Organic gardening with peppermint oil

Alright, so I have been hearing all this information about essential oils in the garden.  I am all about my property remaining organic, so I was very interested in learning more.  From all I have seen so far, peppermint is recommended as a general beginners oil for gardeners.  It can fight against many different bugs and also support the plants.  So I decided to start trying it out to see how it worked. I have had something eating the leaves of my new banana plants.  They were covered in black spots and getting holes.

These tiny baby plants were vulnerable and needed some good protection.  So I added 2 drops of doTERRA peppermint oil to 1 oz. of water in my little glass spray bottle.

 I have been misting my plants every other day and they are starting to come back super strong!!

Don't those new growth leaves look good!!  

I have also tried a mixture of about 15 drops each of peppermint and eucalyptus and 5 drops of wintergreen and about 4 ounces of water to kill hatchling spiders and those caterpillars that sting that were nesting in the apple trees.  This worked wonderfully and did not harm to the trees.

I noticed today that my oregano had a few spots that also had black spots but it was raining so tomorrow it will get a good spritz of my peppermint spray.

In the background of those pictures are the first of the raspberry harvest.  I ran out of Raspberry Jelly months ago.  Quite frankly, I have been heartbroken!  I will not make that mistake again!!  No seriously, if you haven't made homemade jelly before, this is the one to do.  It is totally worth it.  You have thorns, boiling hot berries, seeds, juice stains, and a great arm work out from squeezing the berries through the cloth, but make it!!  It is delicious and worth the effort.  There are a ton of berries on the vines this year, I just need to get out and forage for more than what grows here.  Raspberry Jelly is my favorite, not to mention the cobbler, ice cream, syrup, muffins, and everything else we can make.  The main problem I have now is that we have probably harvested well over a pint so far and I have nothing to show for it because my tiny one eats them as fast as they hit the basket.  I am alright with extra berry picking for us this year!!  Let berry season commence!!