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How to Care for Your Natural Mosquito Repellent Plant

March 30th, 2010 Posted in Mosquitoes & Repellent

Now that spring has officially arrived, it’s only a matter of time before your garden is in full, beautiful bloom.

This year, grow plants that are not only beautiful, but helpful, too. Keep mosquitoes out of you hair with a natural mosquito repellent plant.

In fact, why not grow and care for a whole garden of them?

Read on to learn how to care for:

• Marigolds
• Catnip
• Rosemary

Marigolds

Marigolds are actually quite easy to grow and produce beautiful blooms. Marigold blooms come in a variety of colors, including white, yellow, orange, red or a mixture of these colors.

Once they bloom in mid-summer, marigolds will last (if cared for properly) until frost at the end of fall. Overall, they are one of the prettiest and easiest natural mosquito repellent plant to grow and care for.

Marigolds grow from seeds that can be directly sowed into your outdoor garden or moved outside from an indoor planter.

But experts recommend starting marigolds in pots and containers then transplanting them outdoors. This ensures you have proper spacing between plants.

For smaller varieties, space them 4 to 6 inches apart. Giant varieties require 1 to 2 feet.

Once outside, marigolds like full to partial sun while growing.

Here’s a step by step guide for this natural mosquito repellent plant:

• Sow seeds early in the season, cover lightly with soil
• Water thoroughly once
• Look for first blooms by mid-summer
• Keep soil rich and well drained
• Fertilize once a month

Once they’re established, marigolds are very hardy natural mosquito repellent plants.

Catnip

Catnip is not as easy as marigolds to grow and control. But follow certain guidelines and you can successfully grow this natural mosquito repellent plant.

The best tip to keep in mind about catnip is it is highly invasive. This means once it starts multiplying and spreading, it can be hard to control.

Once you purchase the seeds, be sure to find a spot in your garden with lots of sunlight and moisture in the soil.

Then follow these steps for this organic mosquito repellent plant:

• Fertilize the soil at least 2 to 3 times a year
• When you get the first stems with leaves, prune the leaves to multiply the stems (this leads to a thicker plant)
• If snow or frost is imminent, bring some of the plant inside to use at the beginning of next season.

In the right conditions, these plants will grow and thrive all year.

Rosemary

Rosemary is a beautiful, fragrant way to both decorate your garden and keep mosquitoes out of it.

In fact, rosemary is so useful for repelling mosquitoes, it’s used as an essential oil in EcoSMART’s all natural bug repellent.

Requirements for a healthy rosemary plant:

• Well-drained, sandy soil
• 6 to 8 hours of sunlight per day
• Warm, humid environments (rosemary cannot take extremely cold climates)
• Prefer drier soil than other plants

Keeping soil at the proper moisture level is key to successfully growing rosemary. Give the plant plenty of water when the soil is dry to the touch. But let the plant dry out between watering intervals.

Also, prune rosemary for a bushier natural mosquito repellent plant. But only trim once blooming has ceased.

And never take more than 1/3 of the plant at a time.

Follow these rules and your rosemary will be thriving and smelling great in no time.

You work hard on your property and you should be able to sit outside and enjoy it.

Keep mosquitoes out with these natural mosquito repellent plants that double as beautiful additions to any garden.