Lots of things are made from plants, most notably, food, but lots of
other things are made from plants and some of those things can be made
at home from plants you probably have access to. The following is a list
of plant based products that can be made at home
Need a pre-emergent weed killer for your lawn or garden? It's called
corn meal. Actually it's the Corn Gluten in the meal that does the trick
but corn meal is about the closest thing you'll find in your local
grocery store or feed mill. Walnut shells ground to a powder will also
keep the weeds down. Try mixing either with vinegar and it becomes a
post-emergent and pre-emergent weed killer combined.
Combining ground hot peppers and garlic with water and soap or vegetable
oil works to repel most insects and mammals from anything you spray it
on. It's great for keeping the dogs from peeing on your tires or
sensitive plants and repels cats too. But it won't repel birds.
Orange, lemon and grapefruit peels can be pressed for oil that can be
mixed with water and and used to repel some kinds of birds. It will help
you keep your chickens from eating your garden before you do. Like the
repellent above, it's perfectly harmless when sprayed on and around your
crops.
Saponaria, soapwort, yucca, New Jersey tea plant, red clover, Chinese
soap berry, aloe, lavender and other plants can be used to make soap.
Even the lye in lye soap is a residue from the burning of wood. Flower
petals and the leaves of aromatic plants can be added if you want your
soap to smell pretty. Most commercially made soaps contain lye and palm
oil, coconut oil, olive oil or laurel oil.
Sawdust can be used as cat litter.
Sawdust and corn starch can be made into charcoal briquettes. The
sawdust must first be processed via pyrolysis-- burning in a low oxygen environment. Pyrolysis is what gives
bread a crust. Unlike Kingsford and other commercial briquettes, your
charcoal briquettes won't contain that nasty coal that is mined via
mountaintop removal.
