More people are becoming concerned with the use of chemicals and pesticides on the produce they get at the stores. They are starting their own home gardens in record numbers. They want to grow organically, without synthetic chemicals or pesticides, but how can they do this and keep the insect and furry pests away at the same time?

The best way to do this is to select plants for your garden that will help control your insect pests. These plants will either invite beneficial insects or help repel the harmful ones. Using plants for pest control will help cut down on your workload in the garden, and is known as "Companion Planting." You will want to plant your companion plants at the same time you do your regular garden veggies for best results. (The Seed Guy has an Heirloom Seed package listed below that has 10 free herbs and companion plant seed varieties as a bonus). It is always important to experiment to find out what works best for your situation. Here are some of the best companion plants:

ARTEMISIA
This plant produces a strong antiseptic aroma that repels most insects. Planted as a border, it can also deter small animals like rabbits and moles.

BASIL
The oils in basil are said to repel thrips, flies and mosquitoes. Planted alongside tomatoes, will help you to grow larger, tastier tomatoes.

BEE BALM
I love this plant because it attracts bees to my garden. It is another plant that you can grow with your tomatoes.

BORAGE
Borage repels tomato horn worms and cabbage worms, and also attracts beneficial bees and wasps. Borage also adds trace elements to the soil. Borage flowers are edible.

CATNIP
This plant repels just about everything, including flea beetles, aphids, Japanese beetles, squash bugs, ants, and weevils.

CHIVES
Chives are great plants to repel Japanese beetles and carrot rust flies. It has also been said that chives will help prevent scab when planted among apple trees.

CHRYSANTHEMUMS
When I do use an insecticide I use one made from chrysanthemums called Pyrethrum. This all-natural pesticide can help control things like roaches, ticks, silverfish, lice, fleas, bedbugs, and ants in certain parts of the garden. In the garden, white flowering chrysanthemums are said to drive away Japanese beetles; and Painted Daisy kills root nematodes.

DAHLIAS
Dahlias repel nematodes, and the blooms are great for adding some color to flower borders and fresh arrangements.

DILL
Dill is best planted with cucumber and onion varieties. During the cool season It can also be planted with lettuce. Dill attracts hoverflies and predatory wasps, and its foliage is used as food by swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. Tomato horn worms are also attracted to dill, so if you plant it at a distance, you can help draw these destructive insects away from your tomatoes. Dill repels aphids and spider mites. Sprinkling dill leaves on squash plants will also repel squash bugs,

FENNEL
Repels aphids, slugs and snails.

GARLIC
In addition to its great taste and health benefits, garlic planted near roses repels aphids. It also deters coddling moths, Japanese beetles, root maggots, snails, and carrot root fly. When planted alongside onions, it also deters moles and mice.

HYSSOP
Hyssop is great for attracting honeybees to the garden, and you will need those for pollinating some of your veggies.

LAVENDER
Lavender is a favorite among many beneficial insects, including bees, and also repels fleas and moths.

MARIGOLDS
The marigold is probably the most well known plant for repelling insects. French marigolds repel whiteflies and kill bad nematodes. Mexican marigolds are said to keep away a host of destructive insects and wild rabbits as well. If you choose marigolds for your garden, they need to be scented ones to work as a good repellant. And while this plant drives away many bad bugs, it also attracts spider mites and snails -- which are good.

NASTURTIUMS
You can plant nasturtiums with tomatoes and cucumbers as a way to fight off wooly aphids, white flies, squash bugs, and cucumber beetles. The flowers, especially the yellow blooming varieties, act as a trap for aphids.

PETUNIAS
They are great to have for color in your garden, and you get the added benefit that they repel asparagus beetles, leaf hoppers, and a range of aphids, tomato worms, and a good many other pests.

ROSEMARY
Deters cabbage moth, bean beetles and the carrot fly

SUMMER SAVORY
Plant with beans and onions to improve growth and flavor. Include it with sweet potatoes. Discourages cabbage moths, Mexican bean beetles, sweet potato weevil and black aphids. Honey bees love it when it is in bloom.

SUNFLOWERS
I use Sunflowers as a way to draw aphids away from my other plants. Ants move their colonies onto sunflowers. The sunflowers are tough enough that they suffer no damage.

THYME
Deters cabbage worm

Danny Look is the owner of THE SEED GUY, which offers a 60 Variety Heirloom Seed package special that is Small Farm Grown, fresh from 2014 harvest, has 25,000 Seeds, and contains several of the companion plants listed above. (Note: They have added French Marigolds, Borage, and Summer Savory to the package. ) You will get 50 Veggie Seed varieties, and then 10 FREE Herb Seed varieties as a bonus. Their Facebook page has more than 31,800 likes. When you "like" it, you will be on their list for more gardening articles, new seed offerings and juice recipes.

A guest post by Amy Eden Jollymore

Lately we’ve been blogging (on our blogg) about the fall season and the aspects of transformation that accompany it. We’ve shared thoughts about fortifying our guts to fight fall germs and the benefits and deliciousness of fermented foods. But is there room for further transformation and health?

Might it be time to practice new, healthier habits? We think so.

Last week, Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist forThe New York Times, published an article about the shocking levels of toxins we’ve absorbed into our bodies as a result of living in this chemical-saturated era. (He also pointed out that chemical companies spent $55 billion dollars on lobbying the government this year! Dow Chemical was the top spender, but this list of spending on lobbying by chemical companies also includes the Vinyl Institute and International Paper).

Kristof’s well-done article, This is Your Brain on Toxins, makes the point that what we want for our bodies isn’t what manufacturers of chemicals want; just as lead was “good for you” according to the National Lead Company decades ago, being told that endocrine-disruptor chemicals like BPA are “safe” just isn’t true. It’s hard to know whom to trust.

BPA is a chemical that mimics hormones (and it’s not just found in plastics). BPA alters our endocrine system, which regulates metabolism growth and development, tissue health, and sleep–its side-effects show up as early-onset of puberty, hyperactivity, learning disabilities, reproductive health problems, increased risk of breast and prostate cancer, obesity and diabetes.

Want to reduce your exposure to chemicals? We do! Here are 5 ideas for reducing your interaction with toxins.
 
1.  No Receipt, Thank You
Did you know that thermal paper contains BPA (hormone disruptors)? What is thermal paper, you might ask? It’s the kind of paper that spits out your receipt at the gas pump, restaurants, taxis, the grocery store, and even concert tickets. (If you’re wondering if the people whose job it is to hand receipts to people are at risk–yes, very much so. People who handle cash registers as part of their job have 30% higher levels of BPA in their bodies than the rest of us.) So, do reconsider accepting receipts, because when you’re handed a receipt for a purchase, you’re being handed some BPA. It seeps from the paper right into the skin and the bloodstream. If you’re asked, “Would you like your receipt?” after paying for your groceries, you’re not just saving paper and trees by saying, “No,” you’re also reducing your chemical exposure.

Some encouraging news: in late 2012, Suffolk County, NY became the first county in the United States to pass a law banning the use of thermal paper containing BPA to generate receipts (you can read about that here). Let’s hope the ban spreads across the nation.

2. Reduce Plastic Use (and Never Microwave Plastic!)
It’s a shock for some, because microwaves seem to be synonymous with plastic containers, right? We put leftovers in a plastic container, then pop it into the microwave the next day to reheat it. Easy, yes. Toxic, yes. Why not microwave food in plastic? When plastic is heated, the chemicals its made of are reactivated–they come alive again–and flow into your food…then into you. Use glass containers or ceramic plates. The natural next question: if microwaves release toxins in plastic, should I be putting food in plastic, ever? Not really. There are plenty of glass alternatives–and Ball brand jars are cheap and easy to use (and as of 2013 the metal lids of Ball jars are BPA-free).

Not all plastics are alike. Every plastic container has a number stamped on its bottom. The most toxic plastics worthy of avoiding are these three, particularly when in contact with heat, which are intended for single-use and cannot be recycled:  #3, #6 and #7. Plastic #3 is PVC (contains endocrine-disruptors called phthalates), which is used in shrink wrap, deli wrap, table cloths, blister packs for medicine, and some flooring; plastic #6 is polystyrene, a.k.a., styrofoam (contains chemicals that impact the nervous system) is used in take-out containers and coffee cups; and plastic #7 is the code for “other,” mystery, and polycarbonate plastics (with unknown chemical compositions), which are used in water bottles and baby bottles.

You might be wondering, What about our yogurt? Ours, like all yogurts in plastic containers, come in #5, which is called polypropylene, and not on the toxic plastic list. Curious about how to recycle our containers? Read all about it here in this post, How to Recycle our Packaging.  

Easy solutions? Have a couple of stainless steel water bottles on hand as well as a couple ceramic travel mugs (car, office, etc.) and you will not only save a bit of money, you’ll reduce your chemical exposure on a daily basis. And honestly, tea and coffee just taste better sipped from a real mug.
 
3. Cleaner Cleaning Products
Unless you’ve mastered the art of not breathing while cleaning your house, you’re inhaling chemicals. Yet, there’s not much you can’t clean around the house with these 3 non-toxic ingredients:   

- lemon juice
- white vinegar
- baking soda (or large grain Kosher salt)

You can use water+vinegar on hardwood floors, windows and mirrors and water+baking soda on stove tops, ovens, bathroom sinks, toilets, showers and tubs. For more ideas–like how to use ketchup to shine pots–refer to Good Housekeeping’s website thedailygreen.com.

Psst:  if vinegar isn’t a scent you enjoy, add a few drops of lavender oil.

4. Organic Fruits & Vegetables
This is an oldie, but goodie. It’s an easy one to achieve–and tastes so good. Eating organic 101: pesticides, the poison sprayed on our food while it’s growing to keep bugs off and retard weeds, is bad for us. It’s really, really bad for our bodies. You can scrub that apple all you like, but if it’s not organically grown (or grown by a local farmer) it’s a poisoned apple (89% of the pesticide residue will be there after washing). Many pesticides are carcinogens and have been linked to depression, birth defects, ADHD, Diabetes, and even Parkinson’s–as well as, recently, death in bees. Is there really anything more to say?

Eat organically-grown fruits and vegetables.

An alternative to organically-grown fruits and vegetables is buying food from local farmers, local CSAs, and farmer’s markets. Some farmers aren’t certified organic but practice organic farming or better-than-organic farming. Feel free to ask the farmers how they deal with bugs and if they use pesticides, which is a great way to begin a relationship with the person who grows your food.

Smári wrote about why he chose organic milk for our yogurt in this post, The Half-Life of Fake Food.
 
5. Wash Your Body with Fewer Chemicals 
What’s in your shower gel? What are you washing your face with? You may not want to know! Yet what we rub into our skin goes into our bloodstream, so it’s worth giving  though to. There are some incredibly toxic chemicals inside the bottles in our bathrooms–from sunscreen to shampoo and soap to our lotion and toothpaste.  To find out what’s in there, check out the site Skin Deep at skindeep.com. They’ve been around a while and have an incredibly deep database of products to search–in fact, 78,000 products.

Grab a couple of your bathroom products, and type their names into the Skin Deep search engine. If you use Cetaphil’s gentle cleansing bar soap on your face, your soap gets a 3 score, which is pretty good (1 is best and 10 is super-toxic). But if you use Revlon powder blush or Michael Kors men’s body shampoo, both are rated with high-toxicity scores of an 8 each for their cancer-causing ingredients. Check it out here.  Skin Deep has data on products for men and women and children. To find out about alternatives to what you’re using, just browse by category–they’ll show the cleanest, greenest products on top.  

Think how clean you’ll soon feel.

Happy transformational fall! 

-Amy

#beaviking

Amy Eden Jollymore is a writer, editor, and blogger based in Petaluma, CA. Find more of her posts at smariorganics.com