Elegant Survival

Gardening with M-J

Cucumber as Pest-Repellent in the Garden and Home

The health-promoting, diuretic, eye-freshening cucumber holds a drastically different meaning for certain garden and household pests.

Raccoons and skunks don't like cucumbers, in fact they are repelled by them, therefore planting cukes at the outer edge of your vegetable garden is a wise plan. There you are also easily able to provide cucumbers with a surface on which to climb, such as a fence or trellis.

Cucumber skins placed about the kitchen will naturally repel cockroaches. These hard-shelled bugs are a perennial problem in New York City and Paris, where even the most posh apartments are afflicted with roaches. Las cucarachas detest the bitter compound called trans-2-nonenal that is inherent in cucumbers.

~~Copyright M-J de Mesterton 2010

Gardening Tips for the 21st of April

This is a good day to plant tomatoes, beans, peppers, corn, cotton, and other above-ground crops. These are also fine days on which to plant seedbeds and start flower gardens.

According to the Old Farmers' Almanac, April 20th and 21st are propitious days on which to

bake, cut firewood, cut hair to increase growth, mow grass to increase growth, dig post-holes, wax floors, and to get married.

Photo Copyright M-J de Mesterton 2007