I'm sorry to hear about your tomatoes! In the past few years I've had problems with my tomatoes peaking real fast and then dying off quickly. They'll get really large, produce lots of green fruit, but I'll be lucky if the plant is still alive by the time the last fruit ripens.

So between burning myself out on tomatoes (just growing too many) and having trouble keeping them healthy for the entire growing season...I decided to take a new approach this year. All but two of my plants are volunteers...and they are doing really well so far! At this point its hard to say if its relevant to them being volunteers or if I'm just doing something right this year.

I don't know much about "volunteer gardening" (if thats even a real term) but it seemed like a natural approach to me.

As for the eggplant the flea beetle is the most common pest, but those green winged things are definitely not them. I've already looked through a variety of sources for answer but haven't had any luck, but if I figure it out I will let you know!

Oh and thanks for mentioning the powdery mildew recipe! I think I'm going to try that.

Claire - is the powdery mildew on your cantaloupes resulting in the brown leaves you show? Both my cantaloupe and watermelon have withered up - brown leaves - brown stems. The fruits are still there and attached, but don't really seem to be growing much anymore... :(