This is a great post, dchall. I'd like to respond to a few points and get your thoughts. You said my problems are brought about by chemicals, but I'm not so sure. I only moved into this house two years ago, and this is my second summer with gardening the land. The lawn is a mess, which indicates it's been a long time since anyone used any kind of chemicals on it. The spot where I made the vegetable garden was virgin, although I did recently find out there used to be a large tree in the area that was dug out. I had it tilled fresh last spring, then planted. The only problems I had were birds (more on that in a minute) and the flea beetles. I did use one spray of Sevin on those beetles, and that took care of them. And it was a very light spray, but a spray nonetheless. (I'm learning, I'm learning!) If there were any other bugs, I never saw them, and I've always had the practice of walking through nearly every day looking for damage or problems. That's something my grandfather taught me. The birds, I didn't mention because I got a handle on them. Having always lived way out in the country/forest, I let my dogs and cats outside. So I've never known birds. (Other than bluejays...they were always around and very aggressive) Then I moved to town and now my pets aren't allowed outdoors. So I'm enjoying birds for the first time in my life. However, I have robins that sheared off my seedlings (the guy at the nursery said they do it to get nesting materials), but the other birds don't really bother my garden. I have a LOT of blackbirds, sparrows and grackles that I do not feed. And I feed my cardinal family, goldfinches and many, many hummingbirds. I also do a lot of flowers and flowering bushes and have never used a pesticide on flowers. (Never had to) Last year I strung a foil jungle throughout my garden to keep the birds (robins) out. This year i used vinyl netting, but next year I'll go back to the foil...it's easier in the long run. The point of that long ramble is that I have so many birds. Maybe they ate bugs, I don't know. And the other thing is that the only chemical used was last year's spray of Sevin (and that was only on a few eggplants, nothing else). Now, my neighbor does some flowers, and she might use pesticides. I did plant a lot of sunflowers, too. Partly just because I love them, but also did some in the veg. garden as companion plants for the cucumbers. (I don't think it worked, but I did get a nice crop of aphids on the sunflowers. I also got nice goldfinches which I've enjoyed) I need to back up...I did use chemical fertilizer (Miracle Grow), and some powdered coyote urine because I have a lot of wild rabbits. I'm only now learning about compost tea. Next point...I've decided NOT to use the horse manure, because these are all fancy racehorses (I live near a big racetrack) and Terri mentioned that they probably use steroids and things. So I'll have to settle for the poo of my neighbor's two pet rabbits. Back to the birds, I really considered getting a bat house, but I'm not sure it's legal in town. Plus would probably freak my neighbors all out. We have rabid bats sometimes. But I'd love to have some bats. (And even more, bat poop...it's supposed to be the best) But not a good idea around here. I'm very interested in the liquid seaweed you spray, or the milk. I've seen Paul James talk about using milk to control fungus as well. Would leafhoppers be considered sucking insects? I'm having trouble finding anything to use next year that takes care of them, and they did an enormous amount of damage to things this year. Neem oil is supposed to work, but to work, I would have had to sprayed my entire garden, including ground, with the Neem oil, and I was afraid it would harm too many beneficials. What are your thoughts on nematodes and releasing beneficials (mainly ladybugs)? Now to the tilling. Would you believe that last fall I did the no-till thing? My friend read about it somewhere, and I was all for it because I don't own a tiller and have to pay someone to come till. I already used newspapers as kind of a mulch to keep the weeds down, so I pulled everything up, put down layers of newspapers, topped it with a lot of leaves from the yard, then composted manure (that I bought at Wal Mart), then more leaves. What I did like about that is that I didn't have to really work the soil in the spring, or at least not like when you let it grow wild, and I had zero weeds. But it didn't decompose as much as i expected, and I kind of had a crispy crust I had to break through, then would come to a layer of undecomposed leaves. The crust was very much like the crust on a creme brulee, only made of crispy newspapers. I don't know if that's how it was supposed to be or not. Then I just kind of dug my rows out with a shovel and hand shovel, worked some composted manure into my rows, and planted. I've somewhat blamed my bug problem on that...is my logic wrong? My logic is that I sealed in all these bug eggs that might have been exposed and killed if I'd had tilled. I'm not opposed to not tilling, because I think the layered thing was easier than tilling, especially since I don't have a tiller and would have to borrow/rent one. I understand the logic of the anti till movement, and disturbing the soil and such, but maybe i want to disturb the bug eggs. And then there was the crispy crust....should I have just pulled all that up and tossed it? I didn't really know what to do in the spring. It was not what I expected. I expected a soil I could dig in, add some compost, work it in, then plant. But I had that crust and then a layer of leaves. (I used leaves because the instructions said either leaves or grass cuttings, and I have no grass cuttings in the fall because my lawn is not so good.) The books I was planning on getting: The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy Without Chemicals by Barbara Ellis and Great Garden Companions: A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden by Sally Jean Cunningham

Soil in the DC area is heavy, red clay. Pickering grafts onto multiflora root stock which does well in clay, good choice! You don't need to purchase bagged 'garden soil' at Home Depot but do dig in composted cow manure and top with 2" of shredded bark (either pine or hardwood is fine). If your home is new construction, the soil will be compacted. Dig in the compost (like Michael said, wait for the soil to dry out enough to be workable) then dig in the compost. The level of soil will be higher since you added compost -- that's good, a slightly raised bed helps with drainage. I wouldn't build a raised wooded bed with landscape timbers, your Pickering roses will enjoy the clay.

...if you are near the ocean... And even if you are not. I can set up a saltwater aquarium here in MN, and it will quickly become populated by algae whose spores have been carried by air currents all the way from the Pacific Ocean. It's really amazing how much stuff is just floating around in the air. I have to agree that any sterilization is only momentary. Good cultural methods will prevent inevitable pathogens from taking over. What little seed growing I've done has been with a gritty soil and substantial air circulation in order to prevent the wet, stagnant conditions that allow pathogens to thrive. And the Opuntia pads we're talking about here are mature growth that is much less susceptible to pathogens than seedlings.

Laura, oh, yay! Congrats on your trip next year! Now, you'll have to send us some pics! Also, be sure to "forget" that you have Italian lemon seeds in your pocket when you fly back home.. surely, you would have left them there by accident after enjoying some lemons over there. Your one-day tree will be a forever souvenir! Ugh, I hope you get rid of those pesky flies. I just googled it.. wow, they can leave some significant damage! Thank you Mike, we do love the turtles here. They are just so beautiful and I never tire of seeing them. Twice, we have seen turtles with only three flippers and the experts say that they are shark attack survivors. Poor little guys. Another time, we were at the beach and there was a giant, floating seaweed mound. Several turtles came and were having a feast; we watched them for over an hour. Wow Mike, that is a nice whitefly pic. Hope you and your parents are feeling better.