This list is by all means not conclusive –there are many other plants that work well together around the home to benefit the members of your family. If you have some good ones to add, let us know.

Alfalfa – This is an excellent plant for busting up hard clay soil. It also fixes the soil with nitrogen. Great to use with vermiculture for quickly transforming even the worst quality top soil into the  richest, most fertile soil possible.

Amaranth – There are some beneficial beetles that like amaranth, which also benefits sweet corn. Plant a fringe of amaranth next to your sweet corn patch. Amaranth is a very interesting grain that makes a yummy hot cereal, or jazzes up any bread recipe.

Anise – will repel aphids. Anise tends to host predatory wasps that will hunt many of the unwelcome types of insects.

Allium – use this near most vegetables (except beans and peas)  to repel aphids, carrot lifes, moles, weevils and tree borers. Allium can be part of a garden or tree border to help protect your plants from these pests.

Basil – helps to control flies, aphids, mosquitoes and mites. Great to use by asparagus and tomato plants for problems with hornworms or beetles.

Bay Leaves - not only can these be used to bring the awesome taste of fresh bay leaves to your soups and stews, the leaves help repel insects in general as they are growing. You can place any extra bay leaves around the kitchen (in the pantry) to repel roaches and ants.

Bee Balm – attracts beneficial bugs and bees, and improves the flavor of tomatoes.

Chamomile – plant chamomile around onions, cabbages and lettuces for better flavor. Chamomile is also wonderful for gently cleaning wounds (make a strong tea), as a shampoo additive to condition hair, or soothing tea to drink. Chamomile is also often used along with marigold as a border around gardens.

Chives – not only do chives add a delicious zip to any food, they repel many tomato and fruit pests, and are also known to enhance the flavor and growth of carrots.

Garlic - here’s another one that’s good everywhere, or as part of a border mix around the garden. Garlic repels practically everything -beetles, aphids, spider mites, weevils and borers.

Horseradish – encourages potato growth and has been shown to deter many types of potato bugs. Great to have on hand for a natural way to spice of the usual dishes.

Hyssop – deters cabbage moths around grapes and cabbage and may improve growth.

Lavender – this is a great ant repellent. Lavender can be used in teas, as a decorative element in flower arrangements, made into a tea or other solution for the homemade bath and beauty items. Lavender is a very useful and beautiful herb to have on hand. Plant with peppermint around the house foundation to discourage ant infestation.

Marigold – encourages the growth of tomatoes, strawberries, beans, roses and potatoes, as well as repels several types of insects and nematodes. Marigold should definitely be a part of any garden border mix.

Mint – fun herb to have on hand for cooking and cold drink making. Mint will improve the flavor and growth of nearby tomatoes and cabbage.

Mustard – is well known as a trap crop. Place it somewhat near cabbage, radishes, cauliflower or greens of any kind. It the mustard attracts an infestation, destroy the mustard. If not, you’ve got zesty mustard greens for salad, and veen dried mustard, depending on your dedication and abilities.

Nasturium – repels aphids, several kinds of beetles, squash bugs and white flies. Cucumber and squash benefit the most from nasturium.

Onion – is sort of like garlic in its generally efficient control of several types of pests. Onions repel cabbage moths, weevils, aphids, carrot flies, moles, rust flies, some nematodes and red spiders.

Oregano – benefits broccoli; repels cabbage moth.

Parsley – repels carrot flies, rose, and asparagus beetles. Plant near asparagus, carrots, tomato, and roses.

Peanuts – encourage the growth of squash and corn.

Peas - benefit corn by adding nitrogen.

Pennyroyal – deters ants, ticks, fleas, aphids and cabbage maggots. This is an excellent choice for a yard border, especially if you have pets. Also, cabbage, sprouts and broccoli will benefit directly from pennyroyal.

Peppermint – plant with lavender around the house to repel ants. Use peppermint for teas, cool drinks, headache slaves/lotions/ointments. Like lavender, peppermint can be very useful for making bath and body preparations.

Rosemary – repels mosquitoes as well as beetles, cabbage moths and slugs. Rosemary is another herb that’s great to use in a general border around the yard, or planted in pots around where people tend to hang out.

Rue – deters Japanese beetles; roses and raspberries will benefit.

Sage – tastes great, benefits carrots, and repels carrot flies an cabbage moths.

Soybeans – add nitrogen to the soil, so put them near corn or other nitrogen-sucker. Repels chinch bugs and Japanese beetles.

Savory – plant with beans to deter bean beetles and improve the growth and taste of beans.

Thyme – Useful near cabbage and in cooking. Repels cabbage maggots, cabbage moths and flea beetles.

Tomato – planted near roses will protect them from black spot.

Remember, starting a garden doesn’t have to be a huge ordeal. You can start as small as you want, with a potted herb garden. Using one of those Claw garden tools (you can get at any home or garden store) is actually pretty easy to use for putting in borders, and provides a good workout if you’re making long borders. Also a good tool for stirring up mulch near plant stems.

You might consider watering your plants via harvested rainwater.

For simple rainwater harvesting systems, you can install and connect everything in a couple of hours. In fact, it’s easy to start with a couple of barrels and then expand later on, as your budget or water demands/costs increase.

Harvesting rain water (any kind of rainwater harvesting system) has 4 subsystems: Capture, Conveyance, Holding, and Distribution. This is assuming that the captured water will be used for irrigation systems and not consumed directly by humans or pets, in which case there would also need to be Filtration and Purification subsystems.

In the average home rainwater harvesting system, the capture system is the roof of the house and/or other buildings nearby. The main issue that comes up with the capture system is debris clogging things up. For this reason, it may be best to install screens above the rain gutters. If the mesh is too small it will have to be cleaned more often, so it’s usually best to choose a screen that is somewhat larger than the average gauge used on window screens.

The conveyance system in this example of the average house is made up of the rain gutters, downspout, and typically a diverter, which separates the flow into multiple tubes, each going to a rain barrel.

The holding system will of course be the rain barrels in this case. For larger operations, or in a place where there is not enough room, large tanks may be used and buried underground to serve as the holding area of collected rainwater.

The distribution system is where things can get as complicated as you like, with submersible pumps and connections directly to sprinklers, etc, but can be as simple as filling your watering can from one of the rain barrels.

If you’re excited to get started building your own system, you might consider buying everything you need from a rainwater harvesting store, such as Aarron’s Rain Barrels. These kinds of one-stop shopping sites can get you started right away, but can be on the expensive side. Yet, the payoff is you can get a complete system all at one place.

For some more affordable DIY options, there are a number of free plans and guides online, as well as ideas on finding cheap rain barrels.

http://www.rain-barrel.net/ is a good source for information about the various components and getting it all put together. Check out the categories on the right to find what you’re looking for.

Or check out this guide on how to camouflage rain barrels using wire mesh and vines, for more focus on the aesthetics of rain barrels.

Start by watching your water needs. Be sure to keep conservation a part of the equation, and keep your eye on the future, expanding your system when necessary. Water rates are not going down and harvesting rain water can be a very good investment if done wisely.

There are so many ways that water can be used more efficiently. Did you know that there are systems for recycling grey water (gray water is the water that’s been used in laundry washing, showering and what goes down the sink.) to automatically feed flower beds or garden plots? Check back for more water conservation news and good luck with your rain water harvesting projects.

Mosquitoes are just another part of summer. Though it’s not likely you’ll ever get completely rid of them, there are some ways you can cut down on mosquito numbers so your outdoor gatherings can be more pleasant. Many of these tips also work at getting rid of ticks, so consider it a bonus, as ticks can carry Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Lawn Maintenance

Mosquitoes and ticks tend to live in grass that is tall, partly because of the length, and partly because if grass is tall that means it hasn’t been disturbed by walking/mowing humans. Keeping bushes and hedges trimmed will discourage ticks.

Standing Water

These pests also settle wherever water collects, so eliminating all standing water is important. Most of us think of this step, but be sure to consider even the smallest areas of standing water, such as clogged gutters, plant saucers, garbage cans and lids and birdbaths.

If you have a decorative pond you can stock it with mosquito-eating fish like Gambusia. Or you can use mosquito dunks which slowly release bacteria that kill bugs when they drink the water. These are considered safe to use near birdbaths and drinking water for animals, but should not be used directly on human drinking water. Though supposedly these are safe to place near areas where animals drink, just to be safe, I probably wouldn’t put these anywhere that your dog or cat might drink from.

Mosquito Repelling Granules

There are a few companies that sell all natural mosquito repelling granules, such as Dr. T’s Mosquito Repelling Granules. These are made of natural garlic and seem to be very effecttive for most people. You sprinkle them all around the yard where people tend to gather. They’re safe to use in or near water and last well even after a few rainstorms.

Green Mosquito Repellent and Larvae-Killing Yard Spray

If you want a simple, broad spectrum solution, then something like MQ7 GreenScience’s Mosquito Outdoor Control is perfect for attaching to the garden hose and spraying a perimeter around your yard where people tend to hang out. It’s made from all natural ingredients and is safe to use around animals and children. The repellent barrier and larvae-killing properties will last about 3 months.

Topical Bug-Repellent that’s 100% Natural

I’d been hearing some good things about Badger Balm Anti-Bug Balm, so I thought I’d give it a test run with the mosquito swarms here in Texas. I love this stuff. It works and doesn’t smell or feel like conventional bug spray. It comes in little tins and also a handy roll-on.

Along with unknown possible health risks that releasing such a large amount of genetically modified food to the public, there is the issue of biodiversity. There is the concern that GM crops will contaminate native species. The danger here is that native species are part of a great balance of biodiversity. There is simply not enough known about the effects of GM foods in terms of human health and nutrition, or in terms of environmental results and impact on biodiversity.

Citizens for Health says on its Web site:

Since half of the granulated sugar in the U.S. comes from sugar beets, the infiltration of GE sugar beets represents a significant alteration of our food supply. Unlike traditional breeding, genetic engineering creates new life forms that would never occur in nature, creating new and unpredictable health and environmental risks.

Under the Bush administration, the USDA approved Monsanto’s genetcially modified sugar beet seed without submitting an Environment Impact Statement (EIS). In January 2008, a lawsuit was filed which demanded that production be stopped on GM sugar beets until a valid EIS was prepared. Under the Obama administration, nothing has changed; the USDA still has not issued an EIS on Monsanto’s sugar beets.

Over 100 companies pledge not to use GM sugar in their products

Food companies and consumers have responded to this influx of GM sugar beets by creating the Non-GM Beet Sugar Registry. Add your food-related company to show your support and pledge to avoid GM beet sugar wherever possible, and to ask sugar beet industry not to introduce GM beet sugar into our food supply. If you know someone with a food-related business ask them to visit the registry above and add their voice to the cause.

Take Action

Since this is already happening, one of the best things we can do is contact government representatives, sugar companies and large candy companies and ask them not to use sugar from genetically modified sugar beets.

Send a Message to the Obama Administration

Let President Obama know how you feel about the FDA’s refusal to issue an EIS, and that you’re opposed to genetically modified foods. Send your feedback to Obama.

Ask Companies Not to Use Sugar from GM Sugar Beets

Some companies such as Hershey have agreed not to use GM sugar. Below are links to customer feedback forms of some of the top sugar and sugar-related companies. Ask that these companies refuse to use sugar from genetically modified sugar beets.

Contact American Crystal Sugar Company -the largest producer of beet sugar. If you have time to do only one thing, take a moment to send a message to American Crystal Sugar Co.

Contact Hershey’s

Contact M&M Mars

If you have some additional ideas for taking action, use the form below to leave a comment.