Do It Gorgeously: How to Make Less Toxic, Less Expensive, and More Beautiful Products (47 page)

HOW TO

1.
Place the onion, garlic, ginger, and cayenne pepper in a large mason jar and cover with boiling water. Leave overnight and then strain.

2.
Add the onion liquid to the water and liquid soap.

3.
Pour into a large sprayer and spray generously over the tops and bottoms of the plants’ leaves and the stalks.

Smothering Spray

This spray is particularly effective for aphids. Be aware that it suffocates every insect as well as the aphids.

HOW TO

1.
Pour all the ingredients into a couple of large sprayers.

2.
Give your plants (tops and bottoms of the leaves and the stalks) a good spray once a week.

COMPANION PLANTING

When you plan out your garden or raised beds, it’s a great idea to figure out which plants make good companions for the ones you want to grow. These “companion” plants can help repel pests and enrich the soil with appropriate nutrients. Companion planting is the primary method used today for successful organic farming.

Visit any organic farm and instead of seeing massive fields and rows of monocrops (one crop only), you will see a variety of crops growing together. Not only do they serve each other as good companions in the pest department, but the taller plants also give necessary shade to cool-season crops. It’s a science that every organic farmer will have taken years to perfect, but for the amateur gardener, it serves well to have a basic understanding of which are the best plants to plant near the ones you want. It’s interesting to note from the list that follows that the plants that work well together are often the ones we like to eat
together. For example, it’s always a good idea to plant basil and oregano with tomatoes—that’s why the Italians created marinara sauce!

Planning Your Garden

Now that you know which companions your favorite fruits, veggies, and herbs favor, plant your garden accordingly. I recommend making a plan on paper. I like to allow 1 square foot for each crop, unless I want to grow a lot of one particular kind, in which case I’ll plan for about 4 square feet for that crop.

You can also divide up your bed into 1-square-foot squares, which makes for a very orderly bed. You can use long bamboo sticks, or have some lengths of lath cut at the lumberyard to fit your garden bed. Just lay them across the bed, delineating the squares. Mel Bartholomew has written a wonderfully useful book on this method called
All New Square Foot Gardening
(Cool Springs Press). He has taught me that although 1 square foot seems like too small a space for a vegetable, you’ll be surprised how much you’ll harvest from that one square.

Other gardeners prefer orderly rows. I teach a Garden-to-Table class at a local charter school. The sixth graders, who have taken proud ownership of the
vegetable beds, prefer rows. Each group has their own row that they planted from seeds, watered, weeded, and eventually harvested.

Think about what you and your family will eat the most. It’s a waste of precious space to put in cabbage or radishes when you know that nobody will really eat them.

EARTHBOXES

If you are challenged spacewise and/or have a hard time finding enough sun (remember, all edibles need at least six hours of sun a day), you might want to consider purchasing an EarthBox from Two Dog Organic Nursery (www.twodognursery.com). These genius boxes come with everything you need to grow a box full of your veggie of choice. You can attach casters to the bottom so you can push the box around to follow the sun, which is so useful in the winter months when the angle of the sun is lower.

The really cool thing about the EarthBox is its irrigation system. It has a patented tank with a watering tube underneath the soil. You simply fill the tank through the tube every couple of days and that’s it. It’s also a great design for anyone with back or hip problems. My aunt loves gardening but cannot bend down because of back issues, so she has her EarthBoxes on tables (obviously with the casters removed).

Taking a Cutting

I remember thinking my mom was a bit strange when I was little, as she would ask for “cuttings” whenever we visited someone with a stunning yard. I couldn’t understand what the excitement was about, much less the obsession with bringing these bits of cut-off plants back home wrapped carefully in a damp cloth. Now I understand. It’s how to get the plant you want without having to pay for it! Just ask for a “cutting.”

It turns out to be a little more complicated than just whipping out a pair of scissors and hacking off a stem—there is a little science to it. My mother doesn’t believe in fiddling around with razor blades and rubbing alcohol (as in the Scientific Method described on Green Girls Grow!), but others swear you have to take these steps. I’ll give you my mom’s method and the more scientific one—you pick!

Mom’s Method