I don't really have a formula but I haven't been veg gardening for but a few years. I usually add as many bags of compost as I can afford along with some organic fertilizer (I'll have to try out the Whitney Farms Steve mentioned) to the veggie garden and maybe soak it with some fish emulsion at some point in the growing season. I don't know if it helps but things seem to grow. And if they don't....grow...well...

I'm gentler on the veggie garden but I'm pretty tough on everything else. My motto is if it doesn't thrive on what I'm willing to give it, then it doesn't deserve to live. I baby no plants. I feel the same way about the dishwasher too...if it can't survive the dishwasher then it doesn't deserve to live in my kitchen. Maybe someday I'll fall completely in love with a plant that deserves my TLC but even my gazillion rose bushes in CA bloomed beautifully on tough love.

I am loving the lasagna lazy way to garden and just today added some layers to my casserole of raised beds I'm working on in the veggie garden.

Oh, I did break down and buy Pyrethrin for the flea beetles and always have insecticidal soap just in case.

Tough love is fine, Charlene. That is why I'm always looking for new varieties. If it doesn't want to grow here, I want to find one that does.

And, I hate the spray but . . .

Then in the Spring the columbines will bloom and the lupines will bloom and the aphids will show up and cover them until they drip down off the flowers and crawl hungrily back up the stems and the mildew will powder their leaves an ugly grey and the leaves will shrivel and the plant will wither and struggle and . . . and . . . and

Here is a link that might be useful: dare you

I find that a dormant oil spray early in the year, like now, works wonders on avoiding nastier stuff later on in the season for fruit trees and roses. Works great on aphids too, btw. I have the pyrthrin soap for the greenhouse and flea beetles. I use Orthene on the pine trees as we have so many problems with borers who kill the trees (lost one yesterday, thing broke off in the wind- ouch).

Fertilizers, I use Miracle Grow in the greenhouse, and compost outside, and in the fall, I hit the 2 acres of lawn, once, with 150 lbs of 15 15 15. 4 (Iron)

Good grief! Is that a photo of yours?

2 acres of lawn, David!! Would a Jersey cow be of help?

Oh, I wish the lupines were my view, Emagineer. The photographer was in New Zealand. Turns out that Russell lupins are an invasive species in NZ. For all the trouble I have keeping them alive here in Dogpatch (not more than 400 miles from where I think they started out as wild life), they've decided to invade NZ. Cool and moist is what they want and when I can only give them hot and dry, they begin to have problems and fall prey to pestilence.

But this is true for just about anything that isn't part of our native flora, I guess. Even those plants have been disrupted in their natural setting by our activities. Like bringing gooseberries and currants here to act as hosts for white pine blister rust (if I've got all that right ;o).

My thinking is that the gardener should be the defender of the garden - really, part of the origin of the words and those related. So, I try to "stand by my plants" with the best thing at hand for their defense. But, now you see one reason why I've become more and more of a vegetable gardener where I use organic practices. And, I like the looks of just about any healthy plant even if it doesn't have gorgeous flowers (this may be explained in part by my less-than-perfect color vision ;o).

This bootiful world I ain't givin' up without a fight!

DigitS

Here is a link that might be useful:

DACONIL FUNGICIDE - Can be used on the vegetables - somebody says - but I'm not gonna.

Bwhahahahahaha Thank you! You made my day, Steve. Agree for ornamentals but don't want it on my veggies and certainly not every other week.

I use row covers, btk, de, pyrethrin, insecticidal soap, neem, etc.. Always start with the mildest and work up. I've not yet had to resort to anything really strong, thank goodness. I keep a bucket of aerated compost tea going all summer long to feed the plants - not a miracle, but it certainly helps.

Shelley

Never really had any problems with bugs. Aphids get a blast from the hose and the host plant gets a dose of kelp or fish eml. I add a side of compost and wait. Usually the high winds blow away anything that flies and I let the tumble weeds that I am alergic to grow in a few areas because they are a great host plant for aphids (they seem to prefer them to my garden) and the ladybugs.
I do keep insecticidal soap but I have had the same bottle for about 5 years.
I tried Miracle Gro once many years ago. Yes, everything looked great on top, but when I pulled the dead plants in the fall, there were no roots. I also read a reader comment in OG that someone had set the box on their metal shelf in the garage and it ate through the metal.

B

Billie, fertilizers are generally highly corrosive. I remember that from all the cleaning I had to do with the fertilizer spreader on the farm so that it could get thru 11 months of sitting outside until the next season.

I don't use MiracleGro on vegetables so mostly I just want that bright flower. Using MG is quite a distance from soil and tissue analysis and formulated mixes applied thru a greenhouse injector system. I do like to foliar feed, however, in the outdoor gardens. I've used liquid kelp in the greenhouse and was pleased with the results. Further, fish emulsion was a direction I was taking a few years ago in the veggies but I had so much trouble with applying the stuff with a hose-end sprayer - I gave up. It seemed like the only consistently successful approach I had was with a sprinkler can . . . too much bother. So I went to dry organic fertilizers instead.

Asters and zinnias do well for us, year after year, and exceed the size claimed by the seed companies. These late season flowers seem especially benefited by MG. I suppose, I should include the dahlias in that group as well.

I appreciate your comments on successful gardening without all the chemicals - and hope others have similar experiences. I've noted that potato beetles prefer the deadly nightshade and the spit bugs are all over the neighbor's alfalfa. Maybe it is just their poorer relatives that venture into the gardens and mess things up there.

One insect I haven't had to worry about much is the mosquito. Because it is so windy in our larger garden, my claim is that they all blow into Montana.

DigitS

Digit since you brought up those ugly nasty stripped things, potato beetles, any other ideas on getting rid of them, even the chickens won't touch them and they ate scorpions regularly(the chickens in AZ). I hate the things so much that I am forgoing planting anything they might like. I used to pick buckets of the things, dropping them into soapy water as I went. Plucking any leaves that had eggs and giving them the same treatment, until my gloves were orange. Never helped. Tried floating row covers. One little gap and it wound up being an aviary for potato beetles instead of protection.

I take a teaspoon of pickle juice (tastes a little better than vinegar) to keep the mosquitos away. They seek sweet blood. My mother loves the sweets and lives on soda, mosquitos love her. Does not matter what type, you just need the acid. I add some to the horses water in the summer too. FYI

More than anything, I am too cheap to put more money into DuPont or any of the others pockets that I could use to do something else with. I've spend the money to save starving and abused animals and, recently, we had a family loose their home, so all the neighbors have taken turns taking in the kids. It's just life.

B