Insecticide Garlic Spray

I found this recipe and some others over at Gardeners Net.

The nice thing about it is you can use it inside, outside, in soil, out of soil. You don't have to worry about it poisoning you, your family, pets, or your plants but it certainly repel insects!

Insecticide Garlic Spray

1 garlic bulb
2 cups water
1 gallon water

1. Take an entire garlic bulb and two cups of water and blend in blender.

2. Mix at high speed for 1-2 minutes.

3. Pour into a container and set aside for up to one day.

4. Strain liquid through a cheese cloth.

5. Mix liquid with one gallon of water.

6. Apply liberally on top and bottom of leaves.
   

Strawberry Tip

For your first year of planting strawberries, pinch the blooms off to help build stronger, healthier plants and to also make bigger strawberries.

Good Fungicide

If you need a good safe organic fungicide simply mix 2 tablespoons of Baking Soda per gallon of water, spay the plants liberally. This puts an alkaline coating on the plants which doesn't allow the fungus to grow and is completely safe for both plants and animals.

Milk it

One way to give your tomatoes a nice boost to help fight off fungus diseases is to spray them down with milk. This also helps give calcium to them which helps them fight off disease as well. Any milk will do, just make it a 1:10 milk to water ratio and spray away. You can use other dairy products besides milk or chocolate milk, sour cream and yogurt works, too!

Vinegar in the Garden

Grow beautiful azaleas: Occasionally water plants with a mixture of two tablespoons vinegar to one quart water. Azaleas love acidic soil.

Kill grass on walks and driveways. Pour full strength on unwanted grass.

Kill weeds. Spray full strength on growth until plants have starved.

Increase soil acidity.

In hard water areas, add a cup of vinegar to a gallon of tap water for watering acid loving plants like rhododendrons,gardenias, or azaleas. The vinegar will release iron in the soil for the plants to use.

Freshen cut flowers. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar and 1 teaspoon sugar for each quart of water.

Prolong the life of flowers in a vase. Add two tablespoons of vinegar plus three tablespoons of sugar per quart of warm water.Stems should be in three to four inches of water.

Neutralize garden lime. Rinse your hands liberally with vinegar after working with garden lime to avoid rough and flaking skin.Clean pots before re-potting, rinse with vinegar to remove excess lime.

In the Garden

Occasionally, lightly sprinkle baking soda around flowerbeds to prevent rabbits from nibbling at your buds.

Sprinkle baking soda on slugs to get rid of them without having to resort to costly and toxic pesticides.

To sweeten your tomatoes by reducing their acidity, sprinkle baking soda lightly on the soil around your tomato plants. The soda from an old box used to absorb odors in the refrigerator is fine for this purpose.

Tankless Water Heater

One of my trainee's missed a day of work because his water heater nearly caught fire and he had to get it replaced. He took a picture and brought it to me showing me the scorch marks on the classic white water heater. Yuck and scary.

Go tankless.

A heater that flash heats the water as it moves through it. It is much much smaller than a traditional water heater and it only heats the water when you need it instead of wasting energy heating water all the time. Then, you end up taking a cold shower because three other people in your household used all the hot water.

You can easy find one of these and there is this buying guide to help.

Slugs?

Take the screw on lid from a wide mouth jar, fill it about half way with beer and set that out. The slugs will be attracted to the salty liquid and otherwise meet their demise.

Help Your Tomato Plant

If you take a small spoonful of Epsom's salt and put it 3 or 4 inches below your tomato plant, it will help your plant become more disease resistant.