Plants to Repel Mosquitos Around Your House

 

These pesky critters tend to come around during warm weather and aren't afraid to bite.

However, you have to plant lots of them!  Not a single plant, but rather five, six, or nine.

Let’s start with GARLIC which is one of the most protective plants against mosquitoes. Plant garlic in late summer in groups all around your house and the patio. It does not only repel mosquitos, but 18 months later you can harvest the cloves for your kitchen.

Cut garlic cloves into slivers and scatter them around your outdoor living areas, or combine them with oils and other liquid ingredients to make a repellent spray for your yard. Furthermore, you can blend garlic with essential oils to make a mosquito-repellent spray for your body. Mosquitoes won’t be able to stand the unappealing smell. 

HERBS

The next best thing are herbs, such as OREGANO, BASIL, ROSEMARY, LEMON THYME, SAGE, FENNEL, PEPPERMINT, or LEMON BALM,  Herbs usually like sunny spots in your garden, and can be planted in pots that you might place around your patio or garden sitting areas.

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CITRONELLA 

It thrives when it is in full to partial sun, but it does need protection from the midday sun. It is also a plant that does well in planters.  Citronella candles can also provide up to 50 percent extra protection.

CATNIP 

In recent years, this has become a very popular method of repelling mosquitoes. A study in Science Daily even suggests that Nepetalactone, the plant’s essential oil, is approximately ten times more effective than DEET at repelling mosquitoes. Therefore, much less of this oil is needed to be effective. Plant catnip in your garden as a backyard defense, or crush the leaves and rub them directly on your skin.

PEPPERMINT

Minty fragrances are unpleasant to a mosquito's keen senses. The mere presence of peppermint plants can ward off these pesky flying insects to some degree. You can also turn peppermint into a personal repellent by crushing the leaves and rubbing them on your skin.  Plant peppermint in containers or pots that you sink into the garden soil - after covering the wholes with thick cardboard.  This way you will avoid that they spread throughout your garden beds. 

LAVENDER

It may be a favorite scent of many people, mosquitoes would disagree. They detest the pungent scent of the purple flower, and stay away at all costs. Like most of the plants on this list, lavender can be used by extracting the oils and applying to the skin directly or making a body spray. You can also simply plant it in your garden. Best of all, the beautiful purple flowers are sure to liven up your landscape.

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LEMON GERANIUMS

One of the best types of plants to use when trying to repel mosquitoes is the lemon geranium. The strong lemony scent is great for getting them out of the area.  They need to grow in full to partial sun.

ALLIUM FLOWERS

They are your first defense in spring and a relative to the onion. Similar to onions, the allium has the power to repel mosquitoes. Plant the bulbs in the fall and enjoy their beauty after the winter. As they grow tall, place them behind other plants in the flower bed, or close to house walls or fences.

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Amazing English Gardens

 

Imagine masses of hollyhocks, daisies, phlox, catmint, and foxgloves mingling together and spilling out of garden beds.  English cottage gardens invite wandering and evoke whimsy.  Their designs often include curving pathways, rose-covered arbors, and white picket fences.  When planning your informal flower garden, start with a list of cottage garden plants like foxgloves, Shasta daisies, catmint, lavender, hollyhocks, sunflowers, cosmos, zinnias, nasturtiums, and cornflowers.

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Aim for plenty of variety

Tall plants, short plants, pink flowers, white or blue flowers—all of these things can be placed next to one another in an English garden.  Of course, you'll have to make some adjustments to ensure that all of your plants have access to sunlight and aren't too crowded, but in general, it's best not to overthink a garden like this one.  Instead, opt for a free-flowing plan.

Meandering paths are a lovely touch

At first glance, a garden path might seem like too much work.  But actually, it couldn't be simpler to source and lay the right one for your garden—and the payoff is big.  Not only will you give yourself an easy route in and out of the space, but you'll also be afforded the luxury of watering your plants without having to step into tall grasses or get your shoes muddy.  It's a win-win!

Add a gate

There are few things more magical in an English garden than a simple gateway. They're easy enough to purchase and install, and the visual impact is huge. Don't have a wall into which to install your new structure? You can also buy stand-alone designs that can be surrounded by simple bushes and vines.

Think vertically too

It's not just about what's on the ground! Be sure to think about the "y-axis" of your space as well. Consider adding a trellis or simply twisting ivy, draping wisteria, and high-flying vines around a shed or other already-existing structure.

Incorporate seating

English gardens are meant to be enjoyed and savored, which is why they often include benches.  What better way to sit and take in all the beauty around you?  Wooden, stone, and metal structures all work beautifully in these spaces.

Replicate a country garden 

Plant a variety of flowers—roses, lavender, delphinium, and other colorful options—close together to replicate a garden you would find in the countryside.   A dense and rich garden with plenty of character is what you're after.  When it comes to gardening, nothing's more English than a fragrant rose bush. Avoid the temptation to snap up every variety that catches your eye. You can achieve a lavish look like this with just two types of climbing roses: 'William Baffin' and 'New Dawn.'  You only need to plant a few kinds of things, but do it in big sweeps.

Color is important

While citrus-hued daylilies are already pretty splashy on their own, buck conventional wisdom by pairing them with alliums in equally assertive but seemingly contradictory shades of purple—to brilliant results. Color is particularly important where you don't have structure.

After planting, mulch the soil with an organic mulch like bark or compost to reduce weed growth and hold soil moisture.

Happy gardening : )

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What to Grow in Full-sun Areas

 

Sunny spots can host a wide array of plants.  With the right mix of sun-loving perennials, you can savor seasonal color from summer to fall frost.  Treat yourself to a yard full of color.   Designing a garden is easy when you are able to work with full sun perennials.

When choosing plants for areas with full sun, it’s generally better to stick with native plantings whenever possible.  Many full sun plants are also tolerant of drought and arid conditions, making them ideal for potted environments too.

Buying new perennials in a drought and planting them in the garden makes little sense, as they need milder temperatures to become established first.  So, you should wait until the heat wave is over, or your new purchases will die right before your eyes.  Buy plants in the fall or spring that are hardy and have plenty of time to grow strong by summer next year.

Winter-hardy succulents like sedum, stonecrop, and houseleek are optimal for dry, sunny gardens. Houseleek is even called "sempervivum," meaning "always lives," in Latin.  Succulents have the special advantage that it's almost ridiculously easy to grow from cuttings.  This way you have three times as many plants in two to three years without spending a penny extra.

Woody Mediterranean perennials and herbs such as lavender, rosemary, thyme, sage, and oregano are also excellent and very bee-friendly.  In dry gardens, all kinds of iris, yarrow, and purple coneflowers feel at home.  They tolerate dry soils well and have beautiful colorful flowers.  The sunniest flower of all, sunflowers, need 6 - 8 hours of full sun.

Happy Gardening

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More tips for new gardeners

First-time Gardeners:

HARDINESS ZONE
It is usually shown on a map. These zones show a geographically-defined area in which a specific category of plant life is capable of growing, as defined by climatic conditions, including its ability to withstand the minimum temperatures of the zone.
In order to survive our harsch winter climate in Ontario, the plants you buy should not have a higher hardiness zone than 5.

COMPOST - FERTILIZER
Compost is an organic!!! fertilizer and mulch. Learn how to make organic fertilizer in a compost pile and benefits of compost as organic fertilizer and mulch:- Making compost is cheap or free.- Organic compost improves the environment.
- Compost improves soil structure, texture, and aeration.
- As a mulch, compost helps the soil retain water.
- Compost is an organic fertilizer that improves soil and plants.
- Compost stimulates healthy root development.
- A compost pile is an excellent means of disposing of organic debris, leaves, food wastes, grass clippings, etc.
- Organic compost improves the environment.
- AND IT IS FREE!!!

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZER
Major Ingredients: Most commercial fertilizers have 3 numbers on the front label, separated by dashes. For example: 5-10-5. This is the fertilizer analysis or percentage by weight of the 3 major nutrients plants need: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, in that order. These are abbreviated as N-P-K. This example contains 5% nitrogen, 10% phosphorus and 5% potassium. The remaining 80% could be comprised of other nutrients and filler.

Nitrogen: The first number gives the concentration of nitrogen in the product.
Nitrogen encourages foliage growth, among other benefits.
Phosphorous: The middle number refers to the concentration of phosphorous. Phosphorous contributes to many fundamental plant processes such as rooting and setting flower buds. Potassium: The final number states the concentration of potassium.
Potassium contributes to the overall health and vigor of plants.

HOW TO READ THE PLANT LABELS
Plants that you buy at nurseries or garden centers always have labels that show the maximum height and width of the mature plant - to show you how far apart they should be planted from each other. Most important is the location info, if the plant likes sun or shade (or partial shade) and the watering instructions. Then you can find the hardiness zone, blooming time and pruning instructions. Most of the time these instructions are given as pictograms.

MULCHING
Place mulch around the plants. This serves many purposes; it cuts down on weeding, as well as aiding in temperature control and water retention. Your flower bed will always look fresh and groomed. Even if you love to work the soil and weed the plants - it would be more rewarding to tending to the plants or just watching them grow, rather than weeding.

WATERING
If you have lots of trees and shrubs in your garden, your perennial flowers live in dry shade and are very thirsty, as they receive very little rain and the big roots of the trees "steal" them their moisture.Water the roots - not the leaves. Water around the plant, not on top of it. The tap water we use in the garden is not as good as rain water for the plants. Ideal would be to install a rain barrel.
To maintain really healthy plants, water for longer periods of time, but less frequently. If it is not raining, water at least once a week. Do not let the plants dry out.
Always water very early in the morning so the plant leaves have time to dry out during the day which helps prevent fungal disease and sunburn (water acts like a magnifier glass of the sun rays).

PLANT A HERB GARDEN

The sunny part of your garden is ideal for herbs. All herbs prefer full sun and well-drained and "fluffy" soil, maybe added with a little bit coarse sand. Herbs are blooming too! Here is a variety of herbs with attractive blooms, just plant them in a sunny flower bed between your other perennials.

Lavender
Compact, green foliage is topped with fragrant spikes of blue flowers. An excellent border and pot plant.

Basil
Basil is a beautiful plant that has culinary, medicinal and ornamental qualities. There are about 150 species and they can be rich, spicy and mildly peppery and are used traditionally in Mediterranean, Italian and Thai cooking.

Chives
Tastes like mild, sweet onions. Great in salads or herbal vinegars.

Rosemary
Goes great with poultry, lamb, pork and is terrific in vinegars. Mulch well or cover with evergreens before winter.

Sage (Salvia)Beautiful gray-green foliage, with blue flowers. Used in sausages, pork and veal dishes, as well as in poultry stuffings.

Oregano
Used in a variety of tomato dishes and in Italian, Spanish and Mexican cooking as well as in vinegars.

Orange Thyme
A citrusy thyme that is excellent with fish, roasted vegetables, stews and soups or in marmalades and chutneys.

Freezing your herbs:
I use a lot of herbs for cooking. But some herbs grow so vigorously that I have to cut the surplus in fall. I rinse the twigs thoroughly under running water, cut them in tiny pieces, fill them into a separate ziplog bag for each type, (mark the name on the bag) and store them in the freezer. That gives me herbs for many months ahead and memories of summer.