My New All-Encompassing Garden Spray

After a very rainy period in which all our protective essential oil sprays were washed away, and the deer decided to enjoy a greens snack, this morning, I decided that I am too old, and it is too hot and sticky to spray more than one time.

I went about trying to come up with the one spray suits all spray of the ages.  After writing down all the essential oils that act as insect deterrents, mammal and bird deterrents, fungal and bacterial deterrents, and pollinator attractors, I came up with one wildcard spray.

I started with two raw eggs, water, and whole goat's milk (I am not a consumer of dairy, but I got some free yesterday at the end of the organic farmer's market & also got the dozen eggs for free at the market when some were partially cracked).

Next, I made garlic oil from three whole cloves of garlic sauteed in olive oil until the oil was saturated with the garlic.

I added neem oil and neem shampoo and the following essential oils covering the gamut of issues: rosemary, peppermint, thyme, clove, tea tree, citronella, oregano, cinnamon, pine, and black pepper.

This was all put together and mixed well and then filtered into a pressure sprayer.  After watering this morning with compost tea, I then saturated everything with the new spray.

My wife made a neroli oil and water spray in her little sprayer and followed behind me to spray it on as a bee attractor.

I don't know if it will work or even if it might be too much, since it was 93 degrees last hour.  with the humidity still very high, it is too uncomfortable to stay out more than 20-minutes at a time.

By the way, thanks to listening to a Dodgers game on the radio, I heard an ad for an organic essential oil company I have not heard of before.  Check out http://www.organicinfusionswholesale.com/

Please let me know when your going to use this spray, I want to hide in my basement, only 4 states away and I don't want to take chances.

When I spray milk, I find it can clog up the sprayer nozzle and the tube leading up to it very easily with the fats milk leaves behind. I hope you're going to store the spray properly and thoroughly clean the works after using it.

Very funny Jimmy.  The wind was blowing from the southwest this morning, so I guess it could reach you in the Keystone State.

As for the milk, maybe the goat's milk is thinner, because there was no problem with the sprayer.  The filter could have trapped enough of the fat.

I always thoroughly wash out the sprayers every time I use them, and I do double the effort on my compost tea brewing equipment. 

Today, it was easy washing the utensils for an extra three minutes, as it allowed me to drench myself in the oppressive heat.  And, it is still two weeks until summer.  I think we had our first 100-degree heat index today.

I hear that pieces of Irish Spring keep deer away but never tried it.  I used a concoction once on my maple saplings after deer ate them.  Mine had cayenne, garlic & soap.  They never came back after sampling that....poor things.    I'll use soap in the future.

My raccoon is back and I think he brought his family.  They dug up my entire ground cherry bed among other places.  Last night I used the usual sprinkling of Dr. P all over the yard and there were no signs of them this morning.

Wonder if that would work for deer...no cost.

CC

We hung a case of Irish Spring soaps in our garden two years ago, and all we got were suds when it rained.  We saw squirrels climbing on the bars, and as you can see from some of the pictures I have posted, the deer acted as if they did not know the bars were there.

With my rotten luck, our 20% chance of rain became 100% this morning, and everything we sprayed yesterday has washed away.  Also, a few minutes of quarter-sized hail has done a number on the garden.  Another round of severe weather is about 12 minutes away according to the emergency radio.  The computer voice says I should move to the interior of the lowest floor in the building.

Coddess, for raccoons, try peppermint and citronella oils.  They are supposed to be the top repellent.  It seems to work in our garden, but not upstairs in the attic, where we soaked tennis balls and threw them where they like to congregate up there.  I swear I think they picked the balls up and carried them outside, because I cannot find them when I go up there--just their gifts of added insulation and a sheet of aluminum foil that looks like it was in somebody's charcoal grill.

At 2:50 PM CDT, a severe storm was spotted....

CapeCoddess wrote:I hear that pieces of Irish Spring keep deer away but never tried it....

It didn't work for us. They pushed the netted bags of soap out of the way to eat our walnuts!

After hanging for three years, the soap pieces still hadn't melted away, even in our rain. I wonder what's in that stuff!

Beef fat.

Razed Bed wrote:

Coddess, for raccoons, try peppermint and citronella oils.  They are supposed to be the top repellent. 

Nope, not gonna buy oils if free Dr. P keeps working as well as it does.

Thanks for letting me know about the soap not working, guys. I won't waste my time if the deer ever show up again.

CC

Marc,

The beef fat just might attract predators, which in turn could make the deer hesitate--or flee.  Could also be tempting or dangerous for pets.

jimmy cee wrote:
Please let me know when your going to use this spray, I want to hide in my basement, only 4 states away and I don't want to take chances.

Jimmy you are a riot!!

Razed Bed wrote:Very funny Jimmy.  The wind was blowing from the southwest this morning, so I guess it could reach you in the Keystone State.

Seriously though
I would love to know how this works, very interesting recipe

By the way, I had a talk with our local PA. state agricultural agent, he told me all these items that are supposed to deter deer/animals eventually phizz out.
They become aware there is no danger poised and ignore them.
I'm of the mind, deer especially are quite intelligent about smells.
Human scent ?  out in the woods, in their domain human scent is a threat, when they come into town human scent is all around, so they are oblivious to it.
Animals adjust to just about everything.
Bears out in the Smokie Mts are all over the place, their hardly ever seen by people.
When bears become humanized  ( a term used by forest rangers)  not afraid of people and creating problems.
They are captured and moved to other locations.
Animals may not like smells, when their hungry, that's forgotten   ( my opinions)

With about 3 inches of rain yesterday, there is obviously no trace of the spray left.  Now, we are looking at at least 7 consecutive days above 90 degrees, so I am afraid to spray anything on the plants at this point.

The deer and smell statement could be enough to make me just apathetic enough to not spray anything new, since I used it all up over the weekend.

Yesterday, the patriarch of the clan stood there in the yard while I was trying to cover the smoker grill and other things prior to the rain.  He just looked at me like I was the hunted and he was the hunter.

This buck is huge.  He might be the height of a horse, and because he tends to stay in yards on our block, he apparently has little or no fear of humans.  He comes up on the patio near the back door and sniffs around the grills.  I think he has consumed some of my hickory chunks, and my wife swears he has licked around the grease traps on the grills.

Hunting of any type is illegal in our urban county, so the only thing these big deer have to fear is automobiles in the street.  I have not seen any dogs or coyotes trying to attack them.  They are becoming a nuisance to everybody.

My neighbor tried to use a garden hose on three that were eating her fruit trees.  Even with a sprayer, one of the deer stayed and readjusted its body while eating.  Of course, she was too scared to approach close enough, so she probably just helped cool the deer.

The rabbits and squirrels are not bothering our garden now.  The raccoons are only bothering us by living upstairs.  We have never really had any loss through deer, but they did a number on the garden Friday night, when my wife and I both had to be out late.

Urban deer are becoming more and more prevalent, and a Youtube search will find numerous instances of these deer coming in people's houses, eating cheeseburgers, playing with dogs and cats, etc. 

In our neighborhood, the deer are starting to act like the wild burros of Oatman, Arizona.

CapeCoddess wrote:I hear that pieces of Irish Spring keep deer away but never tried it.  I used a concoction once on my maple saplings after deer ate them.  Mine had cayenne, garlic & soap.  They never came back after sampling that....poor things.    I'll use soap in the future.

My raccoon is back and I think he brought his family.  They dug up my entire ground cherry bed among other places.  Last night I used the usual sprinkling of Dr. P all over the yard and there were no signs of them this morning.

Wonder if that would work for deer...no cost.

CC

What is Dr. P? si vous plais?

Also, a  good source of nitrogen for plants, sans ingested pharmaceuticals.

Pretty darned funny.  Thanks!

I must be slow and not in the loop, but at least I finally realized that Cape Coddess is not using Dr. Pepper in her garden.

I guess I will return that case of Mr. Pibb I bought yesterday???

Boffer and Razed Bed -

+1!!

Oh, Boffer - WHERE did you find that?  Even DH got a kick out of it.