Continued from 7 Tips for Everyday Outdoor Gardening, Part 1.

Also read 7 Tips for Everyday Outdoor Gardening, Part 3.

8. Use Newspaper to Line Garden Beds – Unlike plastic tarps or cloth weed killers, newspaper is a great solution for lining garden beds.

Resolution: When the paper is wet, it mats down grass and weeds, killing them in a few short days. This gives you a fresh canvas in which to plant, and it breaks down quickly, to assure you aren’t harming nature in the process. Lay down newspaper and attach to the ground using garden staples (or dry-wall nails - see the next tip!), wet with your hose, wait a week, cover with top soil and begin planting your new, weed-free garden.

9. Think Outside the Garden Box – However, funnily enough, if you ever HAVE used garden staples, you know what a pain they can be: one side goes in, the other bends out of shape and you push and push with all your might, but your efforts fail.

Resolution: I’ve discovered that, where possible, using dry-wall nails is an excellent substitute. The nails come in boxes of hundreds (compared with the 30 or so that come in a box of garden staples), puncture the soil more easily than garden staples and keep your weed-cover down more securely because you can use more of them per square foot than with a garden staple. Tada!

10. Bring Back Healthy Tulips, Lilies and Daffodils – When spring flowers fade and fall, it can be tempting to cut back the green foliage nature left behind, but don’t. A plant invests a lot of energy building greenery before it blooms, and it needs that energy restored in its roots to come back at full strength next year.

Resolution: Wait until the leaves of the plant begin to yellow, and then snip away.

11. Water in the Morning or the Evening – During warm summer months, you may have to obey certain city water ordinances, especially daytime “curfews” allowing you to water only during designated time slots.

Resolution: Watering early in the morning and early in the evening assures your plant absorbs the maximum amount of water before it evaporates off, meaning you’ll use less water for the same plants than watering in the heat of the day.

12. Know Your Mulches – Mulching is an essential part of any garden. It prevents weeds, retains moisture, deters some pests and can add a finishing touch to any pleasant garden.

Resolution: Say you have a flower garden you want to garnish with a beautiful mulch: Choose un-dyed cedar. The warm brown hue creates a palette from which your flowers will pop – plus, insects hate it. Cedar mulch also lasts longer than other mulches, and smells amazing, making it an investment for any long-time flower garden.

Now let’s say you have a vegetable garden, and you want to add as much organic matter to the soil as possible. Here, you should choose pine mulch, which breaks down much quicker than cedar, inhibits weeds and also helps to insulate the soil from extreme heat or cold, protecting your plants.

13. Easy Pesticides – You have animals you’d like to keep, and bugs you’d like to … sleep. (Sorry, best I could do.)

Resolution: Ants hate cinnamon. Sprinkle it around infected plants, under potters, along the side of your house. It is easy, safe and healthy to use around family members of all ages and breaks down easily in rain without infecting our water sources – reapply as needed.  

Spiders hate cinnamon oil. Mix a little cinnamon oil with water and spray on annoyingly placed webs. While some spiders are dangerous and others just scary-looking, killing them off could make other, more annoying, pests worse. Just divert them where possible.

Aphids on the other hand, should die, and at the hands of rubbing alcohol. Mix 1 part rubbing alcohol with 2 parts water, spray directly on the plant, around the plant and make sure to spray the undersides of leaves. Reapply twice a day for two weeks, then taper off over the next three. (read more about killing aphids, in my blog post: When Aphid's Attack)

14. Mulch your Grass Clippings as Often as Possible – It is very tempting to want a "Brady Bunch lawn," but there is a smarter solution.

Resolutin: Your grass and your back will be happier if you use a mower-plug to shoot clippings out the side of the mower instead of collecting them. The residual grass clippings are rich in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, breaking down to add a  quarter of your lawn’s fertilizer needs and a wealth of moisture back into your soil.

Stay tuned for part 3! UPDATE: Also read  7 Tips for Everyday Outdoor Gardening, Part 1  and  7 Tips for Everyday Outdoor Gardening, Part 3 . 

If you've got a question, I've got your answer! Shoot an email over to tmiller@ogdenpubs.com 

Also read  7 Tips for Everyday Outdoor Gardening, Part 2  and  7 Tips for Everyday Outdoor Gardening, Part 3 . 

1. Kink Your Hose – Ever been dragging your hose around the garden, just to have it kink right before you get to the plant you want to water? “I just want to water that flower right there…no.” And then you shake the hose like a jump rope dreading to walk those 10 or 15 feet to the kink, don’t you? Or, do you have difficulty rolling up the hose in a nice circular pile when you’re through, ending up with something more closely resembling a five-pointed star than a circle?

Resolution: The trick is to keep water pressure in your hose so it maintains its shape. Just kink the end you’re holding or use a water nozzle that shuts off the flow of water while you're moving from plant to plant or rolling it up. It’s not fool-proof, but it works pretty well!

Photo by Eric Vondy/Courtesy Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/vondy

2.  Enjoy Summer Nights Bug-free – You’re sitting on the patio, enjoying the cool breeze from a warm summer day. Frogs are croaking, crickets chirping and June bugs are smacking you in the face.

Resolution: String large-bulb lights around the garden away from your lawn furniture. You get to enjoy the pleasant twinkle of the lights from afar, while your bugs enjoy them up close and away from you.

3.  Keep Dirt from Under Your Fingernails – Let’s not front, garden gloves are good for your hands, but you lose a lot of dexterity through that thick cloth. That in mind, you also want to keep your fingernails shiny for a night on the town later.

Resolution: Scratch all your nails on a bar of soap before going into the garden. This will seal off spaces under your nails, and will wash out more easily than dirt. Plus, you’ll be clean!

4.  Easily Train Vines – Say you have some up-growing vines like morning glories or Virginia creeper you want to train around a doorway for that cool, welcome-to-my-cottage look. You’ve tried sticks and twisty ties, but they’re just not cutting it.

Resolution: Use jute twine! Texture from the twine makes a great growing medium for most vining plants, blends well with natural foliage (especially if you use a green), and bends easier for a customized look. Tie down the ends to a rock or nail for extra support; the jute can be trimmed and sometimes removed after the vine is trained.

Photo by jozephine/Courtesy Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/7790557@N07

5.  Fresh-smelling Cars Go Great with Dried Herbs – Your car stinks and you need some dried herbs in a jiffy.

Resolution: Cut herbs as desired, lay in a single layer on a newspaper on the front-seat of your car and leave to set in the sun.

6.  Worm Poo Works! – Let’s say you're growing food and want to fertilize your garden more organically.

Resolution: Worm “castings” as they’re called, are rich in nitrogen and certain bacteria, which help your plants grow, and the best bit, they don’t stink like other manure! You can buy a worm composter (like this one) and use your kitchen scraps to cultivate healthy, rich organic material that your flowers and herbs will love. You can even compost things like dryer lint or used tissues! Wild!

7.  Encourage New Blooms – Some tips may seem common sense, but many people wouldn’t know that more blooms can be encouraged if spent blooms are removed.

Resolution: Cut off the dead flower stems to the base without removing any leaves like with geraniums or daisies. With day lilies, pinch off only the flower leaving the green stick for texture. When the plant fades in the fall, the stick will brown and can be easily pulled from the ground for fun crafts, like this authentic-looking witch’s broom I made for Halloween.

Check back next week for seven more outdoor gardening tips! UPDATE: 7 Tips for Everyday Outdoor Gardening, Part 2 and 7 Tips for Everyday Outdoor Gardening, Part 3. 

If you've got a question, I've got your answer! Shoot an e-mail over to tmiller@ogdenpubs.com.

I don’t like tea.  I hate the taste of tinctures.  And I’m terrible at chefing (but trying to get better).  You could understand how these are ironic traits for an employee of The Herb Companion (I garden. That’s what makes me helpful).

So when my boss offered to share an immune boosting tincture with me for this terrible cold, I grimaced.  It was disgusting (no offense, KC).  But, then I remembered a product sample on our shelves – CAPSULINE – and wondered if that could do the trick.   

I dropped a pipet of tincture into a Capsuline flavored capsule (G-Cap, which are grape flavored empty gel capsules) closed the pill and swallowed – problem solved!  So, I used it for Meadowsweet to treat my heartburn (read my blog: Healing Heartburn [and yes, it's working]) then, I started thinking of other uses – powders, crushed herbs, other medicines, etc.  Because tinctures are liquids, you obviously can't fill them in advance, so sitting at a restaurant table filling a drug capsule with a mysterious brown liquid is bound to cause a few eyebrows to lift.  But it makes for a great prank.

When we first got the Capsuline flavored capsules, I winced at their display of “100% Bovine Gelatin” – not appetizing.  Searching their site, I found that the gelatin is Kosher and Halal certified and inspected, uses natural dyes and comes only from BSE-free (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) countries.  Bascially, from cows that are not mad.  Fish gelatin and vegetarian alternatives are also available, made from Kosher-certified preservative free materials that do not contain starch, sugar, corn, soy, wheat or dairy!

You can even get DOGCaps and CATCaps in various meat flavors, to make giving meds easier (and taste better) for all your animals.

Way healthier and animal-friendly than the meat I consume in my daily diet – (chefing [or fancy cooking] is the next goal on my action-item agenda).  I think I can give up hot pockets, but I just can’t do tea.*

I really recommend Capsuline flavored capsules - specifically the G-caps!  It’s much healthier using fresh herbal tinctures or powders from your local CO-OP, rather than those preservative-packed supplements.  And they come in other flavors too:  Strawberry, lime, berry, orange …. coffee.

* When people say something is "...not your cup of tea..." I sigh and respond, "I don't even like tea."

iHola Taylor!  I’ve had a kalanchoe plant for several years, but I noticed today that I have all these little white and green buggy … THINGS … on the leaves.  And a LOT of them!  They kind of look like little crustaceans, but they’re so small it’s hard to describe them.  White, crustaceany, things, I guess.  How do I get rid of them? – Bárbara from Florida
                                  
I had a feeling about Bárbara’s infestation, and when I sent her this photo, she said, THERE THEY ARE! 

They’re aphids (Aphidius colemanii).  And aphid skin casts (observe the white shells).  Aphids come en masse between seasons and reproduce fast.  Also, they secret a substance called honeydew, which can attract both ants and sooty mold. 

CURE:  Bárbara, the first thing I would do is to take the plant outside and spray it off with your hose’s jet setting.  Or if you don’t have a hose, get one of those cans of air (that are so fun to play with) and knock off as many aphids and their casts as you can.

Then move the kalanchoe to an isolated location away from any plant close enough for an aphid migration via air current.  If you only have a garage or a dark location available, you can buy a compact fluorescent bulb which is labeled “natural sunlight” or “natural light” as a sort of make-shift grow light.

Next, mix some rubbing alcohol with water in a sprayer – 1 part alcohol, 2 parts water – and spray on the plant leaves daily in the morning, making sure to get under the leaves, in the plant crevices and on the stems without over-misting.

Aphids are attracted to yellow, so rub Vaseline on some Post-Its and circle them around the base of your plant. Change daily, and when you notice no more insects, you’re probably safe. 

WHY THIS WORKS:  In the US, what we call rubbing alcohol is also called isopropyl alcohol or more scientifically, isopropanol. 

Kalanchoes are succulents that don’t have a high tolerance for pesticides or humidity (both which can be super-effective for destroying infestations).  So isopropanol is ideal, because it’s cheap, doesn’t stink, dries quickly, is relatively non-toxic and it leaves the waxy shine so important in indoor ornamental kalanchoes.

Isopropanol cuts through lipophilic substances, like oil, which is why it’s so great at removing that smudgy gunk on your eyeglasses.  When bugs come into contact with it, the waxy cover of their skin is dissolved, and they are poisoned.

This poisoning works the same in humans, but only in much larger doses.  When the isopropanol hits the liver, it is oxidized into acetone (finger-nail polish remover).  Yikes, huh?  But, every year Americans use 500 million pounds of toxic pesticides wayyy worse than isopropanol.

Because it dries quickly, it’s diluted and you won’t be soaking your plants in it, misting will be safe for you and your kalanchoe – just not for your bugs.

(CAUTION:  If you notice other white or cotton-bally insects growing on your plants, it may be a sign of a more serious infestation.)

If you’ve got a problem, I’ve got a solution – shoot an email over to Taylor at tmiller@ogdenpubs.com.

Two months ago, I received a complete worm composting system from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farms. Having 4,000 worms arrive in a package frightened one of my unsuspecting coworkers, but so far, my experience with worm composting has been deliciously disturbing. 

This is the Worm Factory, which advertises itself as an incredibly-efficient, easy and odorless method for recycling kitchen waste into nutrient-rich compost.  Or growing fishing worms!

Politically named a “vermicomposter,” each factory comes with several bins to fill with bedding and food material, along with red wigglers (Eisenia fetida).  The composting system recreates the recycling process in nature at an advanced pace using thousands of worms and millions of bacteria.  

The Worm Factory is most certainly efficient – perhaps a little too efficient.  The worms are expected to double in numbers by month 3, so, soon, I should have nearly 8,000 worms that require half a pound a food (minus meat and dairy) a day. That’s a lot of wigglers!

After the digestion process, worms secret “worm castings” (poo-poos) that are rich in natural nitrogen, an important fertilizer for soil.  Unlike with sensitive artificial fertilizers, worm castings won’t burn your plants.

You can use the soil-like material left in the bins after composting is completed in potting mix or top soil, or collect “Compost Tea” – liquid fertilizer – at any time from a spigot on the front of the factory. 

The composter, if used correctly, as an earthy smell, so it can be used indoors.  Odors occur only when meat or dairy is placed in the composter (a big no-no) or if there is too much food, in which case any kind of fiber can be added such as dryer lint, tissue, wood chips, egg shells, shredded paper, vacuum dust or junk mail (all of which are composted!).

I should say, that to date, my composter is very clean, no red wigglers have crawled out, and no offensive odors have been noted. 

But I just can’t bring the worms into my kitchen – just like I just couldn’t eat green or purple ketchup (remember that?)  The vermicomposter has to be in a temperature between 60 and 80 degrees, so for me, they are safe and out of the way in my garage.

Vermicomposters can ultimately attract other types of bugs, some good and some bad (such fruit flies or fungus gnats [read: Your Fungus Gnats are Showing]), and should be avoided around cats who might use it as a litterbox.

Why?  Cats can be infected by a parasitic protozoa called Toxoplasma gondii, which can result in an infection called Toxoplasmosis.  This infection is one reason why pregnant women should STAY AWAY from cat litter. 

But, in a creepy way, the infection is really cool: T. gondii affects a rodent's natural fear of cats (surgically precise - ONLY its fear of cats), so they are less likely to flee when a cat is near.  When cats prey on the affected rodents, they become carriers, with a high instance of the protozoa in their urine.

The infection, along with the high level of ammonia can be toxic to both you and your worms.  In humans, active toxoplasmosis can cause neurological disorders, organ infections and even death.  Latent infections can cause anxiety issues, feelings of in-security or neuroticism, just what we need, huh?

Keep your cats away from the worms, and all will be right in the world.  Rodents aren't a problem if you don't try to compost meat or dairy.

If you have any questions about vermicomposting, leave a comment or send me an email.  I’ll be happy to provide you with specific and further information about this delightfully disgusting art of recycling.  

October is my favorite month.  I get REALLY excited about Halloween*.  I especially love reading Martha Stewart’s Halloween issue.  But, when cutting out construction paper bats and applying a perfectly manicured mansion to the top of a three-layer cake just becomes too laborious, I go out and look for my own terrifying trinkets, and I’d like to share with you a few of my finds!

1.  Use your Hosta -- By now, your Hosta flowers should be about spent, leaving their white, lonely sticks jutting into the air like skeleton fingers.  Normally you might just trim them down, but this year, recycle your plant.  Using both hands, gently pull each of the sticks from the plant.  They are very brittle, so pull from the base.  The long shoots (three of mine are over 6 feet!) make for a creepy vase arrangement, but one that could work year-round.

2.  Use your Day lily – Harvested the same way, Day Lily sticks are much less brittle, which makes them more accessible for other uses.  I took last year’s sticks and with a long piece of jute twine, tied them to a small broken tree branch to make an authentic and unique witch’s broom.  You could also trim and de-leaf your Spirea bushes for a smaller broom.  

The chandelier in my dining room is boring, so I hung some sticks from it tied with spent Morning Glory vines, to up the creep factor.  Day lily sticks also look great just in a vase, and cleaned Morning Glory vines could be draped eeriely almost anywhere.

3.  Use your old records -- These record bowls are great candy dishes (especially for candy corn), not to mention great conversational pieces.  Plus, they’re easy to make:  Find an old record or buy one cheap at a thrift shop.  Put a terracotta pot upside down on a cookie sheet, place the record on top, set the oven at 200 and watch it melt, it won’t take long.

4.  Use your artistic skills – Art projects are fun for the family or for parties.  To make this Hocus Pocus inspired spell-book, I took a hollowed-out book from a craft shop and covered it in a polymer clay called Bake-n-Bend, which doesn’t harden until baked.  I found a pair of mannequin eyes and hand-stitched the cover to look like human skin as described in the movie.

5.  Use your imagination. --  Find things in your garden you could use and be creative.  These are birdhouse gourds I grew two years ago that are just waiting to be painted and hung from the ceiling.    

If you find or come up with any fun ideas, drop a comment!  Or, if you want any help with some of mine, email me.

* My love for Halloween is best represented by this lady’s love of surprise parties.  From SNL. Ooooomiiiiiiigodddddddd

 Some people scream “RATS!” when something goes wrong.  Sometimes, though, I think the saying should be “GNATS!”  If you’ve got a bug problem, don’t fret, hope is on the horizon, (or at least in the top layer of your soil).   

Question:  I have noticed more fruit flies in the house now that it's getting cooler. I know that they're attracted to my plants, but they're kind of embarrassing when I have people over. Do you know of a way I can get rid of them, short of walking around and trying to catch each one?? Thanks! - Susan, Kansas

Susan, great question!  First, it’s important to understand the problem:  It’s likely that these buzzers actually aren’t Fruit Flies (Drosophila melanogaster), but a relative insect known as the Fungus Gnat (Sciaridae).  I spoke with an entomologist who said it is a common misnomer.  Even a few exterminators I spoke with had no idea what a Fungus Gnat is (now that is scary, and a good litmus test for a potential exterminator!)   

Fungus Gnats are the most frequent houseplant annoyance and are distinguished from common Fruit Flies because of their darker color.  While Fruit Flies hang out primarily in exposed fruit, rotten food and in leaky fridges, you’ll find Fungus Gnats in wet plant soil, in sewer situations and in household drains.  They’re also attracted to CO₂ (Carbon Dioxide) which explains why they’re always right up in your face. 

Adult Fungus Gnats live a week and a half, and in that span can lay up to 200 eggs each in moist soil.  The eggs hatch in 4 to 6 days and feed on plant roots in their larval stage for about 2 weeks.  They love moist, compost-rich potting soils, so it’s more likely you’ll find them in the brand names, like Miracle-Gro®.

Because Fungus Gnats need moist soil in order to complete this four-week life cycle, most experts think you can eradicate the problem by letting your plants completely dry out and get into the practice of watering "...just enough."  But if your watering methods aren't cryptically precise, there are other more accessible solutions.

Questions about Fungus Gnats:

So, do I have Fungus Gnats?  - To see if you have larvae in your plants, and can’t tell just by looking, cut a potato into ½ inch slices and set on top of the soil. FG larvae are attracted to the potato and will move to the surface to feed on it. In a couple days, check the slices, and discard if engulfed with Gna-ggots.  My advice, skip this step unless you’re morbid and have a strong stomach.

Ack, I have them!  Make them leave!  - Pour a generous layer of sand on top of the soil and cover with cedar mulch.  FGs are attracted to the top layer of wet soil. Because sand drains quickly, adults are confused by the newly dry top layer of soil, even though your plant is perfectly watered.  The cedar mulch is ornamental and most insects hate the smell.

OK, so the larvae are dying.  But how do I kill the adults? – Smear Vaseline® on a yellow sticky note and hang vertically.  FGs are specifically attracted to the color yellow and will bang up against it if it is hung vertically.  Another trick is to uncap and cut the top ^_1/3 off a soda (pop) bottle, turning it upside down inside the bottle (so it looks like a funnel).  Then fill the base with a mixture of vegetable oil and apple cider vinegar.  Attracted to the fermented smell, the FGs will drown when the surface tension is broken by the vegetable oil.     

I think my case is serious! – Most greenhouses use a peat mixture infused with an FG predator called Hypoaspis miles.  The mite lives and feeds on insect larvae and is commercially available for about $30.  You can also buy Gnatrol, a bacterial insecticide that is human and pet friendly and retails for around $20.  Residential exterminators can also control the problem but for, at minimum, $45.

For more information on indoor gardening, visit my blog entry:  5 Tips for Indoor Gardens 

Essential Oils, or EO’s, have infinite purposes.  Here are 19 tried and true practices for the beginning user.  Believe it or not, this list is by no means exhaustive, but it was somewhat exhausting to write! 

Lots of mixing to ensue.

An Essential oil will release its powerful fragrance if cleverly placed … 

 1.  Put a few drops of Peppermint Essential Oil on a napkin, and rub over a lightbulb.  When you switch it on, the bulb will heat and release a beautiful minty scent.  But please use only on tungstens, not compact fluorescents.  If you are more environmentally friendly, a stove top, when warmed, creates a similar effect.

 2.  I always put a few drops of essential oil on my new furnace filters.  When the air blows through the vent, it circulates the beautiful scent throughout your house (much cheaper and healthier than those room-to-room evanescent fresheners!)  If you use a disinfecting oil, like Lavender or Tea Tree, you can stop some nasties before they invade or to cut back on dust mites, use Eucalyptus.  Every week or so, add a few more drops for continued enjoyment.

 3.  If the night lights in said “fresheners” (Tip 2) are just too irresistible to give up, refill the reservoir with a few drops of Essential Oil and water for an easy-peasy, CHEAP, solution.

 4.  Harvest and dry some of your summer flowers, your spike speedwells and roses, your lavenders and mums.  Dry them by hanging them upside down, and then cut ‘em into small pieces.  Mix in a few drops of your favorite smelling EO, wrap in a tissue or thin cloth and BAM, instant potpourri.

5.  For an air freshener that lasts, mix 10 parts vodka with 1 part of your favorite EO (maybe Bergamont or Cedar) in a spray bottle.  But just don’t drink it, kapeesh?

6.  And why not mix in some EO with a bucket of paint (might I suggest lemon)?  Essential oils aren’t fatty, so oil spots shouldn’t be a problem.  But if you’re a worry-wort (like me), experiment on a small patch of wall and let dry.

7.  ¡Amor, amoré!  Scent love letters by stretching a half cotton ball, doused with a couple drops of Jasmine EO and seal in an envelope.  Caution:  Jasmine is an aphrodisiac.  Well, that may not be so much of a caution, really as just a … a head’s up.   

Many essential oils are concentrated enough, they disinfect!

8.  Vinegar is a super-effective cleaner but smells egregiously bad.  And anti-bacterial sprays do only that, kill bacteria.  But fungal spores are a growing problem (literally), and EO’s can save the day.  In a large spray bottle, mix Tea Tree or Lavender oil (and be generous) with a cup of vinegar.  It’s an instant multi-surface cleaner, so use it.

9.  For caked on gunk (in the bath or kitch), mix in a bowl some baking soda and lemon juice until you have a paste, then add an EO for extra scent and as an antiseptic.  The baking soda is used as a mild-abrasive, and the citric acid in the lemon juice cuts through the grease and grime.  Basically, Lemon juice + EO = Love.

10.  Brush a TINSY bit of EO onto your microfibre or brand name duster to super-scent your daily dust-bust.

11.  Last night I dropped a couple drops of Peppermint EO in the dishwasher with the detergent, and as the dishes heated, the aroma warmed my home.

12.  For a home-made carpet deodorizer, mix some EO with baking soda in a large bowl.  Let the oil dry for several hours (or you’ll have oil spots), then stick in a mason jar and punch holes in the lid.  Shake-it-like-a-salt-shaker on your carpets, let it breathe for 4 hours, and vacuum away!

And surely you’re aware of the health benefits …

13.  The EO vs. the Dust Mite.  Ah, how I hate the dust mite (See the post:  Attack of the Killer Tea Bag).  All my friends have allergies, and I’ve been trying to find effective solutions to make them more comfortable visitors.  I read a study on the USDA Web site that says, in small quantities, Eucalyptus oil, when added to the wash, kills dust mites on fabric (which is tough to do, because most can survive washing AND drying).  Don’t put too many drops of EEO on fabrics or you could potentially damage your washer.  Like they say, a lil’ dab’ll do ya.

14.  After you’ve applied tip 13 in the wash, put a few drops of Lavender EO on a damp cloth and throw it in the dryer with your bed sheets.  Bugs hate it (see tip 15), and studies have shown Lavender to be an effective sleep aid.  Don’t let the bed bugs bite!  You can use the same trick for towels, because it won’t reduce static like fabric softener or dryer sheets (so your towels will still absorb water).

15.  Eucalyptus oil can be your one stop shop for essential health:  Put a drop on your toothbrush to wake up your gums.  Rub a bit under your stuffy nose to clear your nasal passages.  Sit a bottle on your desk at work, and inhale every so often to keep you awake.  Mix with a bit of baby oil and massage on achy joints or muscles.  Mix one teaspoon with some Epsom salts and soak your worked-out feet.  And mix a few drops of Eucalyptus oil with your shampoo to stimulate blood flow to the scalp (baldness-be-gone). 

Bugs vs. Essential Oils, a one-sided war …

16.  My grandma has this beautiful trunk that reeks of moth balls, gross.  There’s a better solution:  Lavender, Rosemary and Sweet Basil all contain a chemical compound known as camphor, which is the effective ingredient in moth balls.  Camphor has a distinctive smell that moths hate, and most of the aforementioned essential oils have retained some camphor in the oil process, but smell good.  Mix it with a Cedar EO in potpourri and wrap them in a tissue or thin fabric to put in drawers, chests or trunks.  BEWARE:  Moth balls, when consumed or inhaled, can be fatal! 

17.  Put Citronella oil on a rag and wipe buggy or spidery walls.  Insects hate it, and if there are no bugs, there are no spiders.

18.  Put a dab of Eucalyptus oil between the shoulder blades of your dog (where they can’t lick it off) to discourage ticks.

  19.  2 cups of water + 1 TSP of Eucalyptus Oil + ½ TSP of Dishwashing Fluid = bug repellent spray for plants.

I’ll keep posting Essential Oil posts as I discover new uses.  Feel free to contribute (with a credit, of course) by writing tmiller@ogdenpubs.com.

Also, a BIG thanks to CleanAirGardening.com for the new  Display Gnome .  The beautiful and detailed 15” Gnome was created by the famous Dutchman, Rien Poortvielt, and retails on CleanAirGardening.com for just $39.99, watch for him in future posts. 

I’m now accepting name ideas for the little guy, so, please, comment away!

Hi!  My name’s Taylor, and I’m gnome for my green thumb.  In this weekly blog, I’ll share with you a few of the tips I’ve learned over the years for growing healthy, beautiful plants; answer or find the answer to your questions; and test out some of the products sent to The Herb Companion every week.  My first topic:  Indoor gardening

Question:  I’ve been successfully growing plants and flowers outside for a few years, it’s easy!  But when it comes to indoor plants, even ornamentals, I’m lost.  The leaves get dusty and brown, gnats are EVERYWHERE, and my cats are constantly conducting business in the larger pots.  What do I do? – Lacey, Kansas

5.  Don’t water straight from the tap:  Indoor plants, unlike outside ones, maintain a fairly consistent temperature.  Adjusting to the correct water temperature directly from the tap is nearly impossible, and too much heat or cold can shock something called the thermoreceptors (thank-you college biology credit!) of your plant.  Also, the browning in leaves and leaf tips on some of the more sensitive plants, especially lucky bamboo, is caused by something called salt burn, the plant equivalent of chemical poisoning.  To kill two birds with one stone, fill a CLEANED milk jug with water and leave at room temperature for at least 24 hours, without the cap, before watering.  The exposure to the open air releases some of the chemicals (not totally scientific, but hey-ho, it works), and the temperature normalizes.  After watering, refill, and set it out for weekly use.

4.  Schedule a watering regimen:  A lot of indoor plants die for two similar reasons:  Too much watering, or not enough watering, but there’s an easy way to avoid both.  Depending on the amount of sun or the type of plant, your watering time might be varied.  First, lightly touch the top of the soil to see if it’s moist, if it isn’t, grab a shish-ka-bob poker to see if it’s wet below the surface.  For most plants, you don’t want the soil to be bone-dry but not drowning, either.  Take notes for a few weeks while you observe how often and how much your plants need watered.  Record the trends and water accordingly.  Simple enough, right?  But, be aware that certain plants, like orchids, have special needs.  It’s always best to check the tags or do a quick internet search depending on the plant.

3.    Like shampoo and conditioner, planters and saucers should be two different things:  The planter + attached saucer combo seems to be the latest trend in indoor garden design, and people think they’re saving money by purchasing two for the price of one.  The problem? Drainage.  My mint pot had an attached saucer, and after a few weeks, I started noticing a curiously fetid smell coming from an otherwise great-smelling herb.  When I noticed that water didn’t seem to drain into the saucer, I got worried.  Stagnant, brown liquid had gathered under the pot and was blocked from draining evenly into the saucer.  Like me, if you already have such a planter, simply take a hammer and cover with a folded cloth or use a rubber mallet to lightly tap off the saucer.  I tapped on all four sides of the planter to make sure it came off evenly, and if you’re lucky, it will.  If not, tap off the sharp edges, and buy a terracotta saucer.  Jiggles the Gnome now has a reason to smile.

2.  Cinnamon, your one-stop pest control:  The soil in many of your freshly planted or transplanted herbs can be home to myriad insects, but because you have pets, you shouldn’t be spraying a lot of pesticides inside your home, especially if your animals are showing an interest in your herbs.  Lucky for you, both insects AND animals hate the smell of cinnamon.  Just sprinkle a thin layer of ground cinnamon (NOT cinnamon oil) on the top of the soil to suffocate the eggs and burrowed insects.  To quickly kill residual bugsters, fill a bowl with soapy, sudsy water and set it under a small lamp to leave overnight.  I have also spread cinnamon under the carpet around my baseboards to fix an invading ant problem.  As for the cats, because their urine has such a high concentration of ammonia, it can be caustic to your peace lily or selloum-philo.  The good news is that cats almost ALWAYS smell where they’re about to go, and they won’t want to go on a layer of cinnamon.  As a triple threat, cinnamon is composed of about 35% of the element manganese, which is essential in photosynthesis and also a common ingredient of most fertilizers.  When the cinnamon breaks down after multiple waterings, it feeds your plant.  Reapply as needed.

1.  Use banana peels to give indoor plants a straight-from-the-florist shine:   Feather-dusting plant leaves just doesn’t cut it when it comes to plant-maintenance, and it might not remove all the dust.  The texture and oils of the inside of a banana peel serve as a mild-abrasive for dusting and shining, and the nutrients of the peel feed the plant.  The trick can be especially useful for nearly-expired bananas (which Bogart the Gnome is handsomely demonstrating) that you might not want to eat. Simply use the peels for your plants, and then use the bananas for a great banana bread.  And heck, why not add some cinnamon while you’ve got it out!

If you have a question, send it to tmiller@ogdenpubs.com or if you have a product you’d like to recommend or ask us to test, mail it to the following address (and email me a note that it’s coming!)

Taylor Miller
The Herb Companion
1503 S.W. 42^nd Street
Topeka, Kansas 66609-1265