Here are four good ways to help plants withstand outside attacks – all cheap, easy to apply and natural
Plants are amazing things. Tethered to the spot, unable to run or hide from environmental threats, they have instead developed an arsenal of chemical weapons to help shield themselves from the everyday onslaught of the outside world. With a few tips and tricks you can hijack these defence compounds and put them to use with the other plants in your plot to help them withstand almost everything the summer might throw at them. Here are my top four favourites.
I have yet to meet a gardener who has not bemoaned the night-time raids of slugs and snails. Fortunately, nature has a simple solution. Allicin is a defence compound created by garlic bulbs which both repels and kills slugs and snails. To harness this, simply put a bulb of garlic in a litre of water and blitz it in a food processor. Leave to stand for 10 minutes for the chemical reaction that creates allicin to complete, then strain off the solids and pour the liquid into a spray bottle. OK, as you might have guessed, this stuff does have rather a strong salad dressing smell, but has proven incredibly effective for me – much more so than turning my garden blue with slug pellets. All you need to do is spray it liberally over the plants you find most susceptible just as night begins to fall.
Continue reading...from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2MF4Boz
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment