In answer to dchall's remarks re my cornmeal experiments and 'damping-off'. I found a sprinkle of cornmeal on soil surface AFTER seeds have sprouted does control mold on the soil surface, but not damping-off. Note: regular cornmeal appears to somewhat inhibit seed sprouting, but not completely. This is why I wait until the majority of seeds have sprouted before applying cornmeal as a mold/mildew inhibitor. All of the suggestions above; fan to circulate air, cinnamon, chamomile tea, etc. are valid suggestions. To these I would add several more learned from the school of hard knocks to prevent damping-off. 1. Always water seedlings and new young transplants from the bottom. 2. When growing tender plants such as cucumber, melon, tomato and pepper from seed always sterilize both the seed STARTING and TRANSPLANT soil. Sure...it is a pain in the neck job but it does prevent damping-off and soil fungus problems. My method is to place soil in the pots I plan to use, set these in a big roasting pan and pour boiling water over all, cover and let stand until cool. Then sow seeds or pot up small transplants. I find that seeds quickly sprout or transplants grow well when placed in this super water saturated sterile environment. There are, of course, other methods to sterilize soil but this is my preferred method which works well for the average home gardener.

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

Here's the one I have made a few times. It was from Yahoo and seems to be a lot like Tyler's above. I add sesame seeds also. I haven't tried it with Tahini, but I'm sure it would be better. It's not as good as what I used to get in the NY. restaurants (the local Chinese restaurants don't offer it,) but it's a good no-frills estimation. Btw... the peanut butter absorbs the flavor of the toasted sesame oil. Without it (or tahini) the toasted sesame oil is going to be strong. "Cold Sesame Noodle: 1 lb Spaghetti or Linguini (cooked, drained, rinsed w/cold water) Red Bell Pepper, thinly sliced (qty up to you) Snow Peas, thinly sliced (qty up to you) 1/2 C Peanut Butter 1/3 C Water 1/4 C Rice Vinegar (not the "flavored" kind) 1/4 C Soy Sauce 2 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil 1 Jalapeno Chile, chopped (seeds & veins optional) 1/4 tsp Salt 2 Garlic Cloves DIREX: 1. Prepare the bell pepper and snow peas. 2. Cook spaghetti. Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Transfer to a large bowl. 3. In the blender or food processor, blend together the peanut butter, water, rice vinegar, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, jalapeno chile, salt, and garlic cloves. Thoroughly scrape the contents and distribute evenly to coat the noodles and vegetables. That's it! I would add a little ground black pepper since the jalapeno won't set off the heat I want (I'd use a small serrano chile, which is definitely much hotter). This recipe seems very flexible...you can add sliced scallions (i.e., green onion), julienne or matchstick carrots, peanuts or almonds or cashews, toasted sesame seeds, cooked cubed chicken or spam (I know, right?!)...use your imagination. Bon appetit and happy cooking!"

@Jilly, you found a picture of the pizza guy in Rome! The Laws of Cooking and How to Break Them by Justin Warner is very interesting. It starts off talking about why peanut butter and jelly work and how it is similar to a pizza. From an interview on The Splendid Table: Take for example a great pizza from some Neapolitan place. Why does it always work? Why does pizza almost always work? You have something fruity, tomato, you have something rich and fatty, cheese, and then you have something to spread it on. If you look at peanut butter and jelly, it's the exact same thing. This combination of fat, fruit and something to spread it on is an archetype. It's a law. The reason I call it the law of peanut butter and jelly is because peanut butter and jelly is really the first complex dish that we learn to make as children in America. His recipe for Foie Gras Doughnut Holes: https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2016/01/22/foie-gras-doughnut-holes I think I would like them. I’d eat foie gras on bark!