BarbE,
We grow everything organic here in plant city.We spray with a homemade spray:
2 cut up cloves of garlic in an enamel pot(or none metal),1 hot pepper,in 1 gallon of water.bring to a boil and then shut of and cool down.Strain and add 1 tablespoon cooking oil,1 tablespoon dish liquid.mix well,pour into a spray bottle and it kills just about anything bad!Also if growing in the ground for your new fall garden season spray your ground with raw unpatureized milk.5 to 1 mix with water,the natural sugar in this milk cannot be digested by grass hoppers etc... and they die.In our area they are hatching everywhere right now.Then in 1 week spray your ground with molasses water,1 cup to 5 gallons of water.This gets all the soil organiziums growing and active.Now rake out and plant!
Companion planting is a must i think,tomato's companions are garlic,onions,basil,marigolds(signet),parsley,and chives.We inter plant these in our in the ground and containers at times.
For container plants outside use the spray ,inside use safers soap. Hand picking is another option and i do it also but I'm from farm country and am not squimish.
Homemade fish emulsion is really easy to make and seaweed emulsion.I taught my community garden classes how to do it and we hand it out by the bottle for free to class members and the community.It works so well we get request for it!
your library should have or can order in books on organic gardening in our climate.I order in books from all over that way.Good luck!
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