We dare say most vegetables gardeners are a bit obsessed with garden pests. Having had the distressing experience of their plants being unexpectedly ravaged by weather, disease or one or more of the many pests that prey on them, somehow, the demolition wrought by the latter always seems particularly galling. Discovering that your tender ministrations of vegetables from seed through seedling to hardy garden plant have all been for naught—because some marauding pests have eaten them as a midnight snack—can wreck your whole day.

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In our last post, Natural Bug Repellents, we discussed the benefits and How To’s of making your own “natural” sprays to stop insect pests from attacking your garden plants—using other plants you’ve grown from seed. In this installment (third in the series), we discuss homegrown solutions for discouraging insect pests from entering your yard, in the first place, as well as keeping them off your skin. Some people swear by essential oils, made from plants like peppermint, for example, a topic we touched on in the last post, but there are some other plant-based repellents you can grow and use to good effect as well.

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In our first post in this series, we outlined various ways to get rid of garden insect pests without resorting to commercial chemical pesticides which can create more problems than they solve. One alternative we touched on previously is to make your own (DIY) garden bug repellents using herb and vegetable plants you’ve grown from seed. While not a panacea for your garden woes, they can provide some measure of relief—both in the garden and elsewhere.

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