No-Skeeters

We don't want any of these at our wedding. We haven't been away from Cincinnati long enough to forget about the millions of mosquitoes that surround you when you walk through fields or go near ponds. Since our ceremony is in a field next to a pond, we wondered if these little blood sucking pests were going to be an issue. But do not fear, we have come up with a wonderful solution!

Introducing our solution to warding off mosquitoes....

I know it doesn't look like much yet, but give a few months.  I have learned that certain flowers and herbs repel bugs of all kinds...pests, blood suckers, and creepy crawlies. My favorite memory was using Yarrow on our counter to keep the colony of ants out of our second story kitchen. We never saw the ants again...and Yarrow is so pretty. 

I thought there may be a repellent that we could plant to ward off the skeeters that we could put in some planters I could bring down with me...and I was right! With Andy's research skills, we realized that Citronella is a plant, otherwise known as Lemon Grass.  We also found that other common plants help to repel those pesky creatures like Lavender and Thyme. There are plenty of plants out there too, if you wanted more options. We went to the garden store and bought some seeds and planted five different kinds today: two types of Lavender, Thyme, Feverfew (pretty white flower), and Lemon Balm.

This is were they will live until they grow a few inches. This is our make-shift green house. It works for us. The Thyme is on top and the other seeds are in the plastic covered container. They need warmth to germinate, that's why the lid is on.

When they have grown, all our plants will look like this. I hope to put them in two or four larger pots together to have around the ceremony site. Those, combined with a few Citronella candles, should keep those bugs away. We'll also have some bug spray on hand just in case!