Home - Garden
How Rosemary
Can Keep
Your Garden
Thrip-Free
By ROSE OKEKE
Thrips can cause severe damage to your garden by literally sucking the life out of the plants. Thankfully, rosemary is a natural way to get rid of these almost microscopic pests.
A member of the sage family, rosemary contains phytochemicals that act as a natural deterrent against thrips, which use their olfactory senses to find suitable plants to feed on.
You can grow rosemary in your garden to help deter thrips, or create a rosemary oil to harness the plant’s essence and spray it directly onto the infested part of your garden.
To create the rosemary oil, place about six sprigs of freshly plucked and cleaned rosemary inside a jar, leaving some breathing room around each sprig.
Pour in olive oil until all the sprigs are covered, and stir to ensure the air bubbles rise to the surface. Keep the jar in a sunny place for at least two weeks before use.