Something was eating up my garden a few weeks ago. I mean, seriously just chowing down. I knew I needed to find a natural garden bug spray recipe, ASAP!
We have bunnies enjoying the lettuces every year, but this was different. There were little tiny holes in all of the leaves of my pepper plants and basil and starting on my squash and tomatoes and melons. Every morning I would check on the garden and every morning it was worse. Bigger holes, more holes, missing leaves all together. UGG!
I didn’t want to spray chemicals and toxins, but I also didn’t want to loose my garden.
So, to the medicine cabinet I turned!
(My medicine cabinet has mostly essential oils in it, now. So that is slightly less weird than it sounds!)
I had read that peppermint oil helps keep all sorts of insects, pests, bugs (and even mice) away. So, I gave it a whirl.
I headed to The Tractor Supply Store just up the road and pump sprayers were on sale for only 5 bucks! (HOORAY!)
What you need:
- Clean Pump Sprayer
- Peppermint essential oil (about 10 drops per gallon)
- water
- a garden 😉
What you do:
- Fill your pump sprayer up with water to your desired level. (I have two ‘square foot’ gardens and some fruit bushes and I used about a gallon.)
- Add 10 drops of peppermint oil per gallon. (I used a few extra drops… just to be safe!)
- Spray your garden.
- Spray your flowers.
- Spray your hostas.
- Spray everything that the bugs are eating! It’s great.
- Enjoy a full garden!
I love this Natural Garden Spray because I feel great about letting the kids help. I’m not concerned at all with it around the pets or the children. The kids can even drink it! (which is why I used a brand new pump sprayer, you know, just in case.)
And I love knowing exactly what is going on the garden, since we are going to be eating what comes out of it!
And it really worked. Here are my pepper plants. You can see all the new growth with NO HOLES! And all the old leaves toward the bottom of the plant are riddled with little holes. 🙂 YAY!
As an added bonus….The bunnies have stopped eating the lettuce AND this is the first year the birds haven’t eaten all my blueberries! YAY! I sprayed my blueberry bush, too, and I still have fruit! ROCK ON PEPPERMINT!
How often did you have to spray it?
I sprayed every few weeks. Maybe three times the whole summer.
I am very impressed! Most of the recipes call for so much more oil than what you use, such as 12 drops for 8 oz of water. You use that much oil for a gallon and with beautiful results! Just curious, how did you came to determine the ratio of oil to water?
Thanks Cheryl. I watched many you tube videos of gardeners using similar oils before coming up with my ratio. I think more oil might last longer and I wouldn’t have to reapply, but this ratio works just perfectly for us. I reapplied after heavy rains.
Do you have to worry about this repelling the pollinators as well. Have you seen bees in the garden still? Most of my plants are getting ready to flowers and I would hate to lose out on natural pollination and have to do it by hand.
Stephanie. That is a great question. I haven’t noticed less bees, but I am not 100 percent sure. Maybe bees don’t mind peppermint?