Natural Aphid Repellent

Any good businessperson knows you must protect your investment. So, it's understandable when I was upset to find that aphids destroyed several of my emerging iris blooms last Spring. What good are iris plants if they don't bloom, and you can't take pictures to categorize for your future iris business? They aren't. I'd be damned if I let it happen again. I was beyond relieved when I found an all natural aphid repellent that actually works on Pinterest. I am  giddy to find something, anything useful from the site that doesn't include chuckling at Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl" memes or yummy vegetarian recipes.    I've tried the bags of ladybugs you buy at your local nursery, but those girls (and boys) never stick around long enough to rid me of the problem. This simple recipe only includes 4 ingredients, which you probably already have in your kitchen. Onion, garlic, cayenne pepper, and water. That's it. Simple, right? And making this concoction is just as easy.

Place one (any type- purple, yellow, or white) peeled onion into a blender, along with 2 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and 3 cups of water. Blend until smooth. Unfortunately, I no longer own a working blender, so I used my food processor instead. Due to the capacity of my food processor, I was only able to blend half of the recipe at a time. This way was a little more time consuming, but it still worked. Hopefully, you are more fortunate than I am, and own a blender. After it is blended smooth, leave this nice cocktail out overnight.

The next morning, strain the mixture (a basket style coffee filter works great) to remove any onion or garlic pieces into another container, and pour into a spray bottle. Voila! An all natural aphid repellent! Generously spray your plants affected or not with this mixture to rid your garden of nasty aphids. Store any unused portion in the fridge for up to a week.

I sprayed this on one of my iris that had a bunch on the emerging blooms before we left to pick up our bees, and when we returned, the aphids were dead and gone.  I will douse the rest of my rhizomes shortly to combat the yucky pests.  Now, if only it worked on gophers. :/

 Happy gardening and Earth Day! :)