It is chemical free, as best as I can manage. Several years ago, when I was starting to learn, I panicked and sprinkled on some Sevin dust in a couple of my raised beds. Big mistake, and totally unnecessary. Now I mainly spray with neem and kaolin clay, and I’ve also been using black pepper and diatomaceous earth as extra defenses.

A lot of my effort still just feeds the deer and rabbits. But such is life. Learning to garden is like studying entropy: the more you know, the less you know.