Organic gardening is pesticide free in my garden. The only chemical I have ever sprayed in my garden is soapy water, and I hardly ever do even that. SInce I cover myself with soapy water all the time I don't consider that a pesticide ever though it can kill pests. Since people are advised to wash their produce before eating it, I think I could claim quite truthfully that my stuff is pesticide free. I have also killed some pests just with water (drowning), but I wouldn't call water a pesticide. "As to organic food being better nutritionally? Well probably not technically for the most part" Amazingly enough organic food has been shown to be better nutritionally. Probably relates to the soil being richer in organic material. Antioxidants and vitamins tested were significantly higher in organically grown produce. Here are two quotes from one article about it, just Google 'organic vitamin antioxidant higher nutrition' and you will find a slew of articles about all the research and analysis. >>The decline in our produce's nutritional value corresponds to the period of increasing industrialization of our farming systems. As we have substituted chemical fertilizers, pesticides and monoculture farming for the natural cycling of nutrients and on-farm biodiversity, we have lessened the nutritional value of our produce. Integrated well-established organic farming systems can counter the decline. >>For example, Virginia Worthington, a clinical nutritionist who earned her doctorate in nutrition at Johns Hopkins, published a review in 2001 of 41 studies comparing the nutritional value of organic and conventional produce. After tallying the data across all the studies, Worthington concluded that organic produce had on average 27 percent more vitamin C, 21.1 percent more iron, 29.3 percent more magnesium and 13.6 percent more phosphorous than conventional produce. I do agree that locally grown is just as important as organics, though. The amount of fuel spent transporting food around the globe is scary. Marcia Here is a link that might be useful: article the quote is from

Sheri, You're welcome. I hope the info helps. Ladybugs are often easier to find in the spring, at least around here. You might want to call around and save yourself frustration and gasoline. You can always order online too. They are shipped in a semi-dormant to dormant state. Once you release them, it will take a few days for the adult ones to reproduce. When the larvae hatch, they will look like little oblong alligator-type creatures. It is the larvae that really eat pests like crazy! Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Example of Online Ladybug Supplier

You might try diatomaceous earth. This is a fine abrasive powder that can kill insects and it is organic. You can dust it on the leaves, but be careful not to breathe the dust. The only limitation is that when it gets wet, it loses its effectiveness, so you have to reapply after a rain or watering.

The only thing I've found to work with vine borers and cucumber beetles is row covers. Two summers ago I had basically no cucumber harvest and very little zucchini harvest, despite planting every 2 weeks. Last summer I covered winter squash, zucchini and cukes with row covers until the plants flowered - I even did a bit of hand pollinating to keep the plants covered longer, but that got old fast. I had a decent harvest of squash and cukes all summer long. I still had cucumber beetle issues, but no squash borers. I use spinosad, insecticidal soap, and Pyganic as a last resort. I keep bees and am very careful about what I spray. In the last few years there's been a push to use spinosad over BT as it's supposed to be more environmentally friendly, but it will kill bees for a few hours after it's sprayed, so I try to spray early in the day or when it's cloudy. I never spray flowering plants. Insecticidal soap can be very effective if you spray often enough to kill larvae. It only kills soft bodied insects so is safe around bees and beneficials. I only use Pyganic when I have a major infestation, such as the Japanese beetles that decimated part of my orchard. Or when I've reached the limit of applications with other pesticides. I think the organic rules only allow me to spray insecticidal soap 6 times per crop (I'd have to double check that), so I have to switch to spinosad and Pyganic by the end of the growing season. The other thing I use is Surround. It's pretty effective in my apple orchard, but I have to coat 3 times, and if there's a lot of rain I can't keep up with it. I've tried on cucumbers, but the plants grow too fast to keep them coated. Surround does work well on eggplant, providing that you don't get too much rain. I only used Neem once, and it killed some bees so I never tried it again. I think if you use some basic precautions it would be ok, but I was under the impression it was nontoxic to bees, and I was wrong. It definitely kills bees. The fungicides we use are Serenade and to a lesser extent, liquid copper. I couldn't grow apples here at all without Serenade, I also use it for blight and powdery mildew.