Use this Natural Garden Spray to keep your garden pest free all season!
One of the trickiest parts of building and maintaining a healthy garden, is keeping those pests out. But conventional insecticides contain harmful chemicals that are dangerous to pets and family members, so what should you do for a natural bug repellent method?
THANKFULLY, essential oils contain powerful properties that can help keep your garden (and home; these essential oil recipes are great for your houseplants too) bug-free, the natural way!
In fact, this simple homemade bug spray uses the power of peppermint oil to ward off unwanted visitors, and will keep your home and garden happy (as well as your heart! Did you know that peppermint oil makes you buoyantly happy within 5 seconds of smelling it?! If you are struggling with depression, this is your go-to oil!!!)
Natural Garden Spray
Working in a garden is not only relaxing, but will provide you with delicious fruits and veggies all summer (YUMMMMM!) My dream is to create a very LARGE garden and greenhouse and feed the homeless, neighbors, and church friends. Anyone who needs food, I wanna help. In a few years, I’ll do it too!!! 🙂
There are just so many benefits you’ll receive when growing your own food! From saving money on groceries, to keeping your family safe from pesticides (organic food is expensive, yo!) and also by reducing your family’s food waste (sharing or selling what you have left over).
Gardening may seem challenging at first, but when you decide to start, your garden just might become your favorite place! There’s so much peace and solitude that comes with gardening, and there’s no better feeling than knowing you’re providing fresh food for you, your family, and others!
Now, lets see how you can keep those pests out of your garden with essential oils…
Ingredients:
- 16 ounce glass spray bottle
- 20 drops Peppermint oil
- Water
Since you’re filling the spray bottle with essential oil, it should be a glass spray bottle, not plastic as it protects the oils better over time. Oils can also easily get clogged in cheaper or plastic spray bottles. Using glass is best. Here’s my favorite glass spray bottle I use for everything (I have like 5 of them.) 🙂
If you sign up with Grove Collaborative (I love this company), you get $30 worth of products FREE on your first order when you click here (they make you purchase $20 in addition to the $30 free to get the $30 free, but it’s such a great deal!!! So just put 2 glass spray bottles in your order and you’re good to go. You can cancel anytime- sometimes if I don’t need an order, I just push off the shipping date, but with the amount of free stuff they give away all the time, it’s totally worth being involved with them! I love free stuff!!!) 🙂
They change up the products you receive often so it might not be this exact deal when you click it, but it’s always something super good! <3
Instructions:
Step 1: Fill a 16 ounce glass spray bottle with water, leaving an inch or so of room at the top.
Step 2: Add 20 drops of Peppermint oil and shake well.
Step 3: Shake well before each use.
Step 4: Apply spray to every plant in your garden, making sure to cover the stems and undersides of leaves as well.
Step 5: Spray again after each rainfall.
Note: To help kill weeds, you may substitute 8 ounces of vinegar for the 8 ounces of water in this DIY. If you choose to do so, do not apply directly to garden plants, and use white vinegar only. Apple cider vinegar emits a sweet smell that fruit flies love, and can make a pest problem much worse.
As I mentioned above, peppermint essential oil makes you instantly HAPPY. There are a lot of emotional benefits and uses for peppermint…
Peppermint essential oil emotional benefits:
- Brings buoyancy to the heart and soul
- Invigorates the body, mind, and spirit
- Helps you not be controlled by your own fears
- Helps you stay on the surface of emotional turmoil and trials (to get you past things, but you shouldn’t use it long term because you have to deal with stuff. I used it when my ex-husband abandoned us, to get through the pain until I was emotionally able to handle it so I can testify it works just like it’s supposed to- you just smell it and put one drop on the bottom of your feet. Diffusing it is also good).
- Uplifts a disheartened person
- Perfect for sadness
- Helps you regain your strength in the midst of pain/sorrow
- Use when you are in intense despair, unbearable emotional pain, heavy-hearted, pessimistic.
- Helps you be optimistic
Peppermint essential oils uses:
- When you get too hot. It cools the body.
- Helps you be alert. If you (or your children) are studying for a test, smell peppermint when you’re studying and then again when you take the test and you’ll increase your grade 20%! I did this with my DMV test when I moved to a different state and it worked like a charm. 🙂
- Congestion
- Helps with memory
- Use it when your head is not feeling well or hurts
- Muscle fatigue
- Nausea
Here are some other essential oils that keep pests away!
PEPPERMINT: spiders, garden bugs, mosquitoes, ants, aphids, beetles, fleas, flies, roaches, moths
LAVENDER: moths, chiggars, fleas, flies, ticks
BASIL: dust mites, mosquitoes, flies
THYME: flies, mosquitoes, beetles, chiggars, ticks
MELALEUCA (also known as Tea Tree): lice, bed bugs, roaches, fleas, leeches, ticks
LEMONGRASS: bed bugs, mosquitoes, ticks, fruit flies
SPEARMINT: ants, fleas, gnats, moths, spiders
ROSEMARY: flies, mosquitoes, ants, caterpillars
CEDARWOOD: fleas, ticks, spiders, mosquitoes, lice, gnats
Like the above recipe, simply add 20 drops of the desired essential oil in a 16 oz glass spray bottle and fill the rest with water.
Download the Essential Oils for Pest Control free printable here.
Another natural product that I really like to use in my garden and around my home (outside) is Diatomaceous Earth.
My kids call it spiders cutters. Basically, when a spider or bug gets the white powder on their feet, because of the tiny little shape of the powder, it cuts them and they die.
The Diatomaceious Earth is also edible (as long as you get the food grade one!), meaning, I put the powder (1/2 tsp) in a little bit juice (1/16th of a cup), stir it very well and chug it quickly. It’s REALLY good for the health of your skin and nails, but because it IS little tiny sharp pieces, you want to chug it and not swish it in your mouth or anything because they will get stuck in your teeth, which is not fun. I did that once. haha.
You can take it 1-2 times a week and you’ll notice a difference in a couple weeks. 🙂
Want more Essential DIY recipes?
Get my Top 50+ Essential Oil DIY Recipes Binder here.
