I went to recycle today and got this t-shirt to celebrate Earth Day. I love the sentiment! Every day should be Earth Day.
I have a favorite book for gardening and household cleaning tips, Slug Bread & Beheaded Thistles, by Ellen Sandbeck. This paperback is full of non-toxic ways to get rid of pests ( insects and bacteria, not human pests! ).
One of my favorite tips from the book, is to take crushed eggshells and spread them around the base of plants in my garden. Slugs and other crawling bugs do not like to crawl over these sharp edges and will avoid your plants. This is also a good source of calcium for your soil.
Another great tip is to save your coffee grounds to add to the soil around your acid-loving plants such as tomatoes. Coffee grounds also make for a great air-freshner for the car or to deoderize a stinky couch.
This is an Earth Day must read!
Happy Earth Day a few days early!
7 comments:
I love that shirt too!
We have fire ants here in Florida. They are the bane of my existence and hurt like crazy when they sting. I read somewhere that a 'green' way to get rid of them is to pour grits or couscous in the hill, let them eat a little while, then pour water on the hill. Grits and pasta absorb the water, expand, POP, kill the ants. I wonder if it works with other insects, I wonder if it works.
There is a tip in the book for Fire Ants. Red ants are meat eaters. Mix boric acid with either bacon grease or other meat grease and put in a glass jar with ant-sized holes in the lid. Put the baited jars near where you have observed the fire ants. ( p.85)
Love the shirt! I want one . . .
Those are great tips! We've been trying to "go green and toxic free." We went to Kroger with our mesh shopping bags and it was a laugh a minute as we tried to stuff all our groceries in them. Oh well, we saved a few plasticamals . . . hee hee :)
Cool! I'll have to try that. As soon as it get really warm, we start seeing the tell-tale sand hills in the yard. I truly hate fire ants.
I'm all over the egg shell tip... as they're killing my poor flowers faster than the boys are (which is pretty dang quick!)
thanks for the tip... and I like the shirt too!
I need to be more green. We recycle a whole bunch, turn off lights, turn water off while brushing our teeth...that sort of thing, but I need to get into this type of stuff. I shall look for the book!
Post a Comment