"Murder!" she wrote.

Growing up we had a TV series by this title and while she was a accidental detective, I am just a gardener. But when I find a problem in my garden, I like to find an organic solution to it.

My mom send me a recipe for a chilli garden spray last week, but my very precious computer has died a sudden death and is in hospital for repairs :-( I am most worried about as I am really not good at backing up and haven't for 4 months which means I stand to loose a lot of important data...Superman is letting me use his laptop for this post - isn't he great?!?

So today I had to look for a solution to the colonies of aphids making their home on my fruit tree. Jane's Delicious Garden has lots of recipes and she rightly points out that if you have an aphid problem you will most likely have an ant problem. Ants "farm" aphids as the aphids excrete a sweet goo that the ants like.



The aphids and ants around my cabbages can be controlled with coffee grounds - well if there every was a reason to drink more coffee, this is it! So I am now collecting my coffee grounds to place around the bases of my cabbages instead of outting them in the compost.



For the fruit trees, I needed a spray and the spray uses the following: tablespoon chillies, 4 onions, head of garlic, oil and dishwashing liquid.



Simply use the liquidiser to blend the veggies together and let it stand for a day. Then mix in the oil and dishwashing liquid (1 tablespoon of each.)

My mixture is too chunky to go through a spray nozzle so I will have to let it drain through a muslin clothe. (EDIT: I placed the mush in a strainer while we ate dinner and about 4 tablespoons of clear liquid has drained. So just so that you don't kill the plant - use one tablespoon to 1 each of oil and dishwashing liquid.)



Tomorrow it will be murder - in broad daylight :-)