Parfum Macabre

I've had it up to here with aphids. They're everywhere! I've tried ladybugs and I've tried sprays ("natural" herbal ones) and nothing has worked besides hosing off the whole gourden. Hosing it off daily is not only laborious, but it over-waters the gourden.

So I decided to make my own spray. In our herb garden, there are some herbs that have become overgrown: tarragon, oregano, bolting cilantro, flowering thyme, and rosemary. I cut off enough to fill a blender and blended the herbs and simmered them in water, strained it through a mesh strainer to extract compostable matter, then strained it again through cloth so as not to clog the spray gun with small particles (this step is totally necessary). Then I put in some simple dish and hand soap (the "natural" kind, whatever that means), poured it into a spray bottle and shook it up.
I wound up with a dark green noxious elixir. To be somewhat scientific, I sprayed it on about half of the gourden to see what happens. This was last night, so when I checked this morning, there were fewer aphids, but this could be due to time of day or whatever, so I decided to wait 24 hours to draw any conclusions.