Liquid dish soap is probably one of the most common ingredients I’ve seen for homemade garden remedies. Here’s the best recipe I’ve found so far. Mix 1 tablespoon of the soap into one gallon of water. Spray the plants with this mixture, including their undersides. This mixture helps repel insects and pests.
Add some nutrients to your garden by mixing in egg shells or banana peels. Whichever you do, make sure to cut them up so that they can be absorbed more easily into the ground. The egg shells help with calcium and the banana peels help with potassium.
To get your pepper plants to hold their fruit for longer, try this remedy. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt into a spray bottle of warm water. Shake well and apply conservatively to your pepper plants once they start to form flowers. Do this as long as the plant is fruiting.
Kill ants with a simple remedy that isn’t harmful to your family. Mix ¼ cup of sugar with ¼ cup of borax. Make sure to mix well. Sprinkle the concoction around the anthill. The ants will bring it back to their home thinking it’s sugar, and the borax will kill them.
Garlic is a great ingredient to use in any homemade insect repellent. The smell is so strong and potent that many bugs can’t stand it (although I love it). Blend up two whole bulbs of garlic and mix it into a quart of water. Let the mixture soak overnight then strain it into a quart jar, mix in 1 teaspoon of dish soap, and enough water to fill the jar. You can also add ½ cup vegetable oil too. When ready to use, mix 1 cup of the mixture with a quart of water and spray liberally on your plants to repel bugs.
A quick remedy that can be made for your garden is with baking soda. All you need to do is mix 3 tablespoons of baking soda with 1 gallon of water and a teaspoon of liquid dish soap. Spray this on plants suffering from powdery mildew or other fungal infections.
Another way to deal with fungal infections is to use milk. Mix 1 quart of milk with 1 quart of water. Spray the mixture onto the plant. Do this once a week for three weeks, and the fungus should go away.
Snails and slugs are the bane of every gardener’s existence. They are so annoying and destroy everything. Fill a shallow saucer with stale beer and place it in the garden. That’s all you need to do. The slugs and snails will be attracted to the beer, but they’ll drown in it.
Vinegar is a great way to kill unwanted weeds in your yard and garden. Spray undiluted white vinegar onto the weeds at least daily, making sure not to get it on any of the plants you want alive. Repeat this until the weed dies.
Are deer, rabbits, and other critters eating up your garden? Try this homemade remedy. Mix together 3 teaspoons of cayenne pepper, 2 tablespoons of chili powder, 1 tablespoon of Tabasco sauce, and 2 quarts of warm water. That’s a spicy sauce! Spray it around the border of your garden and those pests will avoid your garden like the plague!
