Thank you for the references. I am an organic gardener, too. I read an article about Permaculture and was fascinated by how everything is interrelated and how well it works. To think we don't need all those 'cides we use in our gardens!

Just curious about your vegetable garden - how did you repel insects like squash vine borer?

I would like to use some natural methods of fighting some destructive insects in my garden. The first is the Colorado Potato Beetle - they ate 2 potato crops of mine this year. I'd say, next in line, are the Japanese Beetle - they eat everything, it seems. Are there any plants I can combine with my potatoes to keep away the CPB? Anything I can do to deter the JB from my gardens? I take any found egg cases and beneficial insects (Praying Mantis and Ladybugs) and put them in my gardens, but what else to do? Thanks so much in advance for any assistance here!

Garden pests seem to be a real pain at times. But the critters are usually telling us something important about the health of our garden.

I don't have any direct experience with the squash vine borer or Japanese beetle. I have Colorado potato beetles in my garden, but they have not been a problem. A direct way to handle all of them would be the application of beneficial nematodes. A good article about nematodes is here: http://www.mastergardeners.org/publications/nematodes/beneficial_nematodes.html

Increasingly my focus has been to avoid directly handling a single problem "pest" because it usually indicative of some larger issue. A common Permaculture saying is "the problem is the solution". Thus the "pest" helps us determine the solution to that issue - eradicating that indicator can eliminate the help.

Read all you can about the critter to understand its lifecycle and habits. Spend lots of time sitting and examining your garden from a holistic standpoint - it is a small, but very complex ecosystem. Are other plants struggling? Is the problem localized to a single area? This will help formulate a comprehensive story about what is going on.

In my garden I interject as much complexity as possible in an attempt to emulate natures complexity and indirectly prevent problems. I plant two or more varieties of the same vegetable if one fails, the other may not. I disperse the same vegetable throughout the garden if a critter finds one plant the other ones wont be right under its nose. I interplant with many herbs, flowers, and biomass plants (like borage) - this confuses "bad" critters and invites every bug and bird in the neighborhood to stop by. I cover all bare ground with white clover, creeping thyme, oregano, lemon balm, or chamomile - nature abhors bare ground and the ground cover gives visiting critters a place to stay, keeps unwanted plants (a.k.a. weeds) at bay, enhances the soil, and makes walking through the garden a sensory delight. I never till - tilling disperses unwanted plant (weed) seeds and destroys soil structure and health. I keep my soil healthy - I disperse compost, slashed plants, and straw across the garden to invite worms and bugs to till for me and enhance soil vitality (we dont grow plants, we grow soil - soil grows plants).

I hope this did not sound like a non-answer, but it is about the best answer I can provide. Todays agricultural methods seem to fixate on addressing a single problem without examining the complex relationships between everything. Without another paradigm to follow we can inadvertently bring that mindset into our own backyard. As the price of pesticides and herbicides rise with the price of dwindling petroleum and natural gas supplies, we will see the needed shift toward understanding natures complexity and working within her framework rather than trying to define our own.

I'd love to find a Permaculture course online.Anyone know of any?
Some of the early books on Permaculture are very expensive too.I've found some cheaper ones on Ebay.

J