A.B. and I went out to our community garden plot yesterday afternoon to do some work weeding and putting up cages and supports for plants.
And what should I find but an infestation of small, black, jumping insects eating up the leaves on my cabbages and radishes! The community garden is an organic garden, with absolutely no pesticides or herbicides allowed (because it is on the property of a elementary school) so I can't just spray them with an inseticidal soap as I would do at home. What to do?
I looked up alternatives on the community garden website, and found some options for homemade, non-toxic "pesticide" sprays. From these I concocted a spray of a 1/2 cup of rubbing alcohol and a spoonful each of Murphy's Oil Soap, lemon juice, and cooking oil in a quart of water. I shook it up in a spray bottle and headed back to the garden to douse the little buggers. It seemed to have some effect, so lets hope I can save my plants! I'm going to try to get back there this afternoon and do another spraying if I see more of them. Maybe I'll get a picture to post here later. And I'll let you know how it worked!
No comments:
Post a Comment