Cats are wonderful. Cats are chaos. And if you’ve ever found your freshly planted seedlings dug up, your mulch used as a personal litter box, or your prize basil flattened into a sun-lounger, you know: sometimes you need boundaries. The good news? You can protect your plants without hurting any whiskered interlopers — or your relationships with their humans.
1. Think Like a Cat
Before you start barricading, remember this: cats are curious, stubborn, and occasionally convinced they’re tiny lions. If something looks like a patch of soft dirt or smells like catnip (mint family plants, I’m looking at you), they’re going to investigate. Your job is to make the investigation boring, mildly unpleasant, or both.
2. Use the “Not Worth It” Approach
Cats don’t like walking on certain textures. You can layer these over the soil around plants:
- Pine cones (bonus: they look rustic)
- Chicken wire (lay flat, cut holes for stems)
- Crushed eggshells (also good for your soil)
- Mulch that’s chunky, not fluffy
3. Smell Strategy
Cats’ noses are finely tuned, and you can use that to your advantage:
- Citrus peels scattered around garden beds
- Lavender or rosemary planted as a border (both are mildly cat-repellent)
- Coffee grounds (repels cats, feeds soil)
4. Physical Barriers (That Don’t Look Like Prison Fences)
You don’t have to turn your backyard into a feline Guantánamo. Try:
- Decorative wire garden edging
- Low trellis panels
- Raised beds with removable covers for new seedlings
5. Keep Your Own Cat Busy (If You Have One)
If the offender lives with you, a bored cat is a destructive cat. A few solutions:
- Give them their own cat garden with cat grass and catnip
- Provide shaded outdoor spots (scratching posts, perches)
- Play with them before you garden so they’re less likely to “help”
6. Be Neighbour-Smart
If it’s the neighbour’s cat causing trouble, talk to them before you escalate. Keep it friendly:
“Hey, I’ve noticed your cat’s been enjoying my vegetable beds a little too much. Any chance we can brainstorm some solutions together?”
Passive-aggressive signage rarely helps, unless your endgame is a street-wide cold war.
7. Accept That You Won’t Win Every Battle
Sometimes you’ll come outside and find a smug tabby asleep in the middle of your kale. Take a photo. Post it. Complain to your friends. Then remind yourself: cats were worshipped as gods for thousands of years — and they still act like it. Your garden’s just one more kingdom to rule.
🌿 Cat-Safe Plants: Grow Without the Guilt Trip
Look, we love our tiny chaos goblins — but that doesn’t mean we want them treating our gardens like an all-you-can-lick buffet/urinal trough/poop pit. The trick? Fill your space with plants that are totally safe if nibbled, swatted, or (ugh) chewed like a salad bar at 3am. This isn’t about giving up your dream garden — it’s about curating it with species that won’t poison your pet, ruin your sleep, or send you into a Google panic spiral.
Here’s your go-to list of cat-safe plants for gardens, balconies, and witchy indoor jungles. Grow bold. Grow responsibly. Grow without the emergency vet bill.
(Pretty for you, safe for them)
✿ Herbs & Edibles
These are safe to grow and use in your kitchen, too:
- Basil
- Cilantro (Coriander)
- Dill
- Thyme
- Sage
- Valerian (cats love this almost as much as catnip)
- Lemongrass
- Catnip & Catmint (obviously!)
- Chamomile (German only – Roman chamomile is toxic)
- Oregano (mild exposure — best grown out of reach but not deadly)
💡 Pro tip: Plant catnip away from seedlings or prized veggies. It will attract every neighbourhood cat like it’s a nightclub.
✿ Flowers & Foliage
Safe and colourful — without the emergency vet bills:
- Calendula (Marigold)
- Snapdragons
- Asters
- Sunflowers
- Roses (thorns aside, they’re non-toxic)
- Bee Balm (Monarda)
- Zinnias
- Bamboo Palm (safe indoors too)
- Spider Plant (safe, but causes mild euphoria — don’t be surprised if your cat acts high)
✿ Houseplants for Outdoor-Living Spaces
If your patio is an extension of your home, these won’t hurt curious nibblers:
- Areca Palm
- Boston Fern
- Prayer Plant (Maranta)
- Ponytail Palm
- Calathea
- Peperomia
✿ Grasses & Greens Just for Cats
Grow these intentionally to distract your feline friend:
- Cat Grass (usually wheatgrass or barley)
- Catnip
- Catmint
- Valerian
- Silver Vine (harder to find but a cat favourite)
🧪 Bonus Section: What to Avoid (Seriously)
Here are a few common but dangerous plants you might accidentally bring home from the garden centre:
- ❌ Lilies (even a nibble = kidney failure)
- ❌ Sago Palm
- ❌ Oleander
- ❌ Azaleas & Rhododendrons
- ❌ Dieffenbachia (Dumb Cane)
- ❌ Pothos (Devil’s Ivy)
- ❌ Philodendron
- ❌ Tomato Plants (esp. leaves & stems)
➝ Want More Pet-Safe Plant Lists?
We’re working on printable zines, herbal DIYs, and full seasonal planting guides that centre animal safety and environmental love.
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Let’s grow wild — not toxic. 🐾
AXO (she/her) is a multidisciplinary creator, editor, and builder of feminist media ecosystems based in Toronto. She is the founder of She Zine Mag, Side Project Distro, BBLGM Club, and several other projects under the AXO&Co umbrella — each rooted in DIY culture, creative rebellion, and community care. Her work explores the intersection of craft, technology, and consciousness, with an emphasis on handmade ethics, neurodivergent creativity, and the politics of making. She is an advocate for accessible creativity and the power of small-scale cultural production to spark social change. Her practice merges punk, print, and digital media while refusing to separate the emotional from the practical. Above all, her work invites others to build creative lives that are thoughtful, defiant, and deeply handmade.
