Safe Homegrown Pesticides
(Page 2 of 4)
July/August 1986
By Diane Downs
To make a great bug-chasing spray for plants, just blend crushed garlic with water (experiment with different concentrations till you find the strength that works for you), let it soak, and spray the strained liquid on the gnawing invaders that play havoc with your garden. (If you need an extra- strong spray, add some cayenne to the basic mixture.)
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Feverfew
Feverfew (Chrysanthemum parthenium or Pyrethrum par thenium)— a relative of pyrethrum that was used in the old days to help reduce fever—is also a mild insect repellent. Though the daisylike flowers are beautiful, their bitter aroma repels pests from nearby vegetables. (That's how most pesticide plants work: When intermingled with crops, they emit a disagreeable odor which deceives insects into thinking that nothing edible is growing in the area.)
Marigolds and Moles
Mexican marigolds (Tagetes minuta), African marigolds (Tagetes erecta), and pot marigolds (Calendula officinalis) are especially effective garden protectors (be sure, however, not to grow the "new, improved" no-scent varieties). Scatter the flowering plants through your brassicas—cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, etc.—for bugless crops that are also free of nasty nematodes. (It's best to start the marigolds indoors early—right when you start those brassicas.)
What's more, the Mexican variety apparently exudes a substance from its roots that's actually toxic to certain invasive weeds! Try sowing the potent flowers as a cover crop this autumn. Then, when next year's planting time rolls around, the posies can be turned under for one of the finest, most soil-cleansing green manure crops your ground could hope for. Tagetes minuta is also repellent to rabbits. So be extravagant with the flowers. Scatter them throughout your orchard . . . surround your roses with them . . . and use some of the foliage to brew up a tea to spray localized pest-infestations.
If your midsummer plot is under attack by any belowground burrowers, you might plan to have a few mole plants (Euphorbia lathyris) growing around the edges of your garden next time around. The exotic-looking biennials with their milky, latexlike sap have long been known as mole and gopher deterrents . . . and they'll sow themselves the second year, providing you with seedlings to place in other trouble spots.
