I love spring! I love the sunshine and the new life. And I love that I can get back into my garden!
We planted our spring garden a couple of weeks ago and we’ve got sprouts galore! But along with it we have bugs.
Grrr.
No sooner than those tiny sprouts showed their faces, then the pesky buggers were chompin’ away. Being the natural kinda girl I am, and not wanting to hurt any good bugs, I found myself looking beyond organic pest control options.
So what can I do that will deter bad bugs from chompin’ on my veggies, yet not hurt beneficial bugs…
If you’ve watched The Back to Eden film (and if you haven’t, you need to!), then you’ll know that with that gardening method they don’t use any pest control at all. The plants are so healthy and vibrant that the bugs leave ’em alone! While we’re on that track, trying to rebuild our soil, I’ve gotta do something before we get to that point.
And I think I’ve found a pretty good solution for now. This garden pest spray is made of all natural ingredients and it doesn’t actually kill any bugs, it just deters them. And it’s pretty powerful stuff! So be sparing, a little goes a long way.
The very cool thing is that this spray is entirely made up of things you most likely have around your house already. And it’s powerful! The essential oil blend that I added really kicks this up a notch and it’s pretty inexpensive at only 4 cents per drop! It’s full of oils derived from plants, some of which are actually known to attract beneficial bugs! So while you can make this spray without the repellant blend, it’s definitely worth adding it in my opinion.
Ok so on to the star of the show. The garden spray recipe!
Organic Garden Pest Spray
4 cups water
1/2 onion, quartered
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/4 tsp chipotle powder (It’s the strongest stuff I had on hand. You can use any kind of pepper powder you’ve got.)
1/4 cup grated Castile Soap
20 drops repellant essential oil blend
1. Add the onion, garlic, and chipotle powder to a pot with 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil.
2. Once it’s at a boil, let it simmer for a few minutes.
3. While simmering, grate about 1/4 of a cup of castile soap – no need to be exact here, just eye ball it!
4. Remove pot from heat, stir in grated soap until melted (it may get foamy, that’s ok).
5. Cover with lid and set aside to cool for 30 minutes or so. (Or if you’re like me a couple of hours because you forgot about it…ehem.)
6. Strain out the onion and garlic, then add in 20 drops of repellent essential oil blend. Give it a quick little stir, then add it to a spray bottle.
To use the spray, just lightly mist it over your plants – don’t go overboard, it’s powerful and the soap could do some harm your plants if you use too much (don’t ask me how I know 😉 ). I like to lightly mist this spray on the plants as needed, in the evenings – usually after a nice rain.
Oh and you want some other uses for the repellent blend??
I’ve got ya covered my friends,
– Flea/tick repellant for dogs and cats – add a drop to their collar.
– Natural Bug Repellant Spray – add 20 drops to a 4oz spray bottle with water, and use as a normal bug repellant. It will last up to 6 hours, and it won’t stain clothing!
– Bug Repellant Lotion Bar – this looks very cool, I’m definitely trying this one out this summer!
– Diffuse in the home or on your porch to deter bugs (this definitely works and it smells really nice too!)
– Spray around windows and doorways to keep bugs away
– You can even add 5 drops of this to shampoo if your kids get lice! ew!
Handy stuff in a tiny bottle, no?
*Due to recent changes in the law, I can no longer name the brand of essential oils I recommend on my blog. Bummer! BUT I can tell you all about them through email – so if you’d like to learn more about my trusted brand of essential oils, just click the link below and I’ll tell ya all about them 🙂
I hope this helps you in your battle against the pests! May we all come out victorious with big harvests!
This post shared at: The Art of Home-Making Mondays
We used a natural spray for our garden back in the day and it included cayenne pepper. The trouble was that it kept clogging the spray nozzle. Have you had that problem?
Not yet. It seemed like a lot of it either dissolved or clumped together and didn’t go through when I strained it. It simmered in there for a good while and then sat a long time while I forgot it was cooling, lol. So I think it has the essence of pepper in there without causing a clogging issue 🙂
We didn’t heat ours up or strain it or steep it. We just mixed it up. I think your way must have solved the problem:)