Today, I spread insecticide in the garden.

I hate doing that. I *really* hate doing that, since it utterly screws up the garden ecosystem by taking out friendly bugs, and I don't like using insecticide. Plus, I don't really like killing.

Unfortunately, I had a bad tomato worm infestation. Well, now they are a pepper worm infestation since they ran out of tomatoes to eat. :( I had a garden last week, but a lot of it was eaten this week.

I don't know if its the Tennessee climate (first time I planted here) or if I screwed up. I suspect the later. Its my observation that a healthy garden tends to be pretty resistant to pests, but that may only hold true in the north.

Oh well, I should still have okra (nothing has killed it yet), and the peppers should recover. Perhaps the cherry tomato will recover as well. I'll get a soil test done this fall and see if there were any nutrients missing in the garden. I'll also try to get some horse manure to work into the soil and plant a cover crop.

Try, try again. *sigh*

Really the best thing to do with tomato worms is handpick them. Tedious, but really the best choice.

A healthy garden in any climate will be resistant to pests, but you might need to get in there and pick some bugs. I live in Texas, a pretty darn buggy place, and I've lost some crops to bugs, but still don't use insecticide. I'm not saying that to be morally superior, just to show if you make your mind up not to use it, you won't use it.

If you simply make the decision not to ever use insecticides, and never buy them, you won't ever use them. I never use them, ever.

More power to you next time, resist the evil call of the insecticides!

Part of my problem is that this is a 'weekday' garden -- I don't have access to it on the weekends. So bug pests build up over the weekends. :(

I've found my local garden store is the best place to pick up organic gardening techniques--even the the owner isn't an organic gardner himself, he's very familiar with local pests, soil conditions, etc. and can offer alot of solutions.

Is it possible to use lady bugs to control the bugs in the future (I don't know what they work for, I just know I have them, and so far haven't had any real bug problems.)

I don't think ladybugs eat tomatoworm eggs or larva. Some birds do, however, eat the worms, so you might try encouraging birds, especially wrens, in your yard.