I wouldn't get too hung up on "organic" if I were you. Once you see some of the things that qualify as organic you might get a different impression. For instance when I first started, I was spaying copper and sulfur which are considered organic (at least I think they are), since they are just good old elements that exist on Earth. But you sure wouldn't want to sprinkle these powders on your cereal in the morning! So my advice would be to spray the most effective thing you can get your hands on and can afford. (some of the commercial sprays are VERY expensive and only sold in quantites too large for a home grower). Other things to consider are the timing of the sprays and the PHI (or pre-harvest interval). You have to spray your grapes (or tomatoes or melons, etc) before you see signs of a problem. The spays are preventitive treatments. They stop mildews and rots from forming, but they don't do much of anything once the plant is infected. Also, there's a certain point where the grapes themselves are no longer susceptible to rots and mildews so you can stop spraying them. For me in VA it's somewhere around the 4th of July. So for most of the summer and all the way up to harvest time, I don't need to spray my grapes. I still have to spray the leaves because they can still get infected, but you can avoid spraying the grapes themseleves. Back to PHI - pre harvest interval - this tells you how much time you need between your last spraying and your harvest to be safe. Some sprays like manzate/mancozeb have very long PHIs (66 days for that one I think), and some have much shorter PHIs. So what you end up doing is spraying with different things at different points in the season. You will also probably have to combine sprays since certain problems can only be treated with certain sprays, but you can do it in the same sprayer so it's not really a big deal. When you look at the spray guides they say something like "Spray with XXXX and one of the following" YYY, or ZZZ, or AAAA, or BBBB" It probably all sounds very confusing and overwhelming and it sort of is. But once you start reading the spray guides and asking more questions in here, it will become easier and more clear. Below is a link to a Mid-Western spray guide to get you started. Here is a link that might be useful: Purdue Spray Guide

The idea of planting in ground organically, with a pH hardy variety (Sunshine Blue?) is worthy of a trial. :) Funny you should say that...last spring, I planted a Sunshine Blue (for just the reason that you mentioned) in my front garden in a shallow (6") raised bed filled with a pine bark/peat blend. The soil underneath is unamended clay with a pH in the 6.5 range. I haven't acidified the soil (intentionally), and I've fertilized the bush modestly with cottonseed meal, alfalfa pellets, and a little bit of Peaceful Valley Farm Supply's Prime Start Booster Blend. So far, so good -- I've seen no indications of nutrient problems, and it's growing well. ...curious to hear your experiences as well, and if you are following a particular set of recommendations... My other blueberries (nearly 30 now) are all in containers, and I owe tapla in the container forum a lot of credit for my success with them. As you might already know, his 5-1-1 mix (bark/peat/perlite) is essentially the same as what Four Winds recommends, and it's served me well. As he suggests, I add one tablespoon of gypsum to each gallon of potting mix (for Ca), 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of epsom salt to each gallon of irrigation water (for Mg), and I fertilize weakly with MirAcid at every watering (typically about 1/4 tsp per gallon). Because I have hard water, I also add vinegar to my irrigation water. I've also begun experimenting with a peat-free potting mix (85/15 bark/perlite), organic fertilizers (primarily cottonseed and alfalfa meal), and I have one Brightwell rabbiteye that's serving as a test subject for the suitability of Osmocote Plus (a significant portion of the nitrogen is in nitrate form) for blueberries. Can you tell that I like to grow and talk about blueberries? I find them endlessly fascinating... :)

Love Thalia and the Ipheon mnnnnnnnn but the bulbs did terribly last year due to the strange winter. Only putting in my favorite Estellas again only half them came up last year. Lot of species tulips bit the dust.

If you find that perennial plants are frowned on in your community garden, you could also think about using the fence to tie up tomatoes, eggplant or other non-climbing crops which may benefit from a little support. There are also cucumbers, climbing summer or winter squash and edible gourds to consider. I have grown both Asian and Italian edible gourds and tromboccino summer squash on a fence. And it's not unheard of to tie up bush squashes, especially the single-stemmed kinds, to a short fence. My cucumber vines stay far healthier on a fence than they do when grown on the ground. For something sweeter, consider growing small melons, such as a Charentais or Asian type, on your fence. I grew some melons on a fence last year, making little cloth 'cradles' for some of them as they got larger. With one variety, melons on the ground cracked, while those in "cradles" didn't. Below are some results for fruits and vegetables from a melon-lover near the coast. "Winter Elegance" sweet peas or climbing pansies would be striking for winter. Next year, you might want to plant groups of edible peas and groups of sweet peas on the fence in the fall. Pole beans often have more flavor than bush beans, and you might keep your options open to grow some in the future. And scarlet runner beans attract hummingbirds. Thompson & Morgan carries more culinary varieties of runner beans than any catalog I can think of. They are perfect for cool climates. They struggle in the heat here in the Central Valley. Here is a link that might be useful: Zone 10 recommendations from the Heirloom forum