By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Cats can't resist bare earth.  Especially newly disturbed bare earth.  That's why they inevitably choose to do their business in your newly-planted flower beds.  To keep them out, you have to make these areas less attractive.  Most strategies involve inserting something unpleasantly sharp between plants.  Thorny rose canes or bamboo barbecue skewers, for instance.  But that always seemed like a rather cruel trick to play against your own pets.  Not to mention that you have to weed around those things and end up getting poked a lot, too.

That's why Sharon May's technique, which I read about in Let's Talk Plants, the monthly newsletter of the San Diego Horticultural Society, sounds like such a good alternative.  She uses plastic knives and forks, handle end up, so they're not really stabbing anyone, planted about 4 inches apart.  "They don't hurt my cats," she says, "but they annoy them enough they've learned to stay out."

Surprisingly, this gentle deterrent even works on her dogs, which used to lie down in these areas and smash her plants.  And we're not talking stuff-in-your-purse toy dogs either.  Reese is a chocolate lab and Asia is a Rhodesian ridgeback.  Providing them with an alternative spot to lounge helps make this work, says May.  "I designated a cool, shady place out of my line of vision as their dog wallow and encouraged them to use it."

For more tips on co-existing happily with your pets, see our article on dog-friendly gardens.  If you have additional strategies, let us hear from you.  We'd love to pass them on.

You might also consider joining the Society just to get their newsletter, which is pretty much what I'm doing.  I'm lucky to get to a meeting twice a year, but I learn something from every issue of the newsletter.