None of the pictures seem to be showing up for me so I can't see anything that you are talking about. One thing you mentioned was blossom end rot. Just so you know, this isn't a disease. Blossom end rot happens when something keeps calcium from getting to the developing fruit fast enough. It is a calcium deficiency but don't let it trick you into thinking that your soil is deficient. It seems more common on earily fruit and plants often grow out of it. It is sometimes due to irratic moisture or letting the roots get dried out which impairs their ability to take up the calcium that is in the soil. There are some sprays out there that can help keep developing fruits from suffering the problem though once a fruit has the rotted blossom end, there is no cure for that particular fruit, you might as well pull it. You noted that this is your first year trying organic gardening. Hang in there, most people seem to think it takes 3 years to really get the soil improved. You also mentioned that you think it isn't just your yard. The weather will play a huge roll in certain maladies. In some areas this year it was powdery mildew (dry weather mold which I had back in the dry spring.) Wet humid weather will bring on a whole different set of problems, (as it starts pour down rain here as I type.) Don't be too quick to blame your troubles on organic gardening when the weather is at fault. Especially if this is your first season. It does take a while to transition from chemicals to organic methods. Some of our tomato plants look a bit strange. The ones we grew back in the spring did too. They still produced some good tomatoes but probably not as many as they could have. What the tomato looks like is not so important as long as they taste good, unless you are into competitions or selling them. Have you had soil tests done? Your local extension office should be able to tell you more about soil testing, it doesn't cost very much. It is possible that you could be adding something that is throwing things out of whack. You mentioned using vinegar, if your soil is already on the acidic side, the vinegar could be causing the pH to get out of the ideal range for many of your plants. On the other hand, many people add lime just because it seems to be the thing to do. Problem is, pH greatly affects what nutrients are available from the soil. Also, an over abundance of some nutrients may make other nutrients unavailable to the plants. Getting the right balance for your soil, climate, situation, and plants can take a while. Building up a micro-herd of soil microbes takes time. Composting takes time. Even adding tons of soil enhancements to your dirt will take time before they produce the desired results. I am new to organic gardening too. I used to use lots of Miracle Grow. This first season my soil is still basically sand. Most of my veggies are growing in "raised" beds (my few layers version of lasagna gardening.) My verson for most of them this season was a layer or two of cardboard with a mound of mushroom compost on top with a thick layer of wood chip mulch over it all. This is working well for squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and pumpkins so far. The tomatoes were planted into the ground where the sand had mushroom compost mixed into it. I've also planted into cardboard boxes filled with the free compost from our county. This makes a quick raised bed that will last a season, when it's done just pull the sides of the cardboard box away, spread the compost around and hoe out any weeds. I've had pretty good (not perfect) luck with these methods for my first couple seasons. It takes a very large amount of organic matter to properly amend sandy soil in hot humid climates since the microbes break the stuff down very quickly and much of the nutrients will leach away fast through the sand. Sorry I'm not of much help on your specific problems but I wish you luck and I hope you will hang with it for a couple more seasons before you say it doesn't work.

Marchesa Boccella/ Jacques Cartier is one of the best of the Antique roses. It can get blackspot late in the season, but still grows and blooms well. The fragrance is out of this world. I grow a mix of Hybrid Perpetuals, Damask Perpetuals, Bourbons and Austin roses, and a few others. Rugosas are resistant to blackspot. Bubble Bath is a Hybrid Musk that tends to resist blackspot. I like to use organic rose foods that have alfalfa in them. I also like Neptune's Harvest as a soil drench.

Yes, that's what I should have written Field, ht's. My attempt to simplify backfired. The truth is, I didn't plant any ht's this summer, but floribunda's, David Ausitn English Roses, an English Shrub Rose, Habitat For Humanity, Ladies in Waiting & Lemon Zest. The H for H & the last two are called only "shrubs" on my statement. These are the slow ones. We cut back the canes a week & a half ago. Since then the slow Lady in Waiting has one leaf. The Lemon Zests which arrived with mostly black canes haven't done anything. I'll call J & P next week.

I have quite a few "rabbit circles" that I made out of two fencing materials bought at Tractor Supply. Both are green-vinyl-coated material. One is 24" wide, with a grid size 2x3. The other is chicken wire. For lilies I make a circle that is 24" tall of the 2x3 grid, and then attach chicken wire to the bottom 10-12". For roses I cut the 24" material down the middle to make pieces that will give me circles of a 12" height, and the chicken wire is affixed to the entire 12" height of those circles. Regardless of height, I cut off the end piece of wire so the bottom of the circle is wire "pokers" that go into the soil. I had made quite a number of these circles years ago, back when chewed-off rose canes would litter the ground in the spring. More recently, the people behind me got a cat who patrols my yard for hours every day, and I never see rabbits or chipmunks anymore. Just this week I bought a pack of cup hooks so I can store my rabbit circles on the ceiling of the garage above my overhead door. (I may leave circles around the lilies, especially in the rear of my 20-foot deep border. Also I am thinking perhaps I could use the circles as part of winter protection around roses.)