Detox Your Garden

Here we are on the very brink of Spring; the light is growing, the soil is warming, and the first tentative tree and flower buds are opening. It is also the beginning of growth for a new branch of CHI. Clean Blue Green is a body of information dedicated to more natural/less toxic alternatives and recipes for household, garden and body care products, as well as solutions for green boating and detoxing your workshop.

Depending on their chemical make-up some of the everyday substances we use can seriously impact our environment. Whether through toxic run-off into streams, rivers and oceans or directly into the earth and air, toxins can negatively, even tragically affect our health and the health of our fellow flora and fauna (including our pets).

We humbly thank the Georgia Strait Alliance, a Nanaimo-based marine conservation organization, for generously permitting us to use much of the following information from their "Toxic Smart Alternatives" guides.

With the gardening season almost upon us this first submission will offer ideas for solutions to common gardening challenges. Every year British Columbians purchase many litres of pesticides and weed killers to apply to their lawns and gardens that are highly dangerous to terrestrial and marine environments and wildlife. Hopefully, this is changing rapidly with growing awareness of organic gardening, and thankfully healthy alternatives are available.

One great alternative is to plant more native plants which are used to the native soil and climate conditions of our area so do not require pesticides, fertilizers or extra watering - the latter being key with our dryer hotter summers due to climate change. Some of the native plants of B.C. are coastal strawberry, mock orange, red huckleberry, kinnikinnick, salal, high bush cranberry, wild and blue lupine, Oregon grape, yellow pond lily, vine maple, red-osier dogwood, red flowering currant, Nootka rose, wild calla lily, spring sunflowers, bluebells, Pacific bleeding heart, shooting star, Oregon iris, columbine, violet, and orange or purple honeysuckle.

Red Huckleberry

Another bonus is that native birds and insects will be attracted to your garden because they rely on native plants for food, shelter and nesting/breeding sites, thus you will be contributing valuable habitat.

Pesticides may unfortunately also eliminate beneficial insects which feed on pest species or are essential for pollination, like bees and butterflies. Being gentle with the earth supports garden superheroes such as ladybugs which eat aphids, scale mites, mealy-bugs, whiteflies and insect eggs. Ground beetles eat slugs, cankerworms, army-worms, cutworms, snails & many pest larvae such as gypsy moth larvae. Dragon flies eat mosquito larvae and adults. Parasitic wasps destroy the eggs of cabbage loopers, cutworms, tomato hornworm, aphids, scale, mealy bugs, army worm, gypsy moth, alfalfa caterpillars and spruce budworm.

Another good strategy for natural pest control is companion planting. For example: plant beans or horseradish near potatoes to ward off potato and bean beetles, tomatoes near basil against mosquitoes and flies, garlic or chives near roses and raspberries against aphids and Japanese beetles, mint near cabbage or tomatoes against white cabbage moth, aphids and flea beetles, rosemary or sage near cabbage, beans and carrots against cabbage moth, bean beetles and carrot flies, thyme near cabbage against cabbage worm, onions among carrots against carrot fly and lastly marigolds throughout the garden to ward off a variety of insects.

In addition, you can plant slug and snail resistant flowers and herbs such as begonias, fuchsias, geraniums, impatiens, lavender, sage & rosemary.

Some natural pest preventive recipes that you can mix up at home are:

1. For insect infestation and to control disease soak 85 g minced garlic in 10 ml mineral oil for 24 hours (or just use garlic powder without the oil). Next add 600 ml water and 5 ml natural liquid dish soap (note: the Co-op carries two brands of 100% pure liquid castile soap - safe for dishes too!)

2. For a wide range of insects including aphids, cabbage loopers, cabbage maggots, cutworms, leaf miners, mites, weevils and whiteflies mix 15 ml liquid dish soap and 235 ml oil (peanut, safflower, corn, soybean, or sunflower). Mix 5-12 ml of soap-oil base to 1 cup water and spray directly onto plant OR add several drops of essential oil (rosemary, pine, or citronella) to 235 ml of water and spray directly onto plant.

3. For powdery mildew mix 5 ml baking soda and a few drops of liquid dish soap in 1 litre of water. Spray directly onto the plant, weekly in spring before symptoms appear (only if the plant has a history of mildew). This works well for roses prone to mildew.

For a 100% natural and cost-free fertilizer I have a friend who swears by watering certain plants with a mixture of 1 part human urine to 10 parts water (year-round). His kale is healthy and ginormous! The same goes for his tomatoes and cucumbers. (He refrains from using this technique for low-to-the-ground plants such as spinach and lettuce).

Lastly, if you are planning on gathering seaweed for your garden please take care not to over-harvest as seaweed provides essential shade for surf smelt eggs. Also, please be sure to harvest before the herring are spawning and the seaweed is covered with herring eggs. Every single fertilized egg has a chance of becoming another precious herring in the sea!

Submitted by Kristin Sonstebo for CHI.