Natural Pest Control for the Garden

Something is eating my spinach leaves.

I do believe this is the dirty work of little caterpillars, but it could be something else. I know for sure that it is not the work of the baby cat face spider I saw roaming among the leaves of my lettuce garden this spring (we were thrilled to see the offspring of last summer’s special pet!), since spiders eat bugs, not leaves.

Something had to be done.

I picked up a fresh habanero pepper at the grocery store (these are also called Scotch Bonnet peppers) to mix up a batch of my homemade pest repellent. It’s so easy to make, and you don’t end up with all those chemicals of store-bought brands of pest control. Since we garden organically, chemicals are not even an option.

Once home, I donned latex gloves and sliced up the chile to expose the flesh. Then I poured boiling water over it and let it steep for a half hour or so. When it cooled, I strained it into a spray container and added some organic dishwashing liquid. The soap helps the chile spray stick to the leaves. Then I headed out to spray.

At this point, my lettuce garden is almost done until I restart it in the fall, but I want to savor every leaf remaining — washed well, of course!!

By the way, I learned to do this from my favorite gardening book: Dead Daisies Make Me Crazy: Garden Solutions Without Chemical Pollution