Keeping those nasty insects out of your flower gardens is a must if you want to maintain a healthy looking garden. There is nothing more annoying than spending lots of time gardening and a few days later finding holes in the leaves your plants. It is truly amazing how quickly pests can damage your plants and kill some of them. There are many products in the market today to get rid of garden pests but some can be quite expensive and not environmentally friendly. But there are some natural insecticides that you can mix at home that will work to get rid of insects and pests.

If you hate caterpillars as much as I do, get rid of them by mixing garlic and hot sauce with water to chase them away. Caterpillars can be very damaging to your plants. Don’t get me wrong, I love butterflies but not the babies so using a natural insecticide will just relocate them to another area. Most natural insecticides act a repellants and not as a way to kill insects. To get rid of spider mites, mix about a quarter of a cup of hydrated lime with water and also add a small drop of soap to help it stick to the plants. Be sure you measure carefully as using too much of the lime could hurt some plants. Soap can be used in different types of mixtures to repel insects, but do be aware that it will wash away with rain or automatic sprinklers.

You can also use horticulture oils that will repel insects by suffocating them. This oil covers insects with an oily film and can damage your crops and gardens as well. Home made sprays on the other hand, can repel those nasty pests and insects and can save you money and also save the environment. The key is to learn how to measure the ingredients carefully so it repels insects and do no harm to your flower gardens. Some gardeners try and use tricks to get rid of insects but tricks are not necessary enough. To get rid of your garden pests and insects you sometimes need to use more than one method to keep them under control.

While insects are not something to be scared about (although those big caterpillars do scare me) you need to be sure that they don’t destroy your flower gardens. What I also recommend is that you teach your children how to safely get rid of insects and what they learn can possibly benefit generations to come. It can’t hurt to encourage them when they are young to take responsibility for maintain gardens and keeping insects away from them. As your children grow older, they will be able to share the insecticide information with their own family.

Who knows? It is possible that your children may pursue a career later in life that deals with gardening, natural insect repellents, farming or even science. Teaching your children   about the safe use of insecticides and more importantly using natural insecticides is a gift that keeps on giving for generations to come. Your responsible actions will help nature to thrive and help the environment and your children will be responsible citizens. And, your children will have gorgeous looking flower gardens!

Here are some other flower gardening sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Best Flower Gardening!

Twitter / @edsalvato/Flower-gardening
Purdue University Garden Publications
Grow Your Own Cutting Flowers - Gardening - Your Home - MSN ...
Twitter / Flower Gardens: Flower Gardening Tips : Ho ...
Gardening with flowers
BBC - Gardening

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