DIY Network

Organic Garden Recipes Recipes for nonchemical garden additives From "Fresh from the Garden" episode DFFG-307

Joe Lamp'l gets cooking with some organic recipes for the backyard gardener, using ingredients already in the pantry and a basic kitchen blender. First, he makes an all-purpose garlic-and-water insecticide, which can be frozen in concentrated form and used later. It can be added to a seaweed fertilizer for an extra boost of nutrients every few weeks. Next on the menu are a pesticide made from habanero peppers and a fungicide made from baking soda. Joe also uses eggshells in the soil and aluminum foil around the roots of tomato plants to ward off cutworms and blossom end rot.

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Instead of using store-bought chemicals, organic gardeners take a simpler approach to fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides. Very effective versions of each can be mixed up using ingredients already close at hand and a basic kitchen blender.

Garlic tea tools and ingredients

• Liquefy two bulbs of garlic and 1-1/2 cups of water to create concentrated garlic tea, a good all-purpose insecticide that makes crops undesirable to pests. Strain any solids out of the mixture and add enough water to make a gallon. Use this concentrate right away, or freeze in 1/4-cup muffin tins to use later.

• Garlic tea can be used in conjunction with seaweed fertilizer. Mix 4 Tbsp. seaweed concentrate, 1 Tbsp. vinegar and 1 frozen garlic-tea cube in a gallon sprayer. This can be applied weekly in spring to everything in the garden, then once every two to three weeks in the summer.
  

  Habanero pepper tea tools and ingredients

• Habanero peppers make a good contact insecticide when blended with water. It too can be frozen in concentrate form. It can be added to the seaweed-garlic mixture but should be applied only where an active pest problem is observed.

• To cure black spot, mildew or brown patch, make an effective fungicide from 4 Tbsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. gentle soap and 1 gallon water. Use sparingly and keep it off the soil, since this blend can affect soil pH.

• Other kitchen items can help tomato plants. Aluminum foil wrapped around plant stems and kept above grade at planting deters cutworms. Broken eggshells can also be planted with tomato plants; the calcium will help prevent blossom end rot.