Everyone nowadays seems to hate smokers. Why? Most people who still take a puff now-and-again aren’t harming anyone. Sure, you may not like the smell, but give the poor souls a break. You’ve got legs. Walk away.

We mention this because if you’re a gardener, there’s nothing better for keeping certain critters away from your prized harvest than the tobacco plant. This just in from the website, Ready Nutrition:

Tobacco is a great insect repellent for the kitchen garden.  By simply soaking as little as a cigarette amount of tobacco in a quart of water and allowing it to soak overnight, the nicotine released in the water will create an all purpose insect repellent. Tobacco is good for:

• Aphid Control
• Peach Tree Borers
• Leaf Roller
• Garden Centipede
• Gophers and Moles
• Spiders

Not just tobaccy. There are a lot of other growing things that can keep your garden as pesticide-free as possible. It’s called companion planting.

Some Natural Helpers

Like tobacco, there are some plants that ward off pests. another trick is to plant a three row border around your garden space with marigolds. Make sure when using those flowers (to prevent nematode growth), do it a season before to get top results.

Make a sweet frame of marigolds and tobacco and you’ll be surprised just how little you’ll have to spray toxins all over the place to keep your future food source bug-free.

More Marriages in Spring

We’ve got a bunch of suggestions for companion planting. Tried it before and it really does cut back on the pests that can invade a veggie patch.

• Raccoon invasion? Plant your pumpkins and corn together. A little hot red pepper dusted on the corn silk will likewise give the bugs the willies.
• If there’s one thing that rabbits can’t stand it’s onions. Stick a few shoots between the lettuce, cabbage, peas and beans.
• Gotta love your ladybugs. That’s because they make a daily meal of those darned aphids.
• Tomatoes and broccoli are definitely aphid targets. Actually the little monsters love most plants. Try this: Plant some nasturtiums around the broccoli and chives right next to your tomatoes. By the way, you can use the nasturtiums leaves in your salads. Kinda tastes like radishes.
• Ever grown leeks? Plant them around your carrot crop. That will keep carrot and onion flies from munching down and laying eggs.
• Lettuce is a terrific barrier to keep earth flies away from radishes and kohlrabi.
• Mix some dill, celery, sage, rosemary and peppermint around your taters, broccoli and beets.
• Put a row of asparagus between a couple of rows of tomatoes. Keeps bugs away and increases the yield.
• Potatoes not only go well with beans at the dinner table. Marry them in the garden to ward-off the beans from the Mexican bean beetle and the Colorado potato beetle.
• Don’t forget the castor beans to repel moles. Border the garden along with your marigolds and tobacco with some daffodils to keep rodents from your plot. And a yarrow border will burst the oil production in your herbs.

Now pull out that stack of garden catalogs that started arriving around Christmas. It’s almost time to begin your bounty.

Original Source: https://www.vulcantermite.com/eco-friendly-options/planting-and-pests-some-natural-approaches/