Picture this: standing in your potager garden, perhaps admiring a neat row of chard in many colors or inhaling the pungent aroma of fresh basil. Every leaf and petal seems to smile back at you, almost in whispers of gratitude for your care and hard work. Lurking beneath those vibrant greens, however, may be something utterly different and so much more heinous: tiny invaders with entirely ruinous intentions. Pesky pests will quickly turn your lush utopia into a battleground. Never fear, my green-thumbed friends! Time to delve into some home-brewed remedies that keep the culinary garden intact.
First of all, garlic acts like a brave soldier in any kind of pest war. Well, this bulbous beautiful thing saves your garden from aphids and slugs and isn’t just meant to keep the vampires away.
Chop a couple of cloves, and let them steep in water overnight. In the morning, strain the extract into a spray bottle, add a pinch of dish soap, and voilà: potent spray that will make the unwanted critters run for cover. Of course, giving your plants a case of garlic breath won’t get them anywhere near prom-ready, but it sure does one great thing: it keeps their sparkle intact. Right behind these backyard magicians came hot pepper flakes. These little flakes of fire are so much more than spicy flavorings for taco night. Mix into boiling water and let the fire steep. Let cool, then strain into a spray bottle and mist over your garden. Trust me, those pests in your potager will think they have set foot into a desert.
Unless you like a good kick in the pants with your morning coffee, you’ll want to label that bottle. Anyone have eggshells? After whisking up mixes for an omelet, don’t toss those eggshells. Crushed eggshells sprinkled over the bottom of your plants are glass-like obstructions to the belly sides of the slug and snail crew. Even better, more than leftovers from breakfast, bonus points are for mixing calcium into the soil. Double duty done right! You must be wondering what you have laying around that could help you with your gardening quest. Well, that old bar of soap, for instance, can be grated up and spread all around those precious greens.
If you know what I mean, deer and rabbits are just not into fragrance-smelling dishes. You have basically made your garden the most elite dining club; it is for humans alone because it smells human. Well, not to forget the most important part of this whole story:.
The solution was quite dramatic: scarecrows, not out of some dusty tome of readings, worked against birds and every other curious nibbler during those modern times. They needn’t be hugely complicated affairs, but just take some tattered old T-shirt and stuff it full of straw or leaves, place it on something-voilà, garden art serving a purpose.
And on the scientific backbone, the beer traps for the night marauders of the garden greet us as an old wives’ tale! Take any shallow dish and fill it with beer. Slugs and snails just cannot resist this yeasty smell. Wet ends up to this last blowout, saving your greenery from them.
The Guardians of Nature: Inoculate Pests with Essential Oils and Herbs Visualize yourself on one of those really fine, sultry summer mornings, whereby you find yourself outside in your potager garden-the air just hanging sweet and thickly with scents of fresh basil and rosemary.
Ah, but then there is one fly in the ointment-those pests coming in droves and threatening to make this lovely garden of yours a buffet. But before you raise the white flag or reach for that chemical spray, let’s have a little chat about some essential oils and herbs that will save the day.
Why fight with garden pests with essential oils and herbs? Think about it: as long as humankind can remember, somebody has enlisted Nature’s bounty in that noble art of pest control to outwit the pest that would claim your treasure-plants.
Smell it: liquid armor, poured into small spray bottles, ready to protect the garden like knights of old.
Take peppermint oil, for instance. Ants just do not like it. A few drops cosseted in water sprinkled on the window sill or even on the paths taken by them has them turning in their direction-as if they see an “Ants, thou shalt not pass!” sign there.
Mosquitoes find an ogre in rosemary essential oil. There goes your backyard barbeque sans warriors, maximum stew-and-story meetings without it turning into a Blood Donor Campsite, and last but not least, the lavender-dreamy meadows are not only a pretty face for being one serious contender in keeping these moths and fleas at bay.
Want to keep moths out of your closet? Put some sachets of dried lavender inside-in order to throw dust in their eyes, so to speak. If it is cats, on the other hand, then rue will become your best friend: just sprinkle it around and watch the whiskers twitch in disappointment.
Really, essential oils will change everything; nothing replaces raw energy, whole herbs. Basil set around tomatoes, especially sends in the tomatoes’ bodyguard to escort them through nightly shifts against flying marauders.
The least that would be overlooked are flowers of the marigolds which would only astonish the pests enough to leave them alone. Taunt that view with this gold-orange barricade that would hold nematode pests at bay.
But that is not all-from just planting or spraying, full Sherlock Holmes could mix a home brew of sorts by adding to water clove, thyme, and lemongrass essential oils-voilà!
That is one heck of a cocktail to drive unwanted visitors packing; even Houdini will be envying it.
Almost hilarious how these oils and herbs are carrying different vendettas with pests. Lemon eucalyptus-the stuff mosquitoes live in plain old fear of; cats live in fear of dog beds.
It is not all about pest control in essential oil life. Essential oil lifestyle seems to seep into everything and make it so much more harmonious: the music keeps on playing even after the Ipod runs out of juice.
Let’s not be fooled, though-it’s not always full-proof. Think of it more as a quirky partner rather than some magic talisman. A little experimentation helps: sometimes you’ll whisk up a blend as useful as a chocolate teapot, while at other moments you can hit upon something perfectionist.
