It is something to see your "babies" decimated by bugs, isn't it? There are good organic insect repellents - and then, we humans do have the ability to hand-pick off the caterpillars. But, as with the soil, organic pest control takes time.
I have been gardening organic for almost two decades now, and it is only in the last 5 years or so that I think the bug "problem" has started to balance out. I don't think that I will ever be completely free from destructive bugs, but I now have a large number of little lizards who are fat, happy, and reproducing mightily...and between two chickens and the birds I have tempted to set up housekeeping here are keeping the slugs and beetles down.
I did have a horrific infestation of nasty little black bugs a couple of weeks ago who appeared right after a rain and they destroyed my Oenthera that were blooming mightily, leaving a very ratty-looking border. But, since these flowers are native Texas wildflowers, they are really tough, and I know that the leaf-eating cycle of bugs lasts only so long, I cut back the ratty stems and now the plants are greening up and getting ready to bloom again, thicker than ever.
By maintaining a healthy, poison free ecosystem in your plants, you can avert the devastation of a crop by bugs, you can make the place safer for Nature's bug-eaters, and you provide an environment for the beneficial bugs to do their job of eating the destructive ones.
I heard a wonderful saying once - "Gardening is a process of trowel and error". Nothing I have planted has ever turned out as I envisioned it, but it has always been fun, therapeutic, and I am so glad that I can feel healthier after digging in the dirt, and feeling cleaner, even with brown fingernails and black lines of mud all over my arms and legs!
Hang in there. Enjoy the process. I have learned that there is no such thing as a Final Result in my garden!
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