Organic Garden: Season in Review

With the garden winding down I have observed a few things in my first year organically gardening which make me contemplate its effectiveness.

Bugs. I have never seen so many bad bugs in a garden.... ever. I even had bugs I've never seen before. I tried an organic spray but that did nothing. As a result, I had no cucumbers or beans this year. They gobbled up everything.

Smaller yields, smaller fruits. Most everything was alot smaller in quantity and size than years past. Miracle gro does do quite a bit apparently. I did use organic fertilizer as I have done in years past but it didn't make up the difference.

For the most part I focused on tomatoes this year. Not all were affected in the same way astonishingly. My larger beefsteaks were of particular interest to bugs while my cherries were affected by fungal diseases. Granted the extremely wet weather summer we had didn't help either.

Taste. I didn't notice any difference with my cherries and my wife loved the beefsteaks so that's positive. My daughter ate the cherries like candy so I assume she liked them just the same too.

All in all not what I had hoped for in the first run. I believe I need 20% more plants if I continue to go organic to have the same yields as non organic. I probably will go organic again next year with better expectations and maybe some better "natural" bug deterrents and fertilizers.