Oh dear Val...I'm feeling your frustration! Sorry, I have no tips for you except this one...Jack Russel Terrier! Hope you get some more practical advice from the experts! :)

You can buy electronic deterrents but I haven't tried them. I am nasty to any cats I catch in the garden and chase them or throw a stone at them! If you're not a good shot just throwing it to bang on the fence scares them off. This doesn't help if they are out at night though! I wish I knew whose cat keeps c*!*ping on my plants as I would scoop up the poo and put it on their doorstep!! Grrr...

My friend has an electronic deterrant and it certainly worked a treat for a couple of months, but eventually they seem to get used to it. :( I've often wondered about that 'lion poo' they sell at the GC....might be worth a try.

Thanks so much for your replies, and sympathy, it was a long shot because anyone who'd come up with a remedy for this problem would probably be very famous and a millionaire by now! But thanks anyway.

This summer I was forced to dose my garden with chemicals (perfectly harmless to plants and animals (bees included), unless,of course you soak the soil) to deter porcupines and badgers that were digging everything up, and it seemed to work quite well with against our 23 cats, too. I'm sure you will be able to order it from a UK chemist and it's not horrendously expensive (ours cost €18 for a litre of the pure compound) and should last for a long time. It's called Methyl salicylate. The only drawback is that your garden will smell like a rugby changing room. You need only sprinkle it along the borders, or put it on little rags pinned to the soil with tent pegs or bamboo canes. I would say try first with a little "Ralgex" or oil of wintergreen (used for muscle pain), but these contain camphor, too, which is not so harmless. Good luck!

Thanks so much for this tip Gattina, I shall certainly try to find this compound. I won't worry about the smell, especially through the winter, which is when my garden is most at risk as everything has died back and leaves bare soil (very nice soil I might add, from years of adding compost, which cats seem to love). I am very grateful for your advice.

Please let me know how you get on, Val - I shall be so pleased if a) you can find some, and b) it works for you. Our cats all come and sit round, watching me digging over the borders and pulling up great handfuls of weeds with great interest, then as soon as I have either sown seed or planted something out, come and help by digging gently around and adding their own personal mulch, unless I am quick enough with the bottle. (which I rarely am) By the way, our very ecologically minded neighbour Tiziana swears by teatree oil, and gave me a little bottle, but I haven't needed to try it yet. Worth a try if you can't get the other?