Our house has two brick planters that separate the living room from the dining area. When we bought the house, they were full of lush philodendron vines growing in cedar chips. Then Princess came to live with us.
Princess is a tabby cat that grew up in a home with seventeen other cats. She learned to do her business outdoors, and prefers to scratch in dirt instead of litter. It wasn’t long before my vines were dead.
Supposing that it would be harder to scratch in small clay pots, I redid the planters with new vines. The pot trick didn’t work. She still managed to dig in the dirt and uproot the plants. Then I tried sprinkling cayenne pepper on the plants. That didn’t work either.
After I put a new set of plants into smaller pots, the planters looked a little bare. I had been making silk flower arrangements, and had a multitude of stems with only leaves left on them. The silk leaves would fill in the holes between pots, and make the arrangements look fuller.
This did the trick. The clipped ends of the wire stems work much the same way as the barb wire used to keep pigeons from roosting on buildings. They are uncomfortable to sit on.
Silk flower stems can also be used in larger flower pots that have small trees growing in them.
If you love both plants and cats, this may be a solution to preventing pet stains in your flowers.
I also have a trick for preventing dog stains in the middle of the front lawn. Our yard debris is put into a specific location where a front end loader picks it up and hauls it away. The operator takes the dirt that is under the pile as well as the leaves. I wanted to fill in the hole, so I began dumping the litter box in the dumping spot when it was empty. The odor invited the neighbor’s dog to use this spot instead of our grass. Now I don’t have to watch my step when I’m working in the yard.
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