Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

Hi Jim and group

In the last 3 years we have 2 serious gardening problems that I can't find solutions to.

1) we have been invaded by stink bugs, and no matter what I have tried, they had managed to totally ruin our cucumbers and squash. We have removed all the debris, even used a burner to torch any left over debris, and possible hiding places for bugs, and still they have killed our crops.

2) Squirrels have developed a taste for my delicious heritage tomatoes, and eat most of them - or rather, take one bite and toss them down. They start with green ones. They even run up and down my plants which are strung up to the T frames. My yield has gone from bushels to maybe a gallon or two of tomatoes for the whole season. We are thinking of making a chicken wire hoop that goes over the T frames and is fastened to the ground to attempt to keep them out this year.

 My garden has been organic for 20+ years, and used Mittleider for at least 6 of those years; and between months of rain, pests and bugs we have lost most of it the last three years. We can hardly buy vegetables that aren't foreign or sprayed with pesticides here, and even farmers markets are full of produce grown using pesticides and other things that I don't want to feed my family, and now we can't grow the things we love.

Any ideas/suggestions on how to combat these pests would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

Veda Bafford

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