Gardening with Essential Oils
Essential oils can be, well, essential to promoting a healthy garden.
There are a lot of essential oils, so I will mention some that have multiple purposes.
Basil: We all know that tomatoes love basil, both in cooking and as companion plants, try using a few drops in the watering can, or as a foliar spray on tomatoes, eggplants, asparagus etc..
Cedarwood: Aphids, Caterpillars, Flies, Plant Lice (Psyllids are plant lice), Moths, Cockroaches, Slugs, Snails, Spiders
Clove: Most flying insects
Lavender: Flies, Moths
Orange: Caterpillars, Plant Lice (Psyllids are plant lice), Moths, Cockroaches, Spiders.
Peppermint: Ants, Aphids, Beetles, Caterpillars, Flies, Plant Lice (Psyllids are plant lice), Moths, Spiders, Rodents
Rosemary: Flies, Mosquitoes, Cabbage Caterpillars, Cats.
Thyme: Beetles, Flies, Cockroaches,
As usual, be careful what you deter, it may be a friend in disguise. For this reason, I am keen to try Cedarwood Essential Oil because it affects ‘octopamine’ which occurs in bad bugs, but humans, birds, fish, or, beneficial insects do not have octopamine neurotransmitters.
As a general anti-fungal application for plants use 10 drops Lavender with 10 drops Tea tree in 5 litres of water.
To apply essential oils to the garden either:
1-2 drops per litre in a spray bottle as a foliar spray.
4-8 drops in a watering can of water around base of plants.
Add 1 drop of oil to a fabric strip and hang from a branch, will need multiple strips.
Bury small plastic containers in the garden keeping the top level with the soil. Add 4 drops essential oil to cotton ball and place in container.
Soak string in water with essential oil(s) added, then run between rows, or use as ties, etc.
Make spraying for pests or weeds the last thing you do after working in the garden so it will have time to settle on the plants and soil.
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