These lovely videos were sent to us from customer Bill Caudill. He recently redid his front yard using our Weed Free Garden Watering Blanket. He shot these videos using his camera phone, so they are broken up into 6 short videos. His yard looks amazing, I can’t wait to see the finished result. Thank you so much for sharing, Bill!

These pesticide recipes may require more work than usual, but they are well worth it!

• Soak 6 tablespoons of chopped garlic with 2 teaspoons paraffin wax for at least 24 hours. Then add ¼ cup dish liquid and 1 pint water to the mixture. Shake very well and strain. This mixture should be stored in a glass jar and should last around a week.
• Boil 3.5 ounces (100 grams) dried flowers into 1 liter of water for 20 minutes. Strain the solution, let it cool and place in a spray bottle. This solution can be stored for up to two months. The flowers contain a chemical called pyrethrum that invades the nervous system of insects, rendering them immobile. You can also add some organic neem oil to enhance the solution.
• Mix a quarter pound cedar chips with one gallon water. Let this set for two hours. Pour into a spray bottle. This solution works on beetles.
• This is a general pesticide that works for aphids, caterpillars, black spot and thrips. Simmer 17.5 ounces (500 grams) Elder leaves in 3.5 liters of water for 30 minutes. Replace the water that is steamed. Strain the mixture and place into spray bottle.

These are some of the easiest ideas I can find for problem pests we all have. Enjoy!

• For roses, blend leaves from a tomato plant, 4 pints of water and a tablespoon of cornstarch. Strain the mixture and spray onto plants. What you don’t use may be refrigerated.
• Mix ½ cup hot red peppers, ½ cup fresh spearmint, ½ cup horseradish (root and leaves), and ½ cup green onion tops with just enough water to cover the ingredients. After mixing, strain the solution. Add ½ gallon water and 2 tablespoons liquid detergent. This solution may be stored for a few days in a cool area. To use, mix ½ gallon solution with ½ gallon water. The solution can be used on almost any plant to control several different pests.
• For pesky ants, mix 10 drops citrus essential oil, one teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1 cup warm water. Simply spray the affected areas.
• For fruit trees, mix cooking oil and soapy water. Put this mixture on the bark of infested fruit trees to get rid of insect eggs.

With summer now fully in swing on this side of the Atlantic, I thought it might be helpful to make a series of posts about homemade pesticides. Sure, not all insects are bad (check out Rick Baker’s 7-Minute Organic Garden for charts on Friends or Foes) but it’s hard to think in those terms when our plants suffer! These recipes/ideas are super easy to make and use ingredients many of us have on hand. Make sure to let me know if these work for you!

• Dissolve 17.5 ounces of dried milk in 1 gallon of water and spray directly onto leaves showing signs of virus diseases.
• Make a trap for slugs by placing an almost empty can of beer on its side in the garden. Slugs and snails will go into the can to drink the fermented liquid and will not come out. Extra points for making the can look pretty!
• To get rid of cabbageworms and spider mites, mix 2 tablespoons of salt and 1 gallon of water and spray away!

Stay tuned for more.

It seems as if we have finally had a sunny day in a series of overcast days. There’s no better time to take some pictures of the flowers that have been trying to bloom for over a month now. I am pretty clueless when it comes to naming flowers, but they are coming in beautifully.

QVC has featured EvoOrganic’s Weed Free Garden Watering Blanket and the Aria Tabletop Garden. QVC has also planted their gardens using the Weed Free Garden Blanket. The vegetables grown from these gardens are used in their on-air cooking demos. Check out these pictures taken by Rick Baker on his last visit to QVC.

Evoorganic President Rick Baker went to the QVC headquarters in order to watch our segment of the Aria Tabletop Garden. He arrived at the studio at 4:45 this morning in order to prepare for the segment.

We were all very excitingly watching our tv’s this morning. The segment aired at 7:07am and ran for 7 minutes. One Qvc host was Barbara King of ValleyForgeFlowers.com. Check out the Aria page on QVC to watch the on air presentation.

We have included some behind the scenes pictures. Stay tuned for some beautiful garden pictures later taken at QVC.

I always have a hard time picking which picture I want to enter for the Gardening Gone Wild photo contest. This month’s subject is Show The Motion. I love both of these pictures. The first one is wild horses running along a mountain. With the other one I was in the yard taking random shots and loved the way the wind was captured. Big decision of the day: which one does a girl choose?

While driving down the street in Pittsburgh, I found this construction area where somebody had turned the traffic cones upside down and were using them for planters. I only got one good picture before traffic started moving so I’ll have to go by and get more later. What a great idea though! Certainly made an ugly construction site more beautiful.