Juli Lawrence – Rakish Gardening

July 16th, 2008

Here’s a link to the instructions from Gardens Alive about Kaolin Clay.

This says it also can help with deer and rabbit damage. Good to know. I saw a cutie rabbit in the neighbor’s yard yesterday. I really miss my neighbors’ pet rabbits. I got free poo.

This clay will also repel (according to the info) Jap. beetles, cuke beetles (the reason I bought it), leafhoppers (I had a major infestation the first year I went organic), thrips, aphids and many, many more. I’m going to try and remember to take my camera outside when I go to spray and do before and after. I’ve seen pics of plants sprayed with it, and it’s not very attractive. But even though I do enjoy the beauty of my cucurbits climbing their teepees, I’m more about live plants than the look.

There really don’t seem to be many gardeners using this stuff. Maybe it’s too new? To me, it seems like the perfect stuff because it doesn’t actually kill anyone, which means your beneficials are safe. I dunno.

So I’m headed out now to start the spraying. Hopefully this is bye bye to the Japanese beetles, at least on the hibiscus (not blooming yet), and ciao to the cucumber beetle and his dirty mouth.

• Aphids at the nursery!
• Keeping squirrels out of the bird feeder
• First monarch!
• Squirrels are still behaving

Tags: kaolin clay
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