au naturale in the garden

Home made sprays can be very poisonous and need to be labelled and stored appropriately. They will kill natural predators such as lacewings and ladybugs, so be careful where you spray and watch for over spray.

Keep out of reach of children.

Because of their toxicity and the likelihood of careless labelling, home made sprays should be mixed in small quantities and used immediately.

Home Made Garden Sprays

Aphids and Thrip – Can be controlled with soapy water, onion or garlic spray  and white oil.

Garlic Spray –Crush garlic cloves and steep in an equal quantity of vegetable oil for a week. Add some soap mixture and dilute 1 part mixture to 10 parts water. Store in a glass container.

Pikelet spray – For aphids, scale and caterpillars, mix together 1 tablespoon of white flour, a quarter cup of milk and 1 cup of water. Spray on leaves.

For Scab or Mildew:

Chive Spray – Use dried chives. Pour 600 ml boiling water over approximately 20g chives. Leave to stand for one hour. Strain. Dilute one part spray to 2 parts water.

Cabbage Moth Spray – 50g soft soap, 150g salt, 10 litres water.

Melt soap in water, add salt, strain through fine strainer to get rid of lumps of soap if you want to use tis in a pump spray. Liquid cleanser mat be used in place of soap.

Easy All-Purpose Insecticide Spray

Mix  1 bucket of water, a small packet of Epsom salts, 1 teaspoon Condy’s Crystals (all available from the chemist)

Rhubarb spray (all purpose) – Cut up one kilogram of rhubarb leaves and boil in two and a half litres of water for 30 minutes.

Grate 1/3 of a cake (60g) of pure soap into 3 ½ litres of boiling water to dissolve. When cool, mix together and strain for use . Bottle and label as very dangerous. I suggest that you make this one only for immediate use.

Snails and Slugs

Sawdust, shell grit or sand heaped around new plants will deter slugs and snails.

Bury tins up to the neck and put beer in the bottom, or just fill saucers with beer near new plants. Slugs and snails attracted to the beer. Empty every morning.

Cut the top and bottom off plastic bottles and place them around each new plant. Alternatively, use ice-cream or margarine containers to form a collar around the plants until they are large enough to lose their appeal to the snails.

Fill a shallow bowl with water and cover with a layer of natural bran. Snails will crawl into this thinking it is a solid fall down and drown.

Moss

To remove moss from path, mix equal parts of vinegar and methylated spirits. Apply with a scrubbing brush. Scrub well ten leave for 15 minutes. Scrub again with the mixture, leave another 15 minutes. Sweep with a broom.

To promote mossy growth on rocks or paths, tip milk over them.

Garden Tools

To prevent rust, clean tool after use and rub secateurs and cutting tools with petroleum jelly.

Quassia Chips

Use to deter possums.

To repel possums in the roof the chips can be spread around the area where they are entering the roof as well as throughout the roof cavity. Homemade Quassia spray is easily made and can also be sprayed around the roof cavity and entry points.

To repel possums in the garden

For ornamental plants you can spray on the leaves, stems and trunk of the plants, you can also do this on fruit trees avoiding any soft skinned fruit that is ready to be picked.

If you are protecting your edible herbs and vegetables from being the eaten it is best to spray to saturate the ground around the plants, if the quassia is sprayed on the foliage of your herbs and vegetables they will not only taste bitter to the possums but also to you!

Apply quassia spray for 5 days in a row. This should be long enough for the possum to realize that this is not the tasty treat that he thought it was. Re apply the quassia spray after rain or watering. If the possum comes back for more repeat the spray for another 5 days.

To make a spray to repel possums and insects

Add 25g quassia chips to 500ml water in a saucepan bring to the boil, turn heat down, cover with a lid and simmer for 30 minutes, strain and add 25ml liquid soap. This is then diluted 1part to 3 parts of water before use. Put in a spray bottle to apply to affected area.

Bucket method

You can also make a spray by soaking the chips in a bucket of tap water, use around 200g of quassia chips to a 9-10 litre bucket of water let them soak for 24 hours before straining off the bitter liquid. This can then be sprayed on the affected area.

Adding 5g of pure soap flakes per litre of spray is an effective wetting agent for the above spray.

Don't spray it on food crops less than a week before you consume it

Terracotta Pots

After cleaning and drying wipe over with linseed oil. Apply a second coat after an hour or so, and they should look like new again.

Concrete Paving

Cover stains with one part detergent to 6 parts kerosene. Hose off after 5-10 minutes.