You do not need to buy costly chemical fertilizer or pesticide sprays.

Some good pesticides come straight from your kitchen cupboards.

This is a recipe for canola oil spray which suffocates soft body insects. Use one cup of canola oil and add to one gallon of water. Do not try to make it work better by using more canola oil, you could harm your plants.

Garlic spray also kills your soft bodied insects, use one bulb of garlic and blend it with two cups of water, leave it overnight and strain, mix it with one gallon of water and spray all over your plants.

If you have animals eating your plants, put some really hot peppers into your garlic spray, cut the hot peppers up finely and soak with your garlic overnight, again strain and mix with one gallon of water and spray all over your plants. Leave the seeds in when you add the hot peppers.

Place your pumpkins and other curcubits on a bed of sand, snails and slugs will not cross over the sand, this way you save on buying slug and snail bait. :o)

If you have powdery mildew on your curcubits, mix one part skim milk or nonfat milk to nine parts water and spray all over your plants.
In New Zealand the growers are saving thousands of dollars each year with this recipe.
It pays to use this recipe once a week as a preventative measure.
Do not put more milk in this recipe than 1 in 9, or your plants will get a fungus.

To kill flying insects use three to four tablespoons of ground cloves in one gallon of water, spray over your plants.

A dusting of boric acid can eliminate cockroaches, apply where they hang out, as always (keep out of the reach of pets or children)

Most of these homemade recipes need to be applied fortnightly for the maximum affect.