Question
Charlotte,  First let me say WOW! Loved reading about sugaring the lawn, I am going to do that.
How do you keep the cats out of the flower beds and the garden?  Do you have any solutions for Moles?
I hate pesticides have never wanted to use them and don't. I was so excited when I ran into your answer on the lawn and sugar. I would love to pick your brain . My husband and son both suffer with allergies.  
Sincerely,
Deanna

Answer
Hi Deanna;
Feel free to pick away.
There is not that much to organics. It is more about what you DON'T do than wjhat you do.
So far, I haven't found one thing a chemical product does better than a natural product for the same thing, with the exception of GreenLight WipeOut for killing broadleaf weeds, and not harming the grass.
BUT!!! It does mess up my allergies, and if a little kitty or other animal gets it, it will kill them, and it kills the benefiial microbes in the soil.
for trees that seed into my yard, I wait till a real hot day, and wrap it in black plastic for e few days. I let the heat from the sun and the magnified heat from the black plastic cook it. Then I can just pluck it out easily in a week or so, after the tap root decomposes.
Cats will stay out of where you sprinkle chopped lemon peels. I tried all the lemon scented cat repellants, and the cats just ignored them, and when I dug in my flower beds, there were not so sweet surprises in there.
I chopped the peel of several lemons and scattered them in the bed under my living room windows, where the cats kept smelly all the time.
I washed down the holly bushes with soapy water in a sprayer, and rinsen them well, then c]scattered the lemon peels.
That stopped the cats, and doesn't harm them. I keep a steady flow of chopped peels there. I am not sure how long they last, so every time I use lemons, I chop the peels and scatter them. I keep a mental grid so the peels get scattered in a fairly consistent pattern.
Grapefruit peels will keep out dogs.
Orange peels are the BEST for keeping fire ants out of the yard.
Orange oil is the main ingredient in effective fire any killers, so when it is time for them to swarm in the spring, I buy a big bag of oranges, invite all the grandkids, and the l;ittle ones on my block, and they eat the oranges, I chop the peels and they help to scatter them.We pretty well cover the whole yard, and we MNEVER see a fire any in our yard.
The little ones get a kick out of helping me get rid of the fire ants, keep a safe place for them to p0lay, and help the earth at the same time.
Kids will really get into organic remedies for helping the enviornment.
Mole I have never had to deal with, thank goodness, but I have heard putting moth balls down their holes works, but moth balls are deadly poison too, so I wouldn't use that.
Cayenne pepper works on a lot of critters, and mole should be critters it works on.
Sprinkle ceyenne pepper liberally down the hole, and do it with every hole they come up with. After awhile, they should just give up and leave your yard.Make it too much trouble to stay there.
If you have dogs and cats, I would not sprinkle ceyenne all over the yard, because it irritates all animals noses. Your dogs and cats could not stand it in your yard.
It wouldn't be great on people either.
Garlic pepper tea is effective for a lot of pests, like the squirrels in my fruit trees.
Put a couple of RED HOT dried chilis, and a couple of whole bulbs of garlic in a quart of water, in a blender, and whirr it till it is as liquid, let it set overnight in the fridge, then strain to get tiny particles out, and use 1 cup of this tea per gallon of water in your garden sprayer.
Spray your shrubs, fruit trees etc.
I don't use this on my roses and other ornamental shrubs, because my lizards and grass snakes eat the aphids etc from these plants, and the garlic pepper tea would repel them.
My lizards keep my roses totally free of aphids, and I never have seen aphid damage since I started letting my lawn critters handle the job.
To keep squirrels out of your wild bird feeders, get some of the pepper seeds in the spice dept, you know, thise chili pepper seeds you put on p[izza?
Put some oof them in with the bird seed. It will not borhet the birds, but it will keep the squirrels out of the seed.
If you think of another pest proble, write me.
Charlotte