At my first gardening class, even the teacher mentioned that she had problems with her cats using her vegetable beds as a litter box. She adored her cats, but wanted to also eat fresh out of her beloved garden. What to do? She solved the problem by surrounding each plant that fruited low to the ground with flexible plastic fencing erected on sturdy stakes. You can usually find that fencing at hardware stores; the colors are usually orange or green.
When I saw that Turtle, our cat, had buried poop close to some green beans, I was immediately nauseated. What was I to do about the lettuce that grew in that bed? Even some of the green beans were touching the soil. I also had to wonder where else Turtle had buried her scat? Gross...
There are many suggestions for solutions to this problem. Some approaches involve chemicals: I steer clear of chemicals, and don't want them in my organic garden. Others involve deterrents like the fence that my gardening teacher erected or barriers that can be placed over the plants. I didn't want to do that because I deplore being blocked and having to work around barriers. Besides, who wants to take the time to erect a whole barrier?
Some clever person told me that cats need room to use the bathroom. Cats like to scratch, dig a hole, and turn circles around their "toilet." This person suggested that I poke sticks in the ground at regular intervals, with no space left over large enough to provide room for cat bathroom procedures. I had lots of chopsticks from Asian restaurants, bamboo stakes for vines, and tomato cages. I arranged them in my gardening plot in a way that discouraged cat usage AND acted as climbing fences for various plants. Double purposed procedures, I like that. I noticed Turtle went elsewhere after that.
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