Cayenne Onion Garlic Garden Spray

Every year we plant our vegetable garden by seed somewhere around the May long weekend (I will eventually get the hang of starting my seeds indoors I promise!). And each year we have a larger and larger squirrel problem. I think the neighbourhood wildlife has figured out that we are the only ones growing food and now they come in packs!

Determined to keep the little guys out of my bed this year I researched an all natural spray as an option. Between this and the garden fencing we put up around the beds we seem to be in good shape! Might be the first year that I don’t have zucchini plants popping up all over my yard.

What You’ll Need

  • food process or blender
  • spray bottle
  • strainer, cheesecloth etc
  • 1 large cooking onion
  • 5-6 garlic cloves
  • 1 tbsp cayenne
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 4 cups of warm water

Instructions

  • Peel and chop your onions into large pieces & peel your garlic
  • Place all of your ingredients (including water) into your blender or food processor
  • If you are using a food processor I would recommend pulsing with only one cup of water and adding your remaining 3 cups afterwards because most food processors leak
  • Once you have everything finally pulsed/chopped place the whole mixture in a glass jar and let it sit overnight (any longer and I recommend putting it in the fridge)
  • After 12-24 hours you will want to strain out the garlic and onions
  • Pour your mixture into a spray bottle and pat yourself on the back for making something natural and homemade!

In the Garden

There are a few ways to use this spray. You can use it directly on your soil (which is what we did mostly). You can also choose to spray your garden boxes directly to deter them but the cayenne will sting a bit so if you have little kiddos I might not recommend this use.

We are still playing with how often you need to spray and this will be largely determined by how my visitors you get.

Traditional pesto calls for pine nuts, but being frugal I opted for almonds. Feel free to substitute in pine nuts, walnuts or cashews.

Good luck, thanks for reading and let me know how your homemade garden spray works out!

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