I ended up culling my tomato plants early this year. I think I got septoria from the record rainfall in early summer and my plants collapsing the supports by getting so huge.
I planted green beans where the tomatoes had been. I just picked the first of them. The grass grew up around them, and I never sprayed. But yet, I had virtually zero bug damage.
They were the thickest, nicest-looking bean plants I have ever seen, loaded with beans. One curious thing about them was that they tended to grow down into the soil, which is very soft. Normally, beans rot when they do that, but all of mine were fine. I was pulling beans an inch or two out of the soil, and they were still perfect. I am theorizing that the fluffy soil holds a lot of oxygen, which would make the bacteria be more aerobic than anaerobic.
I am going to expand my garden a lot next year. I think I will have to till the ground at least once, so I can use the plastic mulch-layer and tractor to lay my plastic. I may experiment with using old hay as mulch around my existing beds.
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