Organic Solutions for Garden & Plant Pests

By Clifford Woods

There is a balance in nature that can be tapped into if you want to keep your garden and plants at their best. And when you want to cultivate and maintain an organic garden and naturally healthy plants it is much easier to work with Mother Nature than against her.

Many organic solutions for garden and plant pests are available. Simple, easy to make remedies you can try making yourself and try them out.

Here is a list of some combination and single mixtures to help in the fight against pests.

1. Diatomaceous Earth and Chile pepper: Grind up two handfuls of dry chilies into a very fine powder then mix this with 1 cup of Diatomaceous earth. Add to 2 liters of water and let set overnight. Shake well before using.
2. Chrysanthemum Flower Tea: These flowers hold a powerful plant chemical component called Pyrethrum. This substance invades the nervous system of insects rendering them immobile. You can make your own spray by boiling 100 grams of dried flowers into 1 liter of water. Boil the dried flowers in water for twenty minutes. Strain, cool and place in a spray bottle. This mixture can be stored for up to two months.
3. Tobacco: Take one cup of organic tobacco (preferably a tobacco that is natural) and mix it in one gallon of water. Leave overnight and after 24-hours it should have a light brown color. Add more water if it too dark. You can use this on most plants, except those belonging to the nightshade family of plants such potato, tomato, eggplant etc.
4. Salt Spray: This is used on plants that have spider mites. You can mix 2 tablespoons of Himalayan Crystal Salt into one gallon of warm water and spray on infected areas.
5. Orange Citrus Oil, Water and Soap: Mix together 3 tablespoons of liquid Organic Castile soap with 1 ounce of Orange oil to one gallon of water. Shake well. This is an especially efficient treatment against slugs and can be sprayed directly on ants and roaches also.
6. Eucalyptus oil: A natural pesticide for flies, bees and wasps. Simply sprinkle a few drops of eucalyptus oil where the insects are found.
7. Cayenne Pepper Mix or Citrus Oil: This is another excellent organic pesticide that controls ants. Mix 10 drops of citrus essential oil with one tsp. of cayenne pepper and 1 cup of warm water. Shake well and spray.
8. Mineral oil: This organic pesticide works well for dehydrating insects and their eggs. Mix 10-30 ml of high-grade oil with one liter of water. Stir and add to spray bottle.
9. Onion and Garlic Spray: Mince one organic clove of garlic and one medium sized organic onion. Add to 1 quart of water. Wait one hour and then add one teaspoon of cayenne pepper and one tablespoon of liquid soap to the mix. This organic spray will hold its potency for one week if stored in the refrigerator.
10. Neem: A very powerful & natural pesticide and you can make your own Neem oil spray. Simply add 1/2 an ounce of organic Neem oil and ½ teaspoon of a mild organic liquid soap to 2 quarts of warm water. Slowly stir it up and then pour it into a spray bottle and use right away.
11. Garlic Tea: Make your own garlic spray by boiling a pint of water, throw in roughly chopped garlic cloves and steep until the water is cool. Remove any garlic bits with cheesecloth and then pour into a spray bottle and use.
12. Basil Tea: Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add 1-cup fresh basil. Remove from heat, cover and let cool. Then mix in 1 tsp. of liquid dish detergent. Pour into a spray bottle and use. Basil Tea is good for combating aphids.

Simple-Simple - for both garden and house plants: Mix 1 cup Sunlight dish soap and 1 tbs. of vegetable oil together and then store the liquid in a plastic air tight container. When you need to use it, take 2 teaspoons of this liquid and mix it with 1 quart of water in a spray bottle. Spray top and under the plants leaves and any new shoots and buds. When it is hot, repeat every third day - 3 applications over 7 days. In the cooler weather you only need to use it once a week for 3 weeks.

Employing organic solutions for garden and plant pest control would go hand in hand with the soil being organic as well. If you have been using store bought chemical fertilizers and are trying to transition out of this method, be patient. Soil goes through both many changes with the transition from a chemical to organic fertilizer is made. It can take the soil quite a while to adjust. Plants can often go through a few stages of poor yields before producing at peak performance.

An easy transition and sure fire method is adding some Beneficial Microorganisms as they are naturally already in the soil. It is just a matter of populating the soil with these beneficial
microbes – they will do the rest.

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Clifford Woods is the CEO of Effective Environmental Services and Organic Environmental Technology.
We brew Beneficial Microorganisms that eat toxins and offer Environmentally Friendly Products.

Indoor Composting

By Clifford Woods

Composting can be termed as the conversion of waste in to usable fertilizer. It is largely a natural phenomenon in which the decomposition of the waste materials happens under the presence of oxygen. The large particles of waste are broken down in to finer pieces by the action of bacteria, worms, fungi, air and heat.

Besides the natural phenomenon of composting, people can prepare compost at home as well through indoor composting. This method of composting is easy to manage and can be carried out with the waste collected from a garden.

Making compost at home is a very simple an easy process that does not require much effort or resources. All one needs for making it at home is a barrel or a pot in which the waste materials like dried grass and leaves are stored away. When this waste is subjected to water and oxygen, the waste starts decomposing and turning in to compost. Another way of turning the waste collected in the barrel is to expose it to heat and moisture. Under the action of sunlight and the water vapors, the waste breaks down and turns in to nutrient-rich fertilizer.



There are many benefits of composting. The first major benefit that composting has is that it recycles the waste products in to something useful. By converting the wasted materials into fertilizer and indoor composting can do this too, a household not only is disposing off their waste, but is also in creating something useful from it.


The conversion of waste into useful products is good for the environment as well as it lessens the amount of land pollution and keeps the earth garbage free. Thus, composting is beneficial not only for the people but also for maintaining the ecological system of our planet too.
Compost, also known as humus, is great for growing plants and can help reduce the use of artificial fertilizer in gardening. Since compost is made from organic materials, it is rich in nutrients that are required by the plants and at the same time is not at all harmful for the soil.

On the other hand, the artificial fertilizer used to make the plants grow faster is extremely hazardous for the soil and can damage its growth potential. By having compost made by indoor composting you then replace the artificial fertilizer for your indoor plants. A person will not only be saving himself from spending extra money on the purchase of the fertilizer but will also help in saving the soil’s potential too.

Another of the benefits of composting that you can get is that it helps in controlling erosion. In areas that get a lot of rainfall, top soil loss and erosion is a major problem. In such areas, the use of compost whether manufactured through indoor composting or natural means can help in providing a solution to this problem.

Since compost has a high water-retaining capacity, it soaks up the water and seeps it in to the soil without letting the water erode the soil. This way compost can help in saving the top soil and prevent soil erosion, which is among the most serious ecological issue the world is facing today.

Beneficial Microorganisms are very useful when one is engaging in indoor composting. What these microorganisms do is speed up the composting process by as much as half the time or more and they also eliminate any odors that naturally accompany the composting process.

Indoor Composting with the use of beneficial microorganisms will get the job done faster with no odors.

Because of all these benefits, making compost through indoor composting is a healthy activity that can help not only your garden but can also aid the environment by reducing land pollution. This article offers some benefits and uses of composting, indoor composting and the general value of engaging in composting as an activity to help the environment.

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At Effective Environmental Services we brew Beneficial Microorganisms and offer Environmentally Friendly Products - including the Indoor Magic Bokashi Composting System.

The Value of Clean Ponds to the Environment

The Value of Clean Ponds to the Environment

By Clifford Woods

Environment has remained the most neglected entity in the world throughout history with industrialists and businessmen totally forgetting that they live in a world, which they share with other creatures. This neglect of the surroundings we live in has resulted in severe consequences for us humans in the present day and age, which are going to affect our future generations as well. 

It is for this reason that people nowadays have started putting the environment above everything else. Business corporations and industries have started paying attention to the ecological system and are trying to find out ways to limit the pollution and to preserve our natural resources.

Why Is a Clean Pond so Necessary? Ponds are among the environments most polluted components. All the polluted water from the factories and industries is dumped in these lakes, which has caused these freshwater havens for many creatures to become unclean and the breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insects. 

Thus, a clean pond is not only necessary for providing a healthy environment for useful garden animals like frogs and toads but also for keeping the population of mosquitoes under control.

How to Clean a Pond:  For cleaning a pond, the use of an organic cleaner has proven to be vital for the safety of the other animals living in the pond. An inorganic chemical used as a cleaner can prove to be harmful for the aquatic life that lives there and can severely damage their population. 

Moreover, the use of chemicals also lowers the quality of the water and makes it unsafe for humans as well. Therefore, in order to have a clean pond, it is vital that only the use an organic cleaner should be attempted, as it would keep a pond clean without posing any threat to the aquatic life that lives there. 

Environmental Benefits of Clean Ponds:

A clean pond can be of great value to the environment. Not only does a pond make the atmosphere cleaner and provide water and a breeding place for many animals, it also provides people a chance to enjoy nature in its purest form. 

In addition to this, clean ponds are great substitutes for gardens and since they have no grass they do not need to be mowed every few days, thus they save a lot of electricity that would have been used in mowing the lawns. 

Another great environmental benefit of a clean pond is that its underwater soil is nutrient rich and can be used as natural fertilizer for in-door plants, thus saving a person the need to use chemical fertilizer for nourishing his plants. As the ponds do not require as much water because of their ability to store water from rainfall, they keep the water consumption down and help in saving water as well. 

It is because of these amazing environmental benefits that ponds are considered an important constituent of our ecological system and are of great value to us. Having a clean pond is a blessing for a community or a household as it keeps the natural balance and provides a soulful place for the people to relax and enjoy the beauty of nature.

Therefore, if you want to enjoy the ecological benefits that a clean pond can provide then always remember to use organic cleaners for clean ponds.

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Clifford Woods is the CEO of Organic Environmental Technology.
You can find out more about Organic Pond Cleaners at www.effens.com

We brew Beneficial Microorganisms that eat toxins in the environment and sell Environmentally Safe products