Hi Michelle - Welcome to your first year of gardening! First, did you harden off your seedlings before planting them in the ground? If not, your first task should be to search on "hardening off plants", very important. If you didn't gradually adjust them to the outdoors, your wind damage and wilting could be from moving the outside too quickly. As for the bug: definitely NOT a squash bug. Even blurry. The body shape and posture remind me of one of the flies. I can't think which one at the moment (and can't find my book), but that fly is either a good bug or a harmless one. For the leaf damage/holes, my guess would be slugs. With the rain, they have been atrocious in my garden. Go outside at night with a flashlight and check under the leaves. I used an iron phosphate based bate (Sluggo, etc) for the first time this year. It's organic, safe around pets and should only kill the slugs. Or, you can try cat food cans with beer. They love beer and drown in it. The small white spots could also be flea beetles. The more people I talk to in the Philadelphia area, the more stories I hear about really bad flea beetles this year. I should know what the white stuff is. I know I've seen it before. An chance of getting a less blurry picture? It can be tricky unless you have a macro function on your camera. My gut instincts are saying the fluff is from one of the trees that are pollinating right now. Just a note about your squash: it does not transplant well if the roots are disturbed, especially if it is big and root bound. You could try to transplant yours, but you may just want to direct seed in the garden. Good luck! Bellatrix

I agree thoroughly...and have done everything possible to GET organic material of ANY kind. Wrote to our Commisioner of Agriculture, TOMMY IRVIN, UGA, and wrote to and visited the Ag. Extension folks...NOTHING. Called the City and the County Solid Waste Mangement folks and drove to the landfills...NO LUCK. Advertised in the Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin. Called the local Auction Barn. Wrote to various stables. Funny that while folks pay tippage fees to dump organics at the landfills, the leaves and even wood trimmings are taken there by private contractors for the city and county. Drove around countless neighborhoods looking for bags, but vacuums now pick up the leaves. Advertised to the stable owners. and poisted signs at every feed and seed store trying to reach the cattlemen and chicken farmers, most of whom now are locked in to the mega-corps. Drove thirty miles for one pickup load and paid a premium for questionable material. Yes, I have a compost mound in place, vermiculture susytem in place, and even Bokashi ready to start, but have never had trouble in other states getting organic matter to compost...odd with the number of farmers. Even the Whole foods and groceries want give away trimmings anymore. Whoile foods send every bit to make their own 9.00 a bag compost and the grocers see it as a liability...and I have been to Ingles, Publix, and Krogers. Hard to start with the soil when you have to purchase every little bag at huge prices. GEORGIA...I NEED ORGANIC MATERIAL!

Organic gardening methods and products run the gamut between the absolutely useless to the amazingly effective. No one opinion here, or other places is enough information. Only research will give you sound advice on what works and what is a waste of time and money. Many products proffered on the "organic gardener" are sold to the uninformed as miracle products that do nothing except part you from your money, and some can do more harm than good. Here is a piece that I wrote for my blog on how I determine whether or not to try something. Howling at the moon while wearing a tutu and other miracle cures. Before I go on, know that I am fully in favor of natural ways to control diseases and insects or to keep plants healthy and I always like to find ways to substitute such methods for conventional chemicals. That said it also annoys me to see the amount of snake oil sold to the uninformed. So how do I determine if a new miracle product is worth a try? First through my experience and education I look for a reasonable explanation of why it might work. Second I look for independent scientific studies and if I can find more than one or two I look for a consensus. Third I look to other trusted people who have tried the method or product. And fourth because I am in business I look at cost benefit analysis to other methods. This may not be important to someone else, and indeed in my own yard is not a big factor. Lets take three scenarios and see how this works for me. 1. A few people have told me that applying Wilt Pruf periodically before rain will help control Black Spot on roses. My experience and education tell me that there is a reason why this could work. Black Spot is a water transmitted disease, thus if a waxy coating is on the leaf when the spore hits it the hyphae might not be able to grow through it. I checked for scientific studies and can find none for or against this claim. I talked to some people I trust and found that they do believe it is a benefit. Wilt Pruf is expensive, but for reasons not relevant to this writing it was worth a try. I have tried it and believe it does what I have been told. When I tell others of this claim I tell them that I believe it works but that my experience is not by any means scientific. By the way applying any product not for the use intended is against the law so apply Wilt Pruf to deter wilting, as I did, and if it happens to control Black spot then all is good. 2. I hear that Corn gluten is a good pre-emergence weed killer. My experience and education tell me that there is no good reason this will work, but also I know nothing of the theory so have no solid reason why it will not. I checked for research and can find one study from the University of Iowa that claims it works. (Hmm interesting, what do they grow in Iowa?) The majority of studies give no credence to this research. The consensus is that though it has some limited control on some weeds it is a poor pre-emergence weed killer. I checked with people who have actually tried it and I gathered from what I heard that the only way this product might work is if they left the unopened bag on the ground, no weeds would grow underneath it. Corn gluten is expensive and I like my wallet full more than I dislike weeds. I have no intention of trying this product unless I hear compelling scientific evidence that I am wrong. 3. I read on the Internet that howling at the moon while wearing a tutu will stop Borers infesting my Pumpkins. Through my education and experience I see no reasonable reason why this would work and can think of many reasons why it won't. I checked for scientific studies and surprisingly enough could find none. I asked people I trusted and they are now inquiring about having me committed. I don't think that tutus are very expensive so cost is not a factor. Once again there is no reason to try this method except that it might annoy my neighbor who is a perpetual pain in the but. So in conclusion do your research before spending your hard earned cash on the newest miracle product. I may have posted this already, but a search did not find it so forgive me if you have seen it already.

Merci, Marc-Olivier. Please click on the link to see the photos... The wound appears to be drying up since I removed the brown substance a few days ago. There is no evidence of animal life near the wound. Is it possible that the damaged section will simply heal over? Additionally, this tree is three years old and 26" (65 cm) high. Can anyone advise whether (and where) it should be pruned? Thanks! Kathleen Here is a link that might be useful: Fig Photos HERE