I’m going to share with you how I use Essential Oils for Gardening, and then I’ll share my Gardening Basket that I made just for you and here’s why…

As I am entering my second year of gardening here at Sur le Rocher I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the ways I keep my garden organic and happy. I get asked all the time about essential oils in the garden, so forgive me for how LONG it took me to get around to writing about it.

Most of us who are gardening and growing vegetables are doing it as a way to provide ourselves and our families with naturally grown produce. We’ve opted out of the Frankenfoods world. We don’t want to eat “produce” that tastes like cardboard and we DON’T want to worry about the fungicides, herbicides and pesticides that conventional, store-bought produce is covered in.

Enter: Essential Oils in the garden.

These days, Essential Oils are pretty darn mainstream. Most people are using them in one for or another, and if you’ll humour me while I touch the tip of the iceberg on why you should avoid oils from the grocery store or the end cap of a TJ Maxx aisle… I promise I’ll be pithy, but you’ve GOT to know this. It’s good stuff and you can see me rant about it here.

WHY use dōTERRA for Essential Oils for Gardening?

Stay with me here ’cause I promise I will tell you what oils I use in my garden.

But I know you. You’re reading this blog. That means in some way, you and I are like minded. So how about these deets:

 

Exploitation is RAMPANT in the world of essential oils.

Small, impoverished farmers are often the last concern in this fast growing world of essential oils. Many, many oils are harvested from poor, third world countries and it is not uncommon for the farmers and their families to be not considered at all.

dōTERRA has stepped into this market and has taken out the middle man. They work hand in hand with the farmers (many of whom have been growing their crop for generations!). They pay their farmers in advance, not based on the daily markets. This means, that if that orange needs to hang on the tree a bit longer so that YOU can get the most effective, powerful Wild Orange Oil on the market, that fruit can hang there until it’s peak ripeness with no pressure on the farmer to pull it.

dōTERRA is as much a philanthropic company as they are an oil company and they step into these communities, paying a more than fair wage, digging wells, building schools and more.

 

Chances are that you care about sustainable agriculture just like I do.

We must bring this commitment out of our personal gardens and into our choices for essential oils too.

Cheaper is NOT better in the world of essential oils. For a glimpse and doTERRA’s commitment to sustainability in the world of oils, check out this video of how we harvest Frankincense, one of the most ravaged of all essential oils crops.

I mention these things because I know, it’s easy to think, “Well, for my garden, I’ll use the cheap stuff and I’ll save the good stuff for my body.” But our decisions affect more than just ourselves…

 

The sex trade is out of control in many communities where oils are harvested.

Not only can the farmer be exploited, but his family can as well. The sex trade is a huge problem in the communities where many of the crops for essential oils are grown.

dōTERRA is committed to helping rescue children from the sex trade and has partnered with Project Underground Railroad to do so. They educate in these rural communities, provide toiletries and necessities for children recently rescued and more. Read more here.

 

“Pure” doesn’t mean what it should.

Essential oils are not regulated by the FDA. Which is why fly-by-night companies are popping up all the time.  Take the latest scandal concerning “Revive”, a company claiming to be “just like doTERRA but without the price”. A recent letter from doTERRA showed some of the APRC’s (Aromatic Plant Research Center) research:

APRC scientists have clearly identified synthetic markers in many Revive essential oils. For example, Revive’s Lavender has clear markers indicating that the oil has been adulterated, likely by the broker(s) from whom they purchased the oil. For an oil like Lavender, sophisticated brokers can easily add synthesized compounds at a rate of 50% or more of the total product. This significantly reduces the average cost of their product and thus improves the margin for the broker(s). It is clear that Revive’s Lavender essential oil contains Synthesized Linalyl Acetate as indicated by the presence of Linalool Oxide Acetate markers. These markers are hard for most labs to detect. However, because of the extensive experience of APRC’s scientists, including Dr. Prabodh Satyal, PhD, who has studied the chemical composition of more than 20,000 essential oils and who specializes in essential oil adulteration detection technique by marker-based analysis, these markers have been clearly identified in Revive Lavender essential oil.

 

Anyone can make oil, but by growing the crops in their native habitat dōTERRA brings you the most effective and pure oils on the market. Goodness knows I can go out to my potager and grow lavender and make lavender oil, but it would have NOTHING like the chemical compounds found in lavender oil that was sourced in France and Bulgaria where conditions are completely ideal. Think wine, coffee, chocolate,…and all the different French cheeses, friends…. sourcing matters and it’s another area where dōTERRA is king.

And you and your garden deserve the best, so let’s do this! Here’s what’s in my Essential Oil Gardening Basket:

Firstly – It’s all about me. And it’s all about you. We work HARD, don’t we?

In the last year, I’ve hauled thousands of stones, shoveled TONS of pea gravel and plunged my shovel into the ground more times than a person could count. Gardeners deal with pain all the time and because of our addiction and love for our gardens, we work through it. My secret weapon is Deep Blue Rub. It’s dōTERRA’s answer to BioFreeze. Blue Chamomile, Frankincense, Blue Tansy, Camphor. I was in a horrendous car accident as a child and still have back pain (despite years of doctors) and this is the ONLY thing that brings me relief. So, when I’m sore from weed pulling or hoeing or hauling gravel, wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow… Deep Blue is my JAM!

While we’re still focusing on US, let’s talk about Copaiba.

Copaiba is the essential oil answer to CBD oil. “It seems that CBD has flooded the marketplace and can be found in every product imaginable, from mascara to doggy treats. Amidst this excitement, however, there are a few reasons you should remain cautious. The FDA acknowledges, “[S]ome companies are marketing products containing cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds in ways that violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) and that may put the health and safety of consumers at risk.”⁸ 

There is relatively little medical and scientific research regarding CBD. This is due in large part to legal and research limitations. Some studies indicate promising benefits, but the research is young, and it is still too early to come to any definitive conclusions about the perceived health benefits of CBD.”  Read more here because it’s simply fascinating, but know that inflammation from overworked muscles can be a huge source of the gardener’s aches and pains. I swear by Copaiba!

 

Ok, we’ve taken care of our sore muscles, now let’s take care of our gardens!

Kill Weeds with Essential Oils

I tell you what. I hate Monsanto (I’ve seen people call them “Monsaten” which makes me laugh out loud), but darned if it wouldn’t be so great to just HOSE the weeds in my rock wall with some nasty Round-Up and be done with it. Instead, I’ve been using a Hudson Sprayer, a gallon of Vinegar and a bottle of Cinnamon Bark oil. I’ve found that the vinegar alone (as recommended on many sites) doesn’t do the trick, but the Cinnamon Bark Oil puts some serious oomf on it!

 

Essential Oils for Cabbage Fly, Cutworms and Japanese Beetles

I LOVE companion planting as a way to naturally keep pests at bay. Avoiding a monoculture type garden and companion planting can be amazing but you can also use the power of complimentary oils in your garden…

Cutworms, Cabbage fly and Japanese Beetles hate Thyme oil. You can use a spray bottle with a couple of cups of water and twenty drops of oil and spray the tops and bottoms of the leaves of your plants. (You’ll need to respray after the rain). You can also make a little knot of cheesecloth tied to a stick and stake it next to each plant.  Apply a couple of drops of oil to each knot of cheesecloth and stake it at the base of your plants. Thyme oil also confuses mites in beehives!

 

Essential Oils for Slugs and Aphids

I apply the same method as above, only I use Cedarwood oil to repel aphids and slugs in the garden, not to mention it’s a lovely fragrance for your man to rock. I use it at night with Lavender oil to help fall asleep when I can’t turn off my mind when it’s whirling with plans for my garden!

 

Amending Your Soil with Lavender Essential Oil and Comfort Bee Stings Too!

I have even read that amending your soil with lavender is a viable option for pore soil. A couple drops around the base of each plant. I haven’t tried this myself yet, but I thought I’d add it here for your information. Lavender is a MUST have for bug repellent, bee stings and sunburn. I’d never be without it. You simply MUST have it around for the gardening season.

 

Essential Oils for Ticks

As a midwest girl, I can’t think of ANYTHING that grosses me OUT more than a TICK! We’ve seen them on doorframes, gas cans and more this year.

We are VIGILANT about nightly tick checks when we all come in for the evening.  We look like the ape exhibit at the zoo. We don headlamps and comb through each other’s hair. Weird? Yes, but if you’ve ever known a family or individual devastated by Lyme’s disease, then you can understand.

To prevent ticks during the day we keep another Hudson sprayer on hand filled with two gallons of water, three bottles of witch hazel, and a bottle of each of the following oils:  Cedarwood, Lemongrass, Terrashield and Lavender. We spray down head to toe before heading out into the garden and woods. If that seems heavy handed… call me when you move to Wisconsin. 🙂

This combo is great for mosquitos and fleas too and we’ve been known to give a very light mist to our farm animals during really buggy periods. In all the time we’ve been checking for ticks we have NEVER found one.  Knowing the tick population here, I can only attribute that to our trusty Hudson sprayer and concoction.

Note also: Lemongrass mimics the pheromone that honey bees make and can be used when trying to catch a swarm of bees!

 

Spearmint Oil for Bee Hive Mites and More

When mixed with water and liquid soap, Spearmint oil can control ants, aphids, caterpillars, moths, gnats, black flea beetle and plant lice, but the most common use on the farm for Spearmint oil is in the beehives.  Spearmint (along with Lemongrass) oil can be mixed into sugar water to help control mites in your beehive.   Make a 2.5 cups water to 2.5 cups of sugar syrup for your feeder and eight drops of spearmint (and 8 drops of Lemongrass). Please know, I am a NOVICE beekeeper and you may feel more comfortable doing further research on this particular method.

 

Well, there you have it, from sunburn relief to cutworms. That’s my Essential Oils Gardening Basket. And guess what? I’ve made it super easy. You can click THIS LINK and see the full basket and delete or add whatever you think is appropriate for you and your garden! I’ll get a notice that you’re a new member of my dōTERRA family and send you some treats too… freebies shipped with love from us here in Door Country.

Organic Gardening IS POSSIBLE!

Whether or not you choose to use oils in your garden, may I encourage you that organic, sustainable gardening IS POSSIBLE! It takes a little more effort and research (which I’ve tried to do for you here) but you CAN do it! Your convictions about food and having a clean garden are noble, they matter, and you CAN do it! And if gardening isn’t your thing, I’ll bet there is a committed organic farm within just a few miles who would be happy to serve you!

Check out your gardening basket by clicking here!  You can add to or delete whichever items are best for you and your garden.

I’d be happy to support you in your natural gardening efforts!

à bientôt!