Shred Soap With a Grater for This Crazy Cool Gardening Hack

12 Materials
$10
30 Minutes
Easy

It's springtime here and I'm busy getting my garden and apple tree ready. I get those pesky rabbits, squirrels, voles, aphids, and more in mine during gardening season - how about you? I thought I would share a few tips on things I use to keep those pests out of my garden. You can see more of my crazy creations here

I've had my garden in this home for about 16 years now. We have learned if you have rabbit around, you'll definitely want a fence that will keep them out! We bought this fence at our local hardware store and used screws and fence clips to attach it to our fence. Don't forget to block off gate entryways as well. I put a row of rocks on the inside of my gate so the pests cannot sneak underneath it.

Marigolds are amazing flowers and give off a terrible smell deterring rabbits and deer. My grandma taught me to plant these in my garden.

Animals don't like reflective things and get scared by movement. I put these simple pinwheels that I find at Dollar Tree to put in my garden to keep pests out.  

Irish Spring Soap will deter pests like rabbits, deer, voles... as they don't like the smell. I grate up some soap with a cheese grater.  

Sprinkle the shredded soap around your garden &/or flower beds.

Put egg shells in your garden - why? It's said to deter deer, birds eat them thus keeping them out of our plants, and they add calcium to your garden as they decompose. I use them to deter slugs, this has gotten mixed reviews but it seems to work for me.

I get voles in my both my vegetable and flower gardens almost every year. To keep them out I have learned to place moth balls in a mesh bag and hang then from a shepards hook in my garden. They don't like the smell.

Sprinkle red pepper flakes in your garden. It's known to deter rabbits, deer, skunks, raccoons, cats, dogs. It irritates their lungs and skin, and it will deter not harm animals.

Keep nocturnal animals away by adding solar lights to your garden.  

Use a dish soap garden spray to keep bugs like aphids, and beetles off your plants. Works on both vegetable and flower plants. Make a pepper spray to make your plants taste bad to those pests trying to nibble on your leaves. You can find my full tutorial on how to make these amazing sprays here:

https://www.hometalk.com/diy/outdoor/pest-repeller/save-your-garden-sprays-28593963

Feed those pests somewhere else to keep them away from your garden. I made this bird feeder by E6000 a cup to a plate. I put water in the cup, and birdseed on the plate. This keeps the birds away from my garden. You can set scraps of lettuce and other items away from your garden for other animals too. They'll get used to eating there so they won't have to go scavenge in your garden.

The squirrels in my apple tree make me crazy! They eat the bark off in the winter when they need food (as do rabbits), and they eat one bite out of an apple and throw it on the ground. GRRR. So I wrap the base of the trunk in tinfoil. This deters them from climbing up the trunk and they don't like how it's reflective.  

I also add these repurposed CD wind spinners along with bells, chimes, etc to my tree. If the squirrels jump on a branch the bells ring scaring them away, and the cd spinners reflect the light as well as create movement which they don't like as well. You can find my full tutorial here about these:

https://www.hometalk.com/diy/outdoor/garden/repurposed-cds-get-rid-of-critters-beautiful-wind-spinner-17259487


Now one tip I have is that animals will get used to the items you put in your garden to keep them out. I recommend moving things around every once and a while to change things up and throw them off.


I would love to have you stop by my blog   Chas' Crazy Creations  for the full tutorial as well as sign up for my latest creations, posts, recipes, exclusives, and more...



I would love for you to subscribe to my YouTube channel to see more of my crazy creations - https://www.youtube.com/c/chascrazycreations


Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Chas' Crazy Creations
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
3 of 130 questions
  • Sherial Sherial on Jun 30, 2020

    What do you use to get rid of moles? Any idea on hand,?

  • Ove69245459 Ove69245459 on Sep 09, 2022

    Does it have to be Irish Spring soap?

    we dn’t have that here.

  • Kim Sparks Kim Sparks on Sep 05, 2023

    The only problem with the mothballs, is I can also smell them when the windows are open or I am sitting outside.

Comments
Join the conversation
6 of 233 comments
Next