yyc Archives - Eat MY Shrubs

Posted on June 28, 2020February 23, 2022 by Nick Johnson

Neem Oil Garden Spray

How-to mix Neem oil & Castile soap for a garden spray

Visit https://eatmyshrubs.com/neem-oil/ for more on mixing your own Neem oil garden spray.

Oyster shell scale is rampant in the Calgary area. I took this video while mixing up some neem oil garden spray. I wanted to add the extra to the tea tree essential oil garden spray, that I use all the time, to clean my pruning tools between properties.

A little while ago I took some pictures of oyster shell scale from a Jasmin plant. Not what I expected, but have a look below. The male turns into a little white fly, which is how they travel. As well as on pruning tools when not properly cleaned.

close up of oyster shell scale for neem oil garden spray — Close up of bark covered in scale

Tea tree oil is anti-bacterial & anti-fungal, however, the oyster shell scale is a little insect, so I wanted to take an added precaution. It is hard to get rid of once you have scale, and rare to see a property with out it in Calgary.

The mixture for the essential oils garden spray is the same ratio. Exchanging the Neem oil for drops of the essential oil specific to your garden issue. Neem oil is an insecticide though, so tread lightly. It will go after the good bugs as well as the problem ones.

On the other hand, Neem oil is used in natural skin care products, and has beneficial qualities for us. Contact me for more info.

Posted on June 22, 2020June 22, 2020 by Nick Johnson

The Lawn

Love them or hate them, the lawn is a part of our communities. For those that love them, they are a little park of our very own. A place to gather with others. A place for the kids to play. For those that hate them, they are a constant source of work and frustration.

For years people have been fed the story that we need to aerate and power rake in the spring and spray weed killer & lawn feed, or some other chemical, on our grass. Then we cut the grass as short as possible to give it the “manicured look” all summer, and water it everyday with municipally treated water. In the spring, the dandelions come up first before the grass is green. We do it all over again.

THERE IS ANOTHER WAY!!!!!

Height:

There are many varieties of grasses and they all have different characteristics. The grass on your lawn can not be just cut shorter to create a golf course green. (Something I have been asked by a couple of people about over the years.) Golf courses use specific species of grasses and a strict mowing schedule to create what they do.

The ideal height for the standard residential lawn is 2 ½ – 3”. Only annual bluegrass (which is considered a weed in most places) and bent-grass (which is what they use on golf course greens) can tolerate being mowed lower than 1″

We should not cut more than 1/3 of the shoot height either. So if your lawn is 3” high, you can cut off 1” to a height of 2”. If your lawn is 4 ½” high you can cut off 1 ½” to a height of 3”.

Don’t cut it down below 2”!

Mowing at the optimal height leaves the plants with sufficient photosynthetic capacity to maintain a strong root system, and still leaves the lawn thick and strong enough to support foot traffic without flopping over. The longer leaves or tillers cushion the crowns, and create a dense canopy that prevents water evaporation from the soil surface. It also provides a lot of surface area to catch the morning dew – which is an important source of water in the summer.

Lawn Mowing Frequency:

In late spring and early summer, when the grass is growing quickly, mowing every 3rd or 4th day may be advisable. When the grass is dormant during mid summer, we don’t have to mow at all. The mowing schedule should be determined by how fast the grass grows, not by the calendar or pocketbook.

How The Lawn Grows:

Without getting too deep into Rhizomes and Stolons and the intercalary meristem, there is a few things to keep in mind for the average lawn.

Grass has a crown.

Cut above the crown, plant survives. Cut below and the plant dies. The lower the crown to the soil surface, the shorter you can cut the lawn. Crowns are also the grass plants major storage organ. The healthier the crown, the more tillers / leaves it will have. The more tillers, the denser the turf. This is not only more beautiful, it also protects the crown better from injury, reduces the evaporation of water from the soil, and shades out germinating weed seeds

Water:

By late spring, leaf production outpaces root growth, which peaks in early summer. As the temperature rises, leaf production drops. The grasses in the lawn will remain green, as long as they have sufficient water. As the weather gets cooler again, leaf production increases until it peaks again in early fall. Then it quickly drops once more, until the grass goes dormant for the winter.

If the summer heat is coupled with drought, some cool season grasses can enter into complete dormancy. In this case, the plants withdraw their energy into their crowns. They allow the foliage, and many of the roots, to die. The size and vitality of the crowns will determine the length of drought an individual plant can withstand. During an extended drought a good proportion of the weaker plants die, resulting in a thinner turf than before the drought.

The absolutely worst thing we can do is to force the plants in the lawn to do something they are not naturally supposed too. Cutting the lawn very short, and fertilizing with synthetic nitrogen fertilizers direct too much energy to the leaves in the early spring. These activities stimulate immediate shoot growth to replace the photosynthetic capacity at the expense of root growth, which is what the plants are supposed to be growing in the early spring. This results in a shorter root system, less drought tolerance, and increased irrigation needs during the summer, as the upper layers of soil dry out.

Creating a lot of unnecessary and counterproductive work. Which is bad enough when you do it on your own. If your lawn care providers are charging you for all of these steps……….it is counterproductive and expensive.

Let’s rethink how we take care of our properties.

I haven’t even talked about the pesticides and how they get carried into your homes and spread through the air ducts….Yet.

Also, check out the Canadian Society for Organic Urban Land Care. Click the logo to follow the link.

Posted on April 19, 2020December 23, 2021 by Nick Johnson

Essential Oils for the Garden

Essential oils for the garden.

The weather is warming up and things are beginning to awaken from their winter slumber. Many of us are wanting to get out and start making our property beautiful again. While the first buds are sprouting, and the insects are staring to buzz around the warm corners of buildings, now is the time to finish preparing for the outdoor season.

Although each garden is different. Many of the insects pest that wreck havoc on our peaceful places are similar. Organic Land Care teaches us how plants deal with these pests. We can aid in their processes without releasing a toxic cloud of chemicals that drift through our neighbourhoods. When the balance is off in the soil and the plants become weak, insect populations may explode overnight. When that happens, it is time to step in to help.

Before you run to the hardware store or garden centre for chemical sprays and powders. Have a look below for DIY garden sprays for the most common garden pests. Sprays will work to keep the pests away in the short term, but the plants need to be healthy to keep them away for good.

The mixtures can work out to less than $2 a bottle, and are only harmful to the specific insects. They all have benefits for us in different ways.

Check out www.eatmyshrubs.com to learn more and purchase top quality essential oils.

All Purpose Essential Oil Pest Spray

In 1 Litre of Water add 10 – 15 drops each of

Rosemary Essential Oil,

Peppermint Essential Oil,

Clove Essential Oil,

& Thyme Essential Oil,

Add

1 Tablespoon of Castile Soap

Mix all the ingredients into a spray bottle (preferably glass if you are going to leave the mix in the bottle for an extended period of time) & spray liberally to the effected plants and surrounding soil.

Peppermint Spray for Aphids

In 1 Litre of Water add

15 drops of Essential Oil

1 Tablespoon Castile Soap

Mix the ingredients into a spray bottle & apply liberally to the effected plants.

Substitute Different Oils For Different Pests

Ants – Peppermint

Aphids – Peppermint, Sandalwood, or White Fir

Beetles – Peppermint, or Thyme

Caterpillars – Peppermint

Chiggers – Geranium, Lavender, Lemongrass, or Thyme

Cutworm – Thyme

Fleas – Lavender, Lemongrass , or Peppermint

Flies – Basil, Clove, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Peppermint, Rosemary, or Geranium

Gnats – Patchouli

Mice – Peppermint

Mosquitos – Geranium, Lavender, or Lemongrass

Moths – Lavender, Peppermint, or Geranium

Plant Lice – Peppermint

Scorpions – Basil

Slugs – Fir, or Cedarwood

Snails – Patchouli, or Fir

Spiders – Peppermint

Ticks – Lavender, Lemongrass, or Thyme

Weevils – Patchouli, Sandalwood, or Cedarwood

Posted on March 27, 2020March 28, 2020 by Nick Johnson

Indicator Plants (a.k.a weeds)

indicator plants

Now that the snow has seemingly slowed for the foreseeable future. At least where we are here, south of Calgary, Alberta. We can start to think about growing things in our gardens again. The first thing for many people, especially in urban settings, is the lawn. Grass being one of the first things to turn green and make us think about summer and being outside…..6 feet from everyone else of course.

As the new green shoots of grass come up through last years brown. The broader leaved plants begin to show up as well. This is the time to spend looking at what is growing around your yard. The plants that will do the best are the plants growing in soil that is suited for them, in an area of light that follows suit.

By identifying what plants are growing, we can then decide what we need to do to either, enhance their growing, or changing something to deter them from growing, and encourage something else to grow.

Some indicator plants that are common in our lawns & gardens are listed below with a few things that they may indicate about the soil. I also included some benefits that these plants actually bring to the soil.

They are there doing a job after all. If we remove them, we now have to do that job. Best to know what the job is.

White Clover

Indications: High Magnesium & Chlorine levels. Good drainage. Compacted soil

Benefits: Fixes Nitrogen in the soil, helps to loosen compaction, suppresses other plants from growing, edible plant and flower

Dandelions

Indications: Very low Calcium level. High Potassium and Chlorine levels. Compacted soil with low hummus levels.

Benefits: Puts Calcium in the soil, helps to loosen compaction, some of the first food sources for pollinators in the spring, edible plant, flower, and root.

Toadflax

Indications: Low Calcium level. Low hummus levels and very little bacteria in the soil.

Benefits: Though some species are invasive, they bring nutrients and ground cover to bare and discarded land. Medicinal uses and the bees love them.

Plantains

Indications: Low Calcium except broadleaf variety which indicates a high Calcium level. High nutrient levels but low hummus and moisture levels.

Benefits: Brings nutrients to the soil and provides ground cover, helps to loosen compaction, many medicinal uses as well.

Chickweed

Indications: Low Calcium levels but high Magnesium. Low hummus levels and sandy soil.

Benefits: Helps to loosen compaction, improves soil fertility, provides ground cover and erosion control, edible plant and flower.

Leafy Spurge

Indications: Very low Calcium and Phosphorus levels. High in Magnesium and and Potassium. Low hummus in sandy soil. High Aluminum level.

Benefits: Though considered invasive in many places, it will grow where most other things won’t, provides erosion control, ground cover and brings nutrients to bare soil.

Common Tansy

Indications: Low Calcium and hummus levels. High magnesium level. Low soil porosity, bacteria levels, and poor drainage.

Benefits: considered noxious in some places, the scent will confuse insects away from vegetable crops, accumulates potassium in soil, many medicinal uses as well.

Knotweed

Indications: Low in Calcium but high in Magnesium. Anaerobic, compacted soil with poor drainage.

Benefits: Helps loosen compacted soil, good for wind protection and erosion control, it will grow anywhere and can be very invasive. This plant will grow through a crack in concrete or asphalt.

Ox-Eye Daisy

Indications: Low Calcium but very high Magnesium levels. Low hummus and bacterial activity.

Benefits: Great food for pollinators, brings nutrients and ground cover to depleted soil, many medicinal uses as well. Considered noxious in some places.

Crabgrass

Indications: Low Calcium but very high Magnesium levels. Low hummus levels with poor drainage.

Benefits: Provides ground cover to bare, salt damaged, degraded soil. Will grow where most plants won’t.

Quack grass

Indications: Low Calcium but very high Magnesium levels. Low hummus level. Anaerobic, compacted, sandy soil.

Benefits: Helps control soil erosion, Provides ground cover to bare, salt damaged, degraded soil. Will grow where most plants won’t.

Perennial Sow-Thistle

Indications: Very low Calcium but high Magnesium levels. Low hummus level but good drainage.

Benefits: Brings a number of nutrients into the soil including Calcium, and Potassium. Provides ground cover to bare soil, many medicinal uses as well.

Lamb’s Quarters

Indications: Low Potassium and Phosphorous levels in particular but, degraded soil.

Benefits: A dynamic nutrient accumulator and nitrogen fixer. Provides ground cover to bare, degraded soil, edible leaves and many medicinal uses as well.

Many of these indicator plants have other benefits not listed above. Every plant can be an indicator, as they will grow best in soils and locations best suited for them. The healthier the plant, the better the conditions are for it. This is true for plants we want to grow as well as those we do not. Check out some of theses pages as well.

Ground cover plants

Insectary plants

Insecticidal plants

Plants that perform double duty

Plants deer do not like

Aromatic pest repelling plants

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Neem Oil Garden Spray

How-to mix Neem oil & Castile soap for a garden spray

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