection of them, but they all basically work - here's the site I used to pick on that suited my requirements http://catrepellentguide.com/uk/

Good luck.