Anyone tempted - as a response to higher food prices and survival?

[Rjk]

About seven years ago, I turned the garden over to growing veg, building three raised beds.
It was exciting in the beginning and I grew a variety of veg but it became progressively harder - not least, because of the hard work and the cost.
The last straw was a crop of potatoes which were growing well one minute, and the next were decimated by blight. All that work gone overnight!.
It seemed that I was fighting a continuous battle against bugs and snails/slugs. Once again I have grown runners which have been badly affected by black fly again. Cabbages were grazing grounds for caterpillars.
I'm not sure I want to go thru all that again after replacing the veg patch with a great flower bed (if I say so meself)

My mrs is Buddhist, and really doesn't like using any chemicals in the garden or house, so we don't use any chemicals or means of dealing with the pests that involves killing them.
This basically means most nights spending 5-10 minutes gently removing any slugs and snails with a pair of tweezers and yeeting them over the fence (there's a empty patch of land over the fence, they aren't going in someone's garden.) It does eventually work though, there were loads of the buggers to begin with, now it's only 1 or 2 a night

Caterpillars are similarly dealt with, they are a real pain at the moment, so you have to use nets on any brassicas especially.

[Cyclops]

What I really don't get is, knowing the problems that bugs and pests cause, how are 'organically' grown veg so perfect?

[Rjk]

Hydroponics is something I'd like to try if i have the time. used much lest water than traditional methods , can keep fish as well to generate the fertiliser

[blue matt]

Hydroponics is something I'd like to try if i have the time. used much lest water than traditional methods , can keep fish as well to generate the fertiliser

I looked at this many years ago ( they have a boat ride in Disney called " living with the land " with hydroponic grown plants, they even keep fish and use the water to fertilise the plants, its dull as hell, but 100% aircon'ed and lovely to sit down and cool down ) , started to put together the stuff for the allotment, even had a old solar panel ( which was heading to the skip ) to power the pump, then the allotment started to have break-ins and it put me off, I could actually do it in my new house as the garden is huge, but not sure the wife would be happy with that time spent when she has a list of a million jobs to be done