Sunday, February 14, 2010

Spraying with pyrethrum

Best daughter and I picked all the newest flowering pyrethrum flowers about a month ago and stored them in a paper bag . Today I mashed a small handful of the dried flowers in the morter and pestle and adde a litre of boiling water to them. Let it cool whilst stirring now and then. Filtered it into the sprayer and added about a teaspoon of dish wash liquid so that it flows onto the insects. It has worked very well so far, well worth the effort. Although I do wonder whether spraying with dishwash only would give much the same results.
Pyrethrum flowers:



I have been collecting snail shells that the thrush has been leaving all over the paths as it was nesting. There were several everyday, great natural pest control!



We harvested all the beetroots today and will be making jars of pickled chunks, yum. The capsicums are also getting ready and we'll have to bottle those as well. We have jars of sundried tomatoes already, now there will have to be a major chutney making...



I gave up trying to plait the garlic and today I sat in the garage in the shade and dealt to it as best I could. Actually it felt quite sort of native, on my knees in a primitive hut ( my 'garage') preserving the crop.
Looks good!

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