Essential Oils in the Garden

Tags

companion plants, Essential oil, health, insect repellant, Pest control

Essential oils play several roles in the garden. They are a natural pest deterrent and as pests carry disease in the form of bacteria and viruses, the oil’s antibacterial and antiviral properties act as a form of preventative medicine for your garden. Fungi and mould are other problems essential oils can deal with quickly and effectively.
Strong healthy plants resist disease, and essential oils build up the health of plants, an example being that roses love to be in the company of garlic, basil or thyme and you can either plant them around the bush or use their essential oil when watering them. Add 2 drops of each essential oil to your watering can, mix well and water.
Essential oils not only control pests and make your crop stronger, they improve the taste and fragrance of the plant. Ants can be deterred by peppermint. To clear a nest just put 2 neat drops of peppermint oil directly onto the nest. If ants are coming into your house put 1 or 2 drops of oil where they enter. Thyme and lavender oils protect all vegetables and can be used in your watering can.
Of course, certain insects are essential for pollination, including bees, wasps and butterflies, and using essential oils in your garden will attract these useful insects. Bees especially like coriander.
Sprays can be used as insect deterrents, to banish fungi and mildew, or to encourage growth. Use 4 – 6 drops of essential oil in 4 litres of water for spraying onto flowers, fruit and vegetables. Treated with the antifungal essential oils the mould and fungi do not survive very long and simply disappear. Patchouli, Tea Tree and Cinnamon are recommended.
Slugs can be easily deterred using essential oils. They have an acute sense of smell and hate the smell of garlic. Add 1 teaspoon of oil to your watering can, mix well and water the area where the slugs and snails are causing damage.

NATURAL PEST REPELLANTS
Insect Essential Oil
Ants – peppermint, garlic, citronella
Aphids – peppermint, cedarwood, hyssop
Black Fly – lavender, tagetes
Caterpillars – peppermint
Fleas – lemongrass, citronella, lavender
Flies – lavender, citronella, peppermint, basil
Gnats – citronella, patchouli
Lice – peppermint, cedarwood
Mosquitoes – lavender, citronella, lemongrass
Slugs – garlic, cedar wood, pine
Snails – cedarwood, pine, garlic, hyssop
Ticks – thyme, citronella, sage
Weevils – sandalwood, citronella, sage

GOOD COMPANIONS
Vegetable Essential Oil
Asparagus basil
Green beans lavender, basil
Beetroot marjoram
Broccoli basil, thyme
Cabbage peppermint, sage, thyme
Cauliflower thyme
Celery geranium
Cucumber sage
Leeks hyssop
Lettuce tagetes
Onions chamomile
Peas geranium
Potatoes basil, sage
Tomatoes basil

Lemongrass

Tags

athletes foot, brinjals, companion plant, Cymbopogon citratus, fleas, food, gardening, herbs, home grown, insect repellant, lemon grass, marinade, Mosquitoes, organic, plants, skin ailments, stirfries, sweet potatoes, Thai cooking, ticks, tomato

Lemongrass – Cymbopogon citratus

Lemon grass originates from Southern India and Sri Lanka. It has long been characteristic of Far Eastern Cuisines. It has found it’s place in Gourmet dishes as well as fragrant toiletries around the world. Apart from culinary and cosmetic uses, Lemon grass has an array of medicinal properties.

To increase your stock of Lemon grass, divide it by pulling apart sections. Potted Lemon grass should be divided every two years. It makes a good companion plant with sweet potatoes, peppers, brinjals and tomatoes. Lemon grass requires full sun.

Uses :

Culinary :

• Delicious as a tea.
• The chopped base of the leaf cluster is used in Thai cooking.
• Delicious with cheese, egg and fish dishes
• Flavouring for marinades, oils, sauces and stir fries.

Medicinal:

• Lemon grass stimulates cell regeneration.
• Soothes intestinal infections
• A strong infusion can be used as a deodorant.
• Soothes fever, colitis, digestive upset, muscular pain,poor circulation,skin ailments and stress related conditions.

Cosmetic :

• Useful for treating most skin ailments.’
• Athlete’s foot
• foot bath and massage.
• Essential Oil diluted in carried oil, will deter mosquitoes, ticks, fleas.

Gardening : 

• Lemon grass insect repelling spray can be used on insect infected plants.
• Watered over beds where seeds will be sown, to protect them from predators.
• Soak pea and bean seed in  Lemon grass tea to have bumper crops.
• Rub the inside of your hive when baiting bees.

 

 

 

The everlasting herb Helichrysum odoratissimum – Imphepho

Tags

ancestors, Everlasting, fumigant, gardening, Herb, home grown, insect repellant, nature, perfume, plants, South African endemic plant, trance

As is name implies this plant has a strong smell. It is widely used as a perfume, but also as a insect repellent.

Description
Helichrysum odoratissimum is a strong aromatic, much branched perennial herb with small silvery leaves and small yellow flower heads borne in groups at the tips of the branches. Woody at the base, erect or diffuse up to 50 cm high. Leaves vary from linear-oblong, lanceolate, lingulate to spathulate, markedly decurrent, apex generally obtuse, sometimes acute, mucronate, base narrow or broad, glandular and setose-scabrid above, greyish white wooly on both surfaces, sometimes without wool. Capitula in crowded, compound inflorescence at the end of a naked peduncle. Involucral bracts obtuse, outermost wooly, inner brown and the innermost bright yellow. Bracts on the receptacle pointed, tooth-like, slightly longer the ovary. Fruit dull brown, granular.

Flowers throughout the year, but mainly from August to December in SW. Cape, January to June elsewhere.

Distribution and habitat
This plant ranges from the Soutpansberg in Limpopo through the highlands of the Mpumalanga and W. Swaziland to the Midlands and Uplands of KwaZulu-Natal, the NE. Free State, Lesotho, the Cape Drakensberg, mountains and coastal areas of Eastern Cape, across the Cape folds mountains of Cedarberg, Giftberg in Vanrhynsdorp as far as Peninsula in Western-Cape.. Also on the mountains of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi and further north.

It forms large clumps in grassy or rocky slopes and will colonize bare areas such as roadsides and paths.

Flowering time
Flowers throughout the year, but mainly from August to December in SW. Cape, January to June elsewhere.

Name
The genus name refers to the golden colour, like the sun of the flowers. The specific epiphet refers to the strong frabrance of this particular species. Many of the other species are also aromatic.

Helichrysum has 600 species largely in Africa, Madagascar, also in Europe, Asia and Australia. 244 species occur in southern Africa where they are widely distributed.

Uses and cultural aspects
Leaves and stems are widely used as incense to invoke the goodwill of the ancestors, the smoke is sedative and helpful for insomnia and in Eastern-Cape people inhale it as protective cleanser and is also used medicinally for coughs and colds. Some people boil the plant and use it as a facial ointment for pimples. In Lesotho they burnt this plant to fumigate sick rooms. It is also effective in repelling parasites and insects thus ensuring good night rest.

Several species of Helichrysum are used in traditional medicines, but H. odoratissimum is widely used as a perfume and to repel insects. Southern sotho women make perfume ointment from this plant.

Source :

http://www.plantzafrica.com/planthij/helichrysodor.htm

 

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