I am in the same boat. Except for black spot causing naked roses, and slugs, my garden seems to be left alone by the ills of the world. As the soil built up, overall increased plant health seemed to follow. As insect predators established themselves, insect damage seemed to decrease. I haven't seen flea beetles, bean beetles, cutworms, svb et al for years. I am not a meticulous gardener. I put no great efforts into it. It takes care of itself for the most part. But it gives me so much food and beautiful flowers. I can hardly wait for retirement when I can give it more time. I wonder how nice it will be then.

I think your gardening methods certainly contribute to the health of your garden.

Obviously, plant diseases have all sorts of causes which are not totally eliminated just by good gardening practices. However, it has been my experience over the years that if one takes time to correctly improve the soil, encourage biodiversity, select and site plants carefully, and tend to them with care and a minimum of chemical input, gardens can be pretty much problem free. Problems tend to arise when plants are unsuitable for their growing conditions, neglected once planted, beneficials are removed through unnecessary spraying or removal of host plants and other chemicals, such as synthetic fertilizers and various pesticides, are used randomly and without understanding of their long term ramifications.

Climate will always come into play, as will locale-specific conditions such as Japanese beetle populations or tent caterpillars, but if one practices sustainable gardening techniques, which many term "organic" gardening, then problems tend to be reduced if not outright eliminated. Healthy plants that grow unstressed tend to be very resiliant and more able to withstand occasional predations by pests and diseases.

FWIW, the only plants I have ever lost to disease can be attributed to my own gaps in care or to other factors caused by me which allowed the plants to become vulnerable.

nothing better than a healthy soil, and 'listening' to what the plants say about what they need, for a healthy garden

Bill

Hi,

Well, I notice none of you are from New England.. [g].

I have gardened organically for 25 years, and never used a chemical in my yard, always practice good gardening practices, use organic fertilizers, plant for pollinators and like you, hardly ever had a problem.

Last year was the year from hell. I ran out of my own compost last year and I bought some "organic" compost that I researched and thought was the most reliable one I could find and used tons of it, and nothing I grew in it did well. I still am having trouble this year, with perennials in the bed I used it in and may have to remove some plants.

Plus with the crazy weather we had last year, with cloudiness and moisture and humidity, I ended up with all kinds of diseases with almost all my vegetables that I never had before. Thankfully I was growing in containers.

This year, I was hoping we would get a better start...we were renovating a shrub bed and pulled out old shrubs, bought new native shrubs and a few trees, the next thing you know our whole neighborhood is being attacked by some caterpillar that is eating it's way through the canopies of all the trees and dropping down and eating all the new shrubs.

I ordered plants through the mail and they were supposed to hold them for pick up and didn't write it down and sent them to me when I couldn't get them outside with 20 days in May of measureable rain and the lowest temperatures since 1917. I ended up having to hold them in the house without light setups for 10 days. I lost quite a few and some that I thought were ok are now exhibiting symptoms of some problems that I haven't figured out yet. Wilting mainly, which makes me suspect some disease from too little light and too much moisture. So I am having to throw out quite a few plants.

I bought one Casa Blanca Lily 3 years ago against my better judgment after hearing horror stories about the red lily beetle. Hadn't seen them at all for two years, then this year, I stopped short going by the lily when I see a bright red bug on it. Sure enough I collected 5 of them and found egg cases on the back of the leaves. *sigh*

So, count your blessings! Not so sure organic gardening is the only reason you're doing so well...sometimes there is a little luck involved too.

:-)
Adam

I have both a "what am I doing right" organic garden at home and a tougher garden at the community garden where less control creates more problems. It keeps my garden tools sharp.

Tracy

Adam - my heart goes out to ya! :) a little luck does help sometimes, as well as being on the right side of the world!

we're havin some ups and downs on the left coast too - early warm spell, then cold, then buckets of rain, then waaay cold, then downright hot, then more rain, and after a short spell of 'normal' temps and mostly sunny, we're back to mostly overcast and mostly raining, and quite cool again - downright cold tonite! :( Â don't think I'd have anything growin this year if it wasn't for years of building a compost rich soil, not to mention a little greenhouse for the tomatos!

Bill

That these people constantly have problems with pests and diseases that constantly need treatment is one indication of Insanity, doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.
If you get your soil into a good healthy state your plants will grow without pest and disease problems, and given the amount of advertising done by companies that manufacture the poisons most of those people need many people accept that as the norm and we are hard pressed to convince them otherwise. Far too many people believe that plants are going to get pests and diseases as a matter of course and nothing you do will change that unless you spray a lot of poison around.
The same thing is true of us humans, if we eat a healthy diet and properly exercise we will not get sick, but too many people are convinced that disease is a norm in humans and nothing will change that, and that is because the message is not getting received.

Bill, thanks very much. :-) We keep trucking on..lol. I DO understand that we are not alone with the "weather woes". When I look at the weather for the country, I always feel like we are not so bad off. At least we are not getting tornadoes or sunamis and when we get a hurricane, the damage is not as bad as say Florida.

I was looking at the weather for the week, and actually we were in the 70s for today while NY was and much of the rest of the Northeast was headed for the 90s, which we will get tomorrow but only for a day or so. I think I heard that the PNW was due to get some of that cold gray weather we had all of May, sorry to say.

Very happy to hear that you are getting the benefits of organic gardening..that is the way it is supposed to be!! It is the best way to garden for sure.

:-)
Adam