Grow Your Own Pesticides
Pesticide use has increased dramatically around the globe farmers, cities and home gardeners began using it regularly in the 1940’s. Over one billion pounds of insecticides are used every year in the United States alone.
The problem – one of many created by insecticides is that they kill indiscriminately, wiping out insects that are harmful to crops and those that are beneficial to crops and to us all.
Pesticide overuse has caused havoc for the natural world, adding chemicals to our food and water and poisoning pollinators by the millions.
It’s so easy to replace poison with clean, green beautiful “insecticides”. You can even eat some of them! Your garden, lawn, trees and shrubs will be naturally healthier… and so will you. Perhaps most important, you will not be contributing to collapse of the pollinators we depend upon to fuel our world of food and plants.
Here’s just a few plants that offend the chomping insects you don’t want on your plants; and feeding the beauties that you do:
- Dahlias, catnip and petunias. Catnip repels just about everything – except cats of course.
- Mexican marigolds (the most commonly found in the US) are the go-to plant for repelling a host of insects.
- Chive, Dill and Garlic. Oh my! Natural insecticides, super easy to grow, perennial… and you can eat them too!
- Nasturtiums, hyssop and chrysanthemums. Hyssop is favorite as it repels the chompers but attracts honeybees.
There are also a whole host of natural, non-toxic sprays and neem oils available at your nursery or hardware store. My favorite is Captain Jack’s Deadbug. It’s a killer (pun intended) when it comes to aphids, probably the most problematic insect in home gardens, trees and even potted plants.
Finally, the beneficial species of ladybugs are super effective at controlling a bazillion kinds of pest – mostly by eating them. Fun Fact Alert: A single ladybug may consume as much as 5,000 aphids in its lifetime.
They kill aphids, chinch bugs, asparagus beetle larvae, alfalfa weevils, bean thrips, grape root worm, Colorado potato beetles larvae, spider mites, whiteflies, mealybugs, among other insects. Plus, they work for free.
You can attract them to your garden with heavy pollen producing plants like sunflowers. They won’t hurt people, plants or pets and they are also a “self-renewing” or reproducing form of insect control.
Enjoy Fresh Peonies into the Fall
What’s the secret to having peonies in your home well into the fall long after they’ve disappeared from the shrubs in your yard? Most varieties of peonies only bloom in May through July in most climates.
Simple: Refrigerate them. Cut them when they are just beginning to open, when the blossom is soft and about the size of a golf ball. Take off most of the leaves so that the plants’ energy goes to preserving the blossom.
I put them in small vases and tuck them in the back of a refrigerator. No special temperature or care is needed. Just take a vase of them out when you need a little color in your life, and they will open up within days.
If you don’t have room for standing vases, you can wrap them tightly – from stem to top of the blossom and lay them down in the refrigerator without water. They will keep for several weeks or even months.
When you are ready for bigger blossoms, simply take them out, unwrap them and put them in vases. Personally, I don’t like this method since it involves a lot of plastic wrap. Plus, I love looking at them peeking from behind the milk carton in the frig.
Upcycle Plastic Bags to Grow Potatoes
Used large plastic bags or emptied trash bags are perfect for growing potatoes. Growing potatoes in bags rather than the ground works for several reasons. First, you don’t need a garden – just somewhere that gets a lot of sun.
Second they are much easier to harvest from bags – simply dump them out – than digging them up since they grow so deeply into the ground. Third, you can move the bags around, carefully, to provide more or less sun as the season progresses.
Photo @lisabforce
Here’s how:
Double or triple flimsier plastic bags for a sturdier container, poke a couple of holes in the bottom for drainage, fill to height of about 3-4 inches with soil and roll the bag down to just above dirt level. Plant organic seed potatoes or even organic sprouting grocery store potatoes (eyes up!) about 1″ below top of soil. Water well and give lots of sun.
As the tubers sprout their green tops, roll the bag up and add more soil up to the base of the leaves. Potatoes will grow all along the length of the stem, so the taller your tater plants get, and the more soil you add, the more potatoes you’ll have.
Photo @lisabforce
When the greenery begins to droop and the blossoms wilt (in 80-100 days), it’s time to harvest. You can slit the bag down the side to release the potatoes; or, better, dump out the bags, retrieve the taters, and save the bag and soil for next year.