I am doing a veggie garden in my backyard and I have noticed the past few yrs, there are racoons living at my neighbours house. My question is, I don't know if they bother my garden, they haven't seemed to in the past I don't think anyways but what can I do to stop them from going in there? Also I have a neighbour 2 doors down from me who has I bet 30 some cats (outdoor cats) and every year they are all over my garden and flowerbeds, I have been using Bloodmeal every year to keep them out and it works to a point but every time you water you have to put the bloodmeal back down, so it gets pricey. Does anyone know anything that works good to keep them out and not have to use alot of it everyday. The pull flowers out and use my beds as their litter boxes. I have spoke to this neighbour because they also use my yard as a litter box and I do daycare out of my home and he swears it is not his cats and he won't do a thing about it, same goes for the human society!!! I need HELP badly...

Thanks to everyone who maybe able to help me out...

I've had success in keeping cats out of the garden by using orange/citrus peel. They apparently don't like the smell. Worked for me. Of course, after the peels dry out you need to re-apply, but not as often as blood meal and not as costly. Can't help you re: the Racoons...Good luck!

I've never had a problem with racoons in my veggies, but I've never tried to grow sweet corn, which I understand they just adore. My pond is another matter, but let's not go there.

If you have clippings of either roses or strongly scented herbs, like sage, you can scatter them around your beds as deterrents. I also use a fair bit of Critter Ridder, which seems to last through a few rains. That nicely kept the rabbits from eating my beans for the last couple of years.

Racoons>> With regards to racoons getting into vegetable gardens,and grape vines etc. I have found a very easy soloution that has worked a few years for me, and another, a bit more involving. (1). I left an old radio playing in the garden, and one in the area of my grape vines, 24 hours a day, and no racoons touched either. They are shy, and nervous (unless in a city area maybe, where people feed them, and they become very used to you?) Before that, corn and grapes could be wiped out in one night. The volume of the radio would have to be considered, at night, if you have close neighbors, and maybe directing the sound of it, towards the area most vulnerable, away from neighbors, and of course, protected from rain etc. If it works well for you, I would suggest just an outdoor speaker(s), with wires to it/them from inside the house or garden shed. I hope you have a good???(Ha!) station like CKBC, Bathurst, N.B. that can keep them away. Another idea that has worked, and for groundhogs ( woodchucks) as well, is an electric fence, anywhere from a model for small corrals for horses, down to the small pet deterrent models (Fidoshock is the one I used).//Friends have told me that mothballs have sucessfully kept cats out of their gardens, but IMPERITAVE NOT to use if any chance of children EATING them. They can be placed under the soil or on top, or in the flowers etc./ I would be interested to hear if these, especially the radio, has worked for other readers.Good luck......justmejim