Getting rid of bugs in your house plants the natural way

So last week-end, we were at a plant expo and we met a really nice guy who is an interior horticulturist with a green side. His name is Gilles Pelletier and his business is “how to make the most of your urban space” when it comes to plants and urban gardens spaces.

One of his little impromptu information sessions was about natural home made solutions to take care or bugs, fungus and mildew in your house plants. Here are a few of the products and recipes that he suggested :

Garlic :
Insecticide - Takes care of mites and aphids.
Mix 1 tablespoon garlic juice and 1 teaspoon rubbing alcohol with 3 litres (12 cups) of water.
Spray immediately.

Baking soda :
Fungicide and bactericide : Takes care of anthracnose, oidium and mildew.
Mix 4 tablespoons of baking soda and 4 tablespoons of dishwashing soap in 4 litres (16 cups) of water.
Spray every 7 days for 3 weeks.

Potato starch :
Insecticide and fungicide : Takes care of mites, aphids, thrips, and white fly.
Mix 4 tablespoons of starch and 2 or 3 drops of dishwashing soap in 1 litre (4 cups) of water.
Spray. Rinse after a few days to remove the residue.

Mustard powder :
Insecticide : Takes care of mites, aphids and scales.
Mix 1 teaspoon mustard powder and a few drops of dishwashing soap with 1 litre (4 cups) of water.
Spray.

Cinnamon :
Fungicide : Takes care of mildew and crown rot.
Mix 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder in 1 litre (4 cups) of water and let stand until the cinnamon looks like a softer pace at the bottom of the container.
Spray the leaves and water the soil.

Hope this was useful at helping with our little indoor visitors.


What do you use to help control insects indoors?

Our garden –Year 2 : Eggshells, the wonder trash

A little snippet for all of you this morning in my garden series.

Last year in our garden was a year of learning. It was the first year that we had a plot at the local community garden and unfortunately, it did not yield much. I would like to blame the horrible weather we had that year (we got almost 493 millimeters – over 19 inches – of rain last summer) but I know that a lot of it was our lack of experience and knowledge.

But like all good students of a new art form, we observed a lot of the more experience gardeners around us and one thing we quickly noted was all of them walking around, early in the season, with buckets full of crushed eggshells that they would sprinkle around all their plants.

Turns out, like bone meal, egg shells are a great calcium source for your soil. Calcium deficiency is one of the most common problems in gardens. What it does is to make the roots weak and then, you end up with a root system that is unable to sustain a healthy plant. According to Calcium Deficiency in Organic Vegetable Gardens - Natural Garden Solutions for Your Green Lifestyle, a wonderful article by Deborah Aldridge :

“Calcium deficiency symptoms in organic vegetable garden plants is very noticeable, but may be misdiagnosed, as some symptoms, such as browning of young leaf margins and leaf curling, can also be associated with other deficiencies and diseases. However, if these early symptoms are not treated, it can lead to the death of the terminal bud and root tips.

A very common and easily recognizable symptom of calcium deficiency is blossom end rot, which usually shows itself on peppers and tomatoes. Blossom end rot begins with a decayed brown spot on the blossom end of the fruit. Sometimes, not all the fruit is affected. Feeding with a fertilizer too high in nitrogen can also cause blossom end rot.”

You are probably thinking they are already pretty amazing little scraps. But that is not all!

Fun fact : Did you know that if you sprinkle broken eggshells around your more delicate plants, they will keep away slugs and snails?

So as you are making your Sunday eggs this morning, think of rinsing the shells and setting them to dry. You will reduce waste and grow happier, healthier vegetables this summer.

What natural, organic ways have you found to keep your garden and flower beds happy and healthy?

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Our garden - Year 2 : Attracting beneficial insects to help with pest control

Well, after all the rain we’ve gotten in the last few weeks, the snow here has been melting at a ridiculous rate. With the sun finally out today, I decided to take a nice walk to venture into our community garden and see how much snow was still there and if some of our early bulbs had started to show their little green heads.

As I was walking, I was thinking of flowers, fruits and veggies I would soon plant and it reminded me of a wonderful conference my husband and I attended last week-end on “How to attract beneficial insects into your gardens”. Now, the conference was in French and the book that the facts are taken from is titled Attirer la faune au jardin : insectes bénéfiques, papillons, grenouilles et oiseaux dans votre cour (Attract fauna in the garden : beneficial insects, butterflies, frogs and birds in your yard) by Albert Mondor and Daniel Gingras, but I decided to translate and share with you a few of the facts we picked up.

FACT ABOUT BUGS!

At the very root of the matter, all bugs, in the bug kingdom, are beneficial. Every insect is food for another living thing; every one plays its part. In the human world, it is another story all together but...

Did you know that…
Only 0.05% of insects on the planet are non-beneficial/harmful to humans?

We are talking insects that carry diseases like West Nile and malaria carried by mosquitoes, lime disease by ticks, lice, etc. But those are a miniscule fraction of insects on earth and the rest of them can be quite effective with ecological population control, at helping with invading plant life and they actively participate in the decomposition and recycling of organic matter into yummy composted soil.

Beneficial insects we commonly come across are the following :

Spiders :
40 – 70 % of insects caught in spider webs are non-beneficial (mosquitoes being one of them).

Ladybugs :
Both adults and their larvae are powerful pest controlling agents. 60% of their combined diets consist of aphids. Adult ladybugs can eat up to 1000 aphids a day.

Green lacewings :
One of the most beneficial, although hard to attract, insects. Their larvae will eat everything from aphids to scales, including spider mite eggs, thrips and white flies. They are hard to attract because they are very delicate and fall victim to predators like birds, but you can build bug shelters with openings only big enough for them and hang them in your garden. I found a fun little how-to sheet on a UK gardening site that you can check out.

Ants :
I know *shivers*, but they are wonderful for plants. They are true protectors because a small colony can eat thousands upon thousands of insect eggs a day and they will never ever touch the plants. Plus, like earth worms, they aerate the soil very well.

So how do you attract all these wonderful little helpers?

• Have a good variety of different plants to offer something to everyone.
• Have different sized plants to attract all kinds of little helpers.
• Flower and plant families that are very popular to use are Umbelliferae (including angelica, anise, celery, dill, cumin, carrots, etc.), Labiatae (including aromatic herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory, marjoram, oregano, thyme and lavender, etc.) and Asteraceae (or Compositae) which is the daisy and sunflower family.

I hope this was a useful article for all of you.

A new way to look at insects may give you a whole new freedom in your garden this year! Hopefully you’ll take a few steps towards attracting the good kind and in the process, reduce (or *fingers crossed*) eliminate the need for insecticides!

What steps will you take this summer to make your gardens and flower beds a green place?

Preparing for spring : Our garden - Year 2

Last year, my husband and I had the great pleasure of acquiring a little plot of land at out local community garden. We thought it was a great green step to city living. We decided to sign up rather late in the season so we rushed through the preparations and opted for nursery grown plants. We weeded, tiled, turned and fertilized the soil with bags of organic compost bought at the garden center and planted our little garden.

It had been a rainy week so the following days, we stayed home. When we decided to return to check on things and do a bit of "light" maintenance, we were horrified to find that all the weeds had grown back in force and we could barely differentiate them from the little plants that were struggling for room to grow. This event was only a preview of our war on weeds. The remainder of the growing season only got worse before it was over.

So as I mentioned before, I love to know the why of things, especially when those things are coming between me and my desire for a greener, healthier life. After loads of research, I've come up with a chemical-free plan for snuffing out the weeds this year and actually getting to enjoy gardening :

Step 1:

As soon as the snow is melted off our lot (this part may not apply to all of you considering I live quite a ways up North) and the hot spring sun is out, we will cover the whole patch with dark landscaping tarp held down with bricks, to stop the weeds from getting the light and air they need to break dormancy and actually start spreading and growing. The increased heat and darkness will actually go as deep as the underlying rhizomes and stop them from taking over your garden. It is recommended to leave the tarp down for about 6 weeks, until it's time to prepare the garden for planting.

Step 2:

Once the soil has been turned and all the "remains" have been removed, strategically position your plants, alternating high growing plants (like tomatoes, peppers, bean bushes, etc.) with low, ground covering cultures (like cucumbers, squashes, cantaloupes, etc.) so that there is a minimum of light between the rows.

Step 3:

Use mulch in the walkways and on all areas where the sunlight hits the ground. You can also lay down newspaper under the mulch for an extra barrier of weed protection. Not only will the paper and mulch block the light and air supply again, but as they naturally biodegrade, they will give back nutrients to the soil of your garden.

I hope this helps and if any of you have ideas and suggestions, please feel free to post them here!