Last Saturday we met and talked about bug prevention in our garden. Author J. Howard Garrett has a great recipe for citrus oil that's easy to make and is Earth-kind for our gardens. His recipe, which can be found in his book, Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening, is as follows:
Citrus Oil Spray
Fill a container 1/2 full with any citrus peelings or pulp. Orange is best. Fill the remainder of the container with water. Let it sit in a cool place for a week or so. Strain. Use one cup of homemade concentrate per gallon of spray. Note: Commercial orange oil is more powerful than homemade orange oil. It is a powerful solvent and can burn plants. We recommend using it at a rate of less than 2 ounces per gallon of water as a spray and always mix with molasses and compost tea.
This natural spray works on all kinds of bugs and doesn't hurt plants at all. You'll need to reapply after a rain, of course, but it's so easy and cheap to make it's worth the effort. We keep our orange peels in a little container in the refrigerator (see photo--shown without lid) and then transfer the oil and the water into a spray bottle that you can find at Lowe's or Home Depot. Hope you find this recipe useful. I highly recommend Garrett's books, and you can order them online or try to score a copy at Half Price Books.
Cheers,
Britta
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