To spray or Not to spray?

I have been doing a lot of reading about insecticides lately.  I use only organic ones, but I've read that if you let your garden 'settle' for a while without any insecticides it will eventually self-regulate.  Since insecticides kill both the unwanted bugs and the beneficial bugs, over time the beneficial bugs build up to the point where they are taking care of the unwanted bugs.  In order for that to work, though, you have to have optimal garden conditions.

I'm wondering if anyone out there has actually let their garden self-regulate and had it work?  Any comments on how/when you use insecticides?  Any suggestions would be great...

Composting

I have gotten a lot of questions about my composting system lately.  It sounds kind of complicated but once you make your own system work for you it's quite easy.

First, I have a jar on my counter (that I got at Home Goods or similar store) with an easy-opening lid that I put my compost items in.  I put in all of my kitchen scraps minus fats and meats.

Once this jar is full I dump it into a pail I keep outside next to the porch steps.

Then once that pail gets filled or the stench becomes unbearable I haul it down to the compost pile.

It's a simple three-sided structure made out of stakes and chicken wire.  My husband takes a pitchfork to it once a week or so.  We add leaves in the fall and other garden refuse at the end of the season.  I don't worry too much about the ratio of things in there - it seems to do just fine on its own.

Melon-looking thing growing

I always get things that grow in my compost bin.  I learned the hard way that it's best not to transplant these things to the garden, however hard it may be to resist that temptation.  The reason is that most of the seeds that grow from your compost could be harboring diseases, are a cross-breed, or are not a particular cultivar that would be appropriate to grow in your climate zone.  The first year I had the compost pile I was so excited to find a melon-like thing growing that I planted it in my garden.

Well it produced a lot of vines that took up a lot of space and nutrients, but the small melony-looking thing that it made basically was rotten mush inside.  Yuck.

I learned my lesson

2011 new growth

This year my seedlings were much more contained than last year.  I took orders for plants instead of just planting a bunch and letting people choose what they wanted.  This helped a lot.

Rebecca planted sunflower seeds. 

My friend generously gave me these slate pieces.  I moved the bench over closer to the kids' play area.

The hollyhocks survived!  Hopefully they will flower this year.

Rebecca's cherry tomato pot. 

I wanted to add something to the back shed to spruce it up a bit.  I put some morning glories into the pots and made the trellises.

Sadly, the top of my bird bath broke off.  It was a wedding gift from my grandmother.  Any ideas on how I can use it in my garden still?

A birdhouse that my dad and brother made for my mom.  I managed to convince her to let me use it. 

This year I mounded some beds in the garden so that I could run the soaker hoses from my rain barrel under the soil.  My hope is that the roots will grown down and reach the soaker hose.  Luckily the stakes and trellis held up through the winter.

This is a pepper seedling that Rebecca and I transplanted yesterday.  The red mulch is supposed to help tomatoes, peppers and eggplant produce more fruit.  We'll see how it does...

These are my pea plants.  I am hoping that it will stay cool long enough to be able to produce some pea pods!

Lima bean

Bean - purple podded pole

Okra

Green bean - bush

Yellow squash

Cucumber

Zucchini and one of Rebecca's sunflower plants

Carrot seedlings

Cilantro

Butterfly bush and salvia coming back strong

My friend shared a raspberry bush with me at the end of last season.  Hope we get some berries this year!

New butterfly bush planted at the end of last season

Mystery plants

Do you know what these are?  I'm going to let them grow because they are in a spot in my garden that I can afford to let them get big.  They're not competing with anything else.