But of course it had to be organic.

I get pretty worked up when I read reports like this one that explain we are all carrying around chemicals in our body every day from pesticide exposure. I insist that our garden has to be chemical free, and this organic bug spray makes that possible.

Why Do Flowers Matter in a Vegetable Garden?

Of course I want the veggies to be chemical free, but are flowers that important?

Yes! I love having sunflowers, zinneas, hollyhocks, and foxglove in my vegetable garden for two reasons.

One, I need to feed our bees, if I want wonderful reserves of honey next spring. (Read more about our beekeeping experiences here.)

And two, I want to attract the bees to the vegetable garden so they spend their time there. It’s been pretty amazing how productive the garden has been thanks to the pollinating help of our bees.

So my sunflowers are pretty important to me, not to mention they’re gorgeous.

Signs of Pests

As soon as I saw the little black droppings on a few leaves and the large areas of a few leaves that had been eaten–both signs of caterpillar infestation–I knew I had to hit the kitchen to concoct some organic bug spray.

Yes, the kitchen.

After inspecting the leaves above the droppings and squishing the caterpillars I uncovered, I went to mix up some nasty-smelling spray to safe guard my yellow garden sentinels.

It was bad enough that just the week before I had discovered a few sunflowers near the fence had been eaten by some intruding deer.

I was determined to save these flowers this year and ensure I had lots of delicious sunflower honey next year. I would imagine the taste of my spray concoction will deter deer while killing the pests, but here are other great ways to keep deer out of your garden as well.

This post contains affiliate links. Go here to read the full (ultra fun) legal disclosure about that.

Does This Spray Work on Many Pests?

While I needed a caterpillar control measure in this situation, I’ve since used this spray on multiple pests, especially aphids and squash beetles, and I find if I drown the destructive critters in this odious stuff it does the trick.

For a spray like this to be most effective on squash beetles, you should try to spray the soft-bodied infant beetles. The adult hard-shelled ones may need more drastic measures, which I’ll be sharing in an upcoming post. Although, while I say that I also am thinking of my friend, Kathy, who faced a devastating onslaught of nasty, hard-shelled blister beetles this summer. She insists that my spray spared her crops and destroyed the beetles, so yay!

Ladies and gentlemen, I think this totally organic, easily accessible option is genuinely effective fighting even the nastiest of bugs!

I read lots of sources to find common, natural ingredients that I would have on hand yet would be effective in my battle against the bugs. This combination has been doing the trick for years now in my garden:

My Organic Bug Spray Concentrate

Ingredients

1/2 onion

1/2 pepper (the hotter the better, but I used what I had on hand)

4 cloves garlic

1 cup dried mint (I show you how I dry my own here)

2 TBS pepper flakes (dried)

2 cups water

Directions

Pulverize all the ingredients (I use this processor) then let your nasty concoction sit in the food processor overnight.

In the morning, squeeze the juices through cheesecloth or if, like me, you don’t have cheesecloth around, you can use an old thin cloth.

The juice you’re left with is your pepper juice. Your concentrated weapon against the pests that are destroying your garden.

How to Use the Concentrate

Once I made my concentrate, I divided it between two 1/2-gallon jars, then soaked the contents of my cheesecloth in a bowl of 1 gallon of water for another night, which I added to my concentrate the next day. This was probably overkill, but I felt there was still life in the scraps and hated to not use it all well.

Add 1 TB liquid dish soap and 1/2 cup full-strength concentrate to a quart jar. Fill with water and screw on a spray nozzle. I purchased my spray lid, that fits on any mason jar, as part of this kit. (I love the flip lids for storing my DIY Taco Seasoning and my Lilac Sugar.)

Test your spray on a small area of a plant to make sure the plant takes well to this nasty smelling stuff. And take care to keep your spray away from the bees and other important pollinators.

Why I Use Glass Instead of Plastic for This Spray

Whenever I can, I use glass instead of plastic anyway, since it’s considered to be safe for use with almost any kind of product. But in this case I prefer glass for this odious-smelling bug spray because glass doesn’t absorb the ingredients, so when it is washed out / sanitized , it can be used for other purposes.

Yes, the spray nozzle I found in this kit is costlier than grabbing a dollar store plastic bottle, but it is so much more substantial. And glass has a much longer life span than those cheap plastic bottles, which means that it won’t have to be replaced as often.

8 Things You Need to Know about Garden Pests

I dive into 8 things everyone should understand about pests in the garden if you want to battle them effectively in this podcast right here:

More Gardening Articles:

6 Herbs I’m Growing for Us & Our Chicken This Year

What Every Gardener Needs to Know About Egg Shells

What Every Gardener Needs to Know About Coffee Grounds

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. Ecclesiastes 3: 12-13

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This summer one daughter faced more pain in a season than any person hopes to have to endure in a lifetime. She and I traveled for weeks on end to medical trials. Then–praise God–her sisters, Dad, and I helped her pack again. This time for a college campus. For the second time in the last few years, our van was loaded with a semester-worth of necessities and a piece of my heart moved away. She moved into her water-front campus to begin her Marine Biology studies this week. Chronic pain, spinal fusion surgery, and a difficult neurological syndrome delayed her dreams for a few years, but tomorrow she officially begins her collegiate career.

Needless to say, summer days vaporized into fall mornings before I had time to immerse myself in garden time. I snagged early morning or sunset minutes whenever I could, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

But thankfully another daughter planted, weeded, and tended the garden in my absence. Kayla is a driven young woman who feels called to be a lifelong gardener, is considering a collegiate career in Agricultural Economics, and is currently studying at home towards her dual high school diploma/Associates Degree, because that’s where she can delve into every aspect of caring for our homestead. In fact, she is the true inspiration behind our homestead. Even the cows are hers.

So when I do get wonderful hours in the garden on these fleeting days of summer I love doing double duty. No, make that triple duty–this one little gardening tip I discovered offers me:

1. Therapeutic time to escape from the day’s burdens.
2. An easy end to Japanese beetle troubles.
3. A treasured free snack for my beloved feathered friends who always come snooping around the garden when they see me in there.

But no need for me to write about it, when I can just show you:

Go here if you’d like to see the products I recommend for raising your own chicken.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschool, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

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Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here.

And please follow along!

Please take a second to follow along here on SoulyRested to catch up on a few of my memorable mishaps, enjoy musings about my centuries-old farmhouse, or glean a little parenting/homeschooling insight from this momma who’s been failing at the effort for almost 2 decades. I hope my focus always helps you Keep it Simple while being Souly Rested on Christ.

As soon as you subscribe, you’ll have immediate access to my subscriber library of resources, which I’m continually adding to, and which includes lots of printables. You might enjoy a great resource to inspire you to learn more about Japanese Beetles with a child or grandchild: my popular e-booklet–5 Things You Should Know About Nature Study.

The post Japanese Beetles Hate Me & My Chicken Love Me. Score. first appeared on Souly Rested.

She was deeply intrigued in the beginning, which revolved around a lazy July morning. I suggested we each take some pictures–a Mother/Daughter Photo Challenge–using some interesting techniques. My young author listened eagerly, immediately seeing potential for improving her blog posts. (Yes, my 12-year-old has quite a following on her lifestyle blog about writing, creating, and growing up on 14 rural New England acres.)

She started roving the farm, snapping her shutter, and capturing some interesting images. Within a week, we had challenged each other to try out these 3 different techniques. But once we mastered those ideas, she moved on to other projects, and I decided to wait until she was interested in learning more. I waited. I reminded. I mentioned. I gave up, assuming at some point she’d let me know when she had a thirst for more new approaches to her photography.

Meanwhile, she and I were still capturing some neat shots, relying on our first lessons. I snapped this of our neighbors one evening:

Using the rule of thirds, I made Captain Lucy the central focus. (Lucy is the furriest and cutest one on the boat, and of course that sweet pooch deserves to be the focal point.)

I was also lucky enough to be able to take advantage of a little bit of backlighting in the same shot. Lucy is subtly outlined in the warm light of the evening sun.

And the Young Blogger is a natural at filling the frame.

As it is so often with parenthood, after I planted the seeds and just waited, her interest took root on its own. Finally, a few weeks ago, she came back for more, and I was ready with a few new ideas. So here’s our second photo challenge:

{{Leading Lines}}

We had never thought about leading lines, until we challenged each other to look for them (that’s pretty easy) and capture them (that’s the tricky part) in our shots whenever possible. The “lines” can be a wall with horizontal siding, stairs, or furniture (like a wooden bench, with slats). Place the subject on the far side of the seat, fences, and railings, or in such an angle that the “lines” are pointing to the focal point.

If you can place your subject so these “lines” are pointing to them, your viewer will be drawn into your photo, and your simple shot may become a show-stopping image. I was extra pleased when I reviewed this shot and realized even the diagonal line of nails in the deck railing pointed to my endearing feathered subject.

My daughter moved around the basket and piled and re-piled the apples to get everything exactly the way she wanted it before she was happy with one of her shots of the golden delicious apples our family picked at a local orchard last week.

The lines of our porch bench are perfectly placed leading lines that draw the viewer’s eye toward the two piles of three (one in front of the basket and one inside the basket). I also like that the third bench line, to the right, is drawing you right to the most luscious apple of all, the one with the warm russet tint.

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera here and purchase your own here.

You should consider helping your child start a blog if they love learning photography and want to show off their amazing new pictures. Seriously. I explain all you need to know and why you might wanna consider it, in this post.

And be sure to check out these other two fun photo challenges, If you haven’t already: first this one, and then this one too.

{{Negative Space}}

Negative space is, simply put, all the empty area in your photograph. You can use negative space to draw very dramatic attention to your subject. Here the negative space is our deck. My Young Blogger added an angle to her camera for even more drama with her beloved Minion Head flower pot. (Everyone should have one; with a full head of grass hair, it is most definitely worthy of drama.)

She also has some nice leading lines there. Negative space also combines nicely with the rule of thirds, like in my two examples below.

Absentmindedly, I was tossing in a load of laundry one morning (actually, I’m doing that MOST mornings) when I noticed a visitor on the glass. Between adding detergent and cleaning out the lint filter, I had a brief photo shoot with a Gray Tree Frog. Needless to say, he stuck around patiently.

My baby chicks on the other hand, didn’t stay anywhere for long, ever. So even though I prefer to not take pictures in direct sunlight (diffused natural lighting is always the best), I had to capture this shot of her first found delicacy where the chick happened to situate herself on her first free-ranging expedition. This also turned out to be a great experiment in layered focus (read on for more about that one).

{{A Layered Focus}}

We both had fun experimenting with this one. We tried to have blurry foreground and background images with a striking focal point in crisp focus. We had to play around with our cameras, placing the focal point in our view finder on just the right spot and carefully scanning the full canvas of the picture to make sure there were some things, but not too many, in the foreground, to give the picture a very three-dimensional feel.

While I was diving into fruit salad and long conversations with cousins, my daughter widdled away some family-reunion moments behind her lens. This one is my favorites of her efforts:

One morning meandering around the homestead, I discovered a dragonfly drying its new wings, having just completed his final molt into adulthood. Not able to test fly his new appendages until they are completely dry, he gave me lots of time to run and grab my camera and experiment with a layered focus of him saying goodbye to his old self.

{{A Slow Shutter Speed}}

We had the boat out later than usual recently, on the serene water as the sky turned deep blue and the sun rested her head below the far mountains. So we tried delayed exposure, intentionally moving the camera while the shutter was open.  We captured far away lights on the shore and other boats to create distorted images. She loved it, and we got a few neat shots.

No matter what technique we try, I love seeing the world through a daughter’s lens. And I’m thankful for any excuse to slow down and notice a few details, in new ways, together. The frame-worthy photos are a bonus.

So we’re already working on our next mini photo challenge, which we’ll share in a few weeks. (And it includes the beautiful New England foliage!) If you and your child try some of the techniques highlighted in this post, please share your favorite results in the comments!

“Well done work has its own reward.” Proverbs 12:14

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Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera here and purchase your own here.

 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from photography to gardening, to homeschool, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

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I thought it might be a little boring for her, since she already seems to incorporate the standard techniques into her photography, but I was shocked that these concepts were new to her. She had done many of them naturally, but didn’t know she was doing them. I’m expecting her photography to blossom, now that she knows what she’s doing right.

I picked a few techniques we’d start with. Once we each had a few shots we liked with the first technique, we discussed a new one.  Sometimes this was just a day later; other times we took a week or longer.

This round was so successful, we loved our next two rounds of new challenges as well, if you want more inspiration after this post, you may want to read about more Photography Tips to Try with Your Child and 5 Simple Photography Tips for Amazing Fall Photos. 

{{Rule of Thirds}}

This is my favorite photography technique. Once you hear it, you start to see it everywhere. The simple fact is, our eyes are drawn to the top, bottom, right, or left third of an image. Think of the Mona Lisa. Her eyes fall right along the top third of the painting. Mary Cassat’s Little Girl in a Blue Armchair highlights the bored lass by placing her along the right third of the painting. (Looks like she’d love a fun photo challenge to work on with mom!)

And have you ever noticed in documentaries when someone is being interviewed they are always off to one side of the screen?

A lot of photo editing programs have a 9-panel grid that you can place over your pictures when you’re cropping them, so it’s easy to see the picture divided into thirds and make sure your main subject falls along a thirds line. Ideally, you want to place the main focus where the lines cross. (Cassat placed her imp’s sweet expression at the top right intersection of the grid.)

My 12-year-old photographer loved hearing this explanation. She knew she liked placing her subjects off center, she just never knew why before.

So when her friend came to the farm to pick out a bunny, my photographer got this shot that captures the sweetness of the moment. I call it “SomeBUNNY’S in Love.”

She snapped this beautiful shot from our boat, showing just a sliver of moon, when we cuddled under blankets and watched the sunset.

But this is my all-time favorite from her rule of thirds challenge. It happens to be of her current favorite subject: our Black Star hens.

And a few that I took using the rule of thirds:

Wanna learn about special effects when you change your shutter speed? You’ll wanna check out this photography challenge too.

{{Fill the Frame}}

This technique is as simple as it sounds, it just doesn’t come naturally to most people, because it usually requires cutting some of the subject’s edges off, but it can be very dramatic. I like how she photographed the lily right after the rain, and the drops of water are still glistening on it:

Dandelions were my grandmother’s favorite flower (true story), so I love it that this image my young photographer captured makes me look at the winged achenes (seeds) anew:

While my daughter tends to gravitate towards plants and hens for her subjects, I’m a sucker for intriguing insects. I long to someday capture an image that shows the honey-comb nature of their amazing compound eyes, but I’ll settle for the detailed setae (bristled hairs) on this guy’s forelegs:

After we were happy with our rule of thirds pictures and those that filled the frame, we turned our lenses to a lighting technique.

Would you like to know how to use negative space and a layered look for amazing photos? This post tells you all about those techniques and more.

Or maybe you’d like to know how to tell a story with a photo? Read this post.

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera here and purchase your own here.

You should consider helping your child start a blog if they love learning photography and want to show off their amazing new pictures. Seriously. I explain all you need to know and why you might wanna consider it, in this post.

{{Backlighting}}

We love the lake almost as much as our farm that it borders, so we usher in many evenings by finishing  chores early then watching the sun tuck itself in beyond the glistening waters. A sunset is a perfect opportunity to frame a subject in backlighting:

When my in laws and daughters were sitting around chitchatting in front of the barn, I had to run inside for my camera:

On that same occasion, I zoomed in on my photographer then changed the settings to black and white:

Cupping your hand around your lens will help shield out some of the light and might make it easier for you to focus. If you don’t like the look in your viewfinder, move around to change the way the light falls on your subject. Moving one way will increase the hazy appearance; moving another way will make the image more crisp. You can even just crouch down in the same spot to achieve different results.

So far, our challenge has been a little more, well, challenging than I expected. But I’ve had fun trying these techniques with her, comparing our photography, and learning together. And, hey, if it wasn’t a little challenging, we wouldn’t be learning, now would we?

We have a few more framing techniques we’ll be learning and another lighting tactic we’ll tackle, then I’ll share again.

“Well done work has its own reward.” Proverbs 12:14

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera here and purchase your own here.

 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from photography to gardening, to homeschool, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

If you already ARE a subscriber, just hop over to the Resource Library here and enter your personal password.

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We’ve discovered countless, fascinating insects since moving to our new farm.

Some familiar. Some brilliantly unfamiliar. Some that are common, but seen through new eyes.

We’ve also discovered mosquitos, and black flies, which we’d rather not come across more than we have to.

So we’ve concocted some homemade bug spray that is all-natural and works wonderfully.

Homemade Bug Spray

When you encounter some unwanted creepy crawlies, this simple recipe offers a pleasant smell, compared to the chemical-laden store-bought ones.

Combine the following in a small spray bottle:

2 oz. witch hazel

2 oz. water

30 drops of any combination you’d like of these essential oils: lavender, cedar, cinnamon, eucalyptus, lemon grass, peppermint, or cloves.

If you have fresh lavender, simply dry the flowers then steep a handful in a pint of boiling water for an hour or more. Sieve, allow to cool, combine with witch hazel and water, and store in fridge when not in use.

Of course, you can also cultivate fresh lavender (along with citronella grass, marigolds, and chrysanthemums) in the garden or yard to help keep the bugs at bay. Or group small bouquets of cut or dried lavender by your doors and windows to keep mosquitos out of your home. In closets and dresser drawers, dried lavender repels moths and keeps your clothes smelling fresh. A sachet of dried lavender under your pillow helps you relax and enjoy restful sleep.

If you give it a try, let me know your favorite combination of scents in the comments!

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man.
Psalm 104:14

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Why is my daughter writing about cookies?

My daughter scrawled across the top section of the paper: She is a female, because males only grow to 1.5.” She is 2.” 

Today’s subject of writing? Cookies. Not flour and gooey chocolate chips, but yellow thighs and rough gray spots, her beloved, newest ectothermic friend.

The friendship began days ago… “I found Cookies in the outdoor shower… She was chilling out, because she is nocturnal.” 

Her hand quickly scribbles the details of her first encounter with the gray tree frog. Then she clicks through the tabs open on the computer in front of her, making sure she has her fact correct before thoughtfully writing a simile. “Her mating call sounds like a persistant bird’s song.” 

She pauses a few seconds to contemplate her strong adjective, but this isn’t writing class, so I don’t suggest a stronger verb or correct her spelling. (She doesn’t know it, but “persistent” has been added to her spelling list for the fall.) When the screen isn’t revealing the next particular detail she is looking for, she flips through the bookmarked pages of the nearby book, beside her breakfast of generously buttered raisin toast.

I read along and warm my hands on my tea cup, on the rather brisk New England morning, as the cool June breeze carries faint scents of honeysuckle when it silently dances through the kitchen door.

What’s this book my family loves so much?

She is eagerly writing the newest page in one of our family’s most valuable books.

It’s summertime, not a school morning, and this was her idea. She treasures this book and loves being an author for it. The book has been in the making for 13 years, and I hope to still be adding to it decades from now.

This eventual tome materialized one afternoon under a bright blue Delaware firmament, the year my oldest daughter, Logan, was in Kindergarten. The one who dissected bleeding heart blooms and dreamed of becoming a ballerina. The one who now builds portable nuclear detectors and is studying Mechanical Engineering. She’s the one who found a bizarre caterpillar in the fields beside the zoo. She had to know more. Its name. What it would become.

In the days before high-speed internet and fact-filled websites, my daughters and I paraded to five local libraries, scanned every insect ID book we could find, and finally discovered, quite to our chagrin, that the strikingly amazing larva would turn into a bland, brown White-marked Tussock Moth.

How did we put our Nature Studies book together?

We created a page about our findings and put it in a simple, white, plastic notebook. We figured there would be a few more insects to discover that spring, and maybe we’d pen a few more pages for our Nature Studies. Today, my two youngest are still eagerly adding to our cherished book, in a new backyard, under crystal New Hampshire skies.

The book’s cover—boldly announcing “Our Backyard”— is a faded chalk drawing of the path in our yard of yesteryears, in Logan’s Kindergarten days, in her Kindergarten style.

We never thought this notebook would take on a life of its own. Truly, I had no idea Nature Studies would be such a treasured activity that would become so important to our family.

If we had known our Backyard Book would still be a living book, 13 years after its conception, we wouldn’t have salvaged old office dividers, rewriting our titles over the pre-printed ones. We wouldn’t have squeezed all our extra categories under our fifth tab, but added new tabs with care.

But  I will never alter it. Truly, I adore my youngest’s first page about the dandelion, completed almost a decade ago.

Some things we learned today about gray tree frogs?

In captivity, they can live more than 8 years.

They change colors, ranging from bright green to pale white, to dark brown, depending on the temperature, humidity, and light. (But they are, as their name alludes to, typically gray.)

They eat (among other things) crickets and mealworms (thus, we’re reading Pet Bugs–see below–which has chapters on raising both).

A large, female gray tree frog can eat pinkie mice!

If you like the idea of a Backyard Book, or if you’d just like some free resources to help you get started on this idea of Nature Studies, you’ll love my book, 5 Things You Should Know About Nature Study.

Sign up here and download it right away. You’ll also enjoy instant access to my complete Resource Library, including multiple ID pages to help you start your own heirloom Backyard Book today!

Was today’s page, the one about our chameleon-like frog, imperfect, with grammatical errors? Yep. But it shows, quite obviously that my daughters long to know more about our amazing, creative God–through His fingerprints that are ingrained in His beautifully artistic creation. It is obvious despite our worn, disorganized, hand-me-down, and mistake-laden pages. Just like He is obvious despite–no because of–our own failures from day to day. We so often mess up, even when we think we’re doing a good thing. Yet once in a while, amidst our errors, we wind up making something amazing that just may be priceless for eternity.

That’s when God’s providence and love is the most beautiful. Amidst our imperfections.

We put away our efforts and clean up our breakfast dishes, and she opens the front door, to let the warm sun stream in the front hall. Then, with her discovery there, a new page begins*…

“The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.” –Louis Pasteur

Nature Study Books We Love

For nature study anywhere in the U.S., I highly recommend ANY National Audubon Society field guide. Find the ones you’d enjoy for your part of the country. If you’re in New England, my favorite recommendation for all things nature study is Naturally Curious, by Mary Holland, but that is very specific to the New England region.

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Products we love for Nature Journaling or adding to our Backyard Book

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* If you’re dying to know, before I get around to writing an entry about the beautiful “pink-lemonade” moth (as my daughter aptly dubbed it), it’s a rosy maple moth. More to come about that beauty on another day.

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Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera on my Resources page and even purchase your own here.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

 

If you already ARE a subscriber, just hop over to the Resource Library here and enter your personal password. (If you don’t remember your password, no fear, we always include a personalized reminder in every weekly-ish email, “Hard Work, Simple Joys.”)

The post Beautiful Imperfections in Nature Studies first appeared on Souly Rested.