This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Safer® brand. All opinions are 100% mine.
Welcome to the first day of winter…and it is wintery here in northern NJ - lots of snow fell over the weekend, as most of you have probably heard on the news, and it’s cold and windy, but the sun shines brightly today! This is Christmas week, and after Christmas come New Years and January, when many begin to see gardening catalogs show up in their mail boxes as they think ahead to Spring gardening…as for me, I like to do my shopping online, and most paper mail ends up in my recycling.
Last summer I enjoyed my medicinal and culinary herb garden, simple as it is, since we have a shortage of sunny property. I’m still eyeing a big section of sunny grass that we gained when a new septic system was put in because trees were removed. We don’t use many pesticides, and try to make some ourselves, naturally, when we can because it’s not always easy to find chemical-free pesticides and other “green” gardening products that are good for the earth that God has given us to be stewards of. But now I think I’ve found a source.
You lucky folks that live in warmer climates may already be able to take advantage of the wonderful green, good for the earth, good for the garden products offered by saferbrand.com. I appreciate the time they have put into helping the gardener know about many garden pests, they have a great section on insects that can threaten your garden, and an equally informative section on organic gardening. Since my “green thumb” doesn’t seem to work very well when it comes to growing plants indoors, the “houseplants” section was also very helpful.
There will be events taking place all year to promote organic gardening, and it won’t be hard to keep up with these events because Safer brand is officially on twitter, I’m going to “follow” them on Twitter and invite you to as well.
Twitter and Facebook are the primary, almost only social networking sites that I use, so I was happy to hear about Safer brand’s facebook page, and will be heading over to become a fan after posting this.
It’s been a bit discouraging gardening this year. Yes, everything is lush and green because we have had an abundance of rain…the forests around us look beautiful, but there are things in my garden that are struggling because there has simply been too much water. My wonderful pink lily of the valley plants which provide nice green ground cover after they bloom into the fall are streaked with brown, my hostas and especially my marigolds are tastey treats for the huge slugs that are taking over…the rain has really given them an extra boost this year. I do use various things to get rid of the icky invaders, but enough get through to be challenging my gardens.
On another note, while some that I talk to are having a hard time with their tomato plants this year, the patio tomatoes that I tried for the first time this year are just covered with tomatoes. They don’t get much larger than about 2″ in diameter, but there are quite a few of them, and none of the leaves are dying on the plants yet.
Also, the herbs are thriving, nothing seems to harm them. Take a look at the video in the post before this one for a look at some of my plants.
All is not lost, and I guess that if there was a drought, there would be a different set of concerns, so through writing this post, I’ve convinced myself that perhaps things aren’t as discouraging as I thought.
This weekend has been a battle with the little insects that think of my plants and flowers as delicacies. We have had a very wet spring and early summer, so the slugs are thriving and the mosquitoes are biting. I thought we were doing a pretty good job keeping up with these little critters, and then I went and looked at the only rosebud that is on my struggling rose bush. It’s struggling because I decided to transplant it this spring, and didn’t do it with much tender loving care. In spite of that, it has forgiven me, and new green leaves and shoots are growing each day. I am hopeful that there will be pretty red blooms starting soon.
I went outside and saw the first rosebud today, and all the way down the tender new stem there were aphids, not just a few, the whole stem was completely covered. So I came in and put together a solution of water and white vinegar, and sprayed the little bugs…I think it is supposed to kill them…and strange as it sounds, I don’t like killing anything, even little aphids, but it’s the rosebush or them, so we are going to give this natural solution a try, and see how it works.
I’ll let you know. Hope you are having a wonderful 4th of July weekend!
I love animals, and think Deer are among the most beautiful and gentle looking creatures there are. We see them frequently around this area as it is very wooded, as well as bears, raccoons, squirrels, and you name it, we have it!
My tulips are beginning to put out their buds, and when they flower I’ll be doing what I can to keep our cute but rascally squirrels from eating the flowers.
Deer are not a big problem for me unless they are making their way down to our lake during a drought, I believe I shared a story on this blog once before about how they came down from the woods on the way to the water and ate every one of my beautiful orange triple-flower Day Lilies. That was a major but rare disappointment, at least here on our property. But deer can be real pests in many gardens…I have watched them grazing in yards and gardens very early in the morning when driving, while the homeowner/gardeners are still sleeping and unaware.
They are beautiful, but also do their part spreading Deer ticks that cause Lymes Disease, a disease that started here in NJ if memory serves me correctly? Definitely somewhere nearby in the Northeast. It is quite common here, as are the ticks, I’ve found them on myself and my dog on a number of occasions.
“Deer Off”® is an organic/natural repellent that you can safely spray on your plants and in the gardening area to keep Deer away, after all that work, a deer repellent like this will save you from waking up to a great disappointment like the people that I just mentioned must have found.
havahart.com has a wonderful Havahart® Deer Off ® II Battery-Powered Sprayer that has a patented Dual Deterrent System™ formula that provides both scent and taste barriers to repel deer, rabbits, and squirrels…so not only will it take care of the Deer, but those squirrels I was telling you about that like to eat my tulip flowers.
Sometimes when you’ve been working a blog for a while, great posts get lost at the “bottom of the blog”, and need revisiting, so with gardening season arriving for some of us, and always around for other lucky readers, I thought I’d point out a few helpful posts:
Gardening in Containers - this post contained some thoughts and ideas for those who don’t have space for a garden, or just like the idea of gardening in containers.
Keeping Deer Out of the Garden - another post with some ideas and a helpful article, we have only had trouble with deer during droughts when they try to make their way down to our lake.
Tropical Climate Gardens - for those of you fortunate enough to be able to grow tropical gardens, this is another helpful post.
Here I sit waiting for the first flakes to drop as we wait for March to come in like a lion here in Northern NJ. With a winter like this, one can only continue to dream about what it will be like to begin digging in the soil.
I remember when I was a young girl, I wanted to start my own garden on our property, so my mother allowed me to try to grow in a plot along the side of our house. I remember getting a few plants to grow, but not with the same skill as my mothers gardens. I was pretty much left to learn on my own by asking questions, reading, no one did the work for me. At that time there wasn’t the emphasis that there is now on organic gardening, or using organic gardening products in the garden. In fact, when I was raising my children, there was some awareness of this, but not with the same passion that we see today.
Do you garden with your children? Do you have a site about gardening with children? Please share in a comment. When thinking about organic gardening products, and how important it is to teach children to garden organically for the health of the earth, as well as our own health in the case of vegetable gardening, I was looking at some products at saferbrand.com and liked all the basic products that I saw for killing weeds, as well as organic bug control in the garden or around the home. I but also found the site educational, explaining the difference between natural -v- organic, providing mulching information, and more.
Are you living in a warm part of the country or world where you are dealing with garden and household insect pests? We are in very-cold-right-now northern NJ, but even in the cold of winter, the basement of our cabin has little crickets, cave crickets, that my husband is always dealing with. So far he hasn’t been using a home-made safe pesticide in his war against these critters, but I would prefer it.
I’m a member of a nice new group called “Gals Go Green” an a while back someone posted a great pesticide recipe. I can’t use it until Spring, but those of you that are in climates where you can garden may like to try this:
All- purpose insect pest spray
(Organic Gardening, 1996)
1 tsp powdered red hot pepper
1 garlic bulb
1 small onion
1 liter of water
1 tbsp of soap
Knife
Strainer
Chop onion and garlic. Add powdered red pepper.
Mix the above ingredients into the water.
Soak for 1 hour. Strain. Add soap. Stir well.
Fill the sprayer. Spray plants thoroughly.
Repeat spraying when necessary.
I love animals, and think Deer are among the most beautiful and gentle looking creatures there are. We see them frequently around this area as it is very wooded, as well as bears, raccoons, squirrels, and you name it, we have it!
