Hi All, Lane County Extension Service Master Gardener John Fischer here with KLCC's Good Gardening.
There's an old saying - I thought it was Buddhist- that goes "Change what you can, don't try to change what you can't, and learn to know the difference between the two." That advice applies perfectly to your garden with an addendum - "Don't bother trying to change things that don't matter."
This philosophy chat was triggered by a friend whose pear tree has cedar pear rust ; my pears have it too - along with a bumper crop of pears. The only way to control the fungus is through the repetitive use of anti-fungal sprays that are not generally available to home-owners. Infected leaves have yellow spots on them, and the same thing can happen to the pears. You can pick off infected leaves if it makes you feel better, but you will never pick up all the spores on the ground, so co-existing with the rust will save you time - and worry.
I often get aphids on the husks of my October corn. The ears inside are fine, and the chickens enjoy the aphids, so I make no effort to control them. Early season aphids on broccoli and cauliflower get a spray of Safer's Soap to reduce their numbers.
Early Roma tomatoes often get blossom end rot - the tip of the tomato turns black. You can try adding calcium, keeping soil moisture levels even, or wait. It goes away after the first month, nothing I have tried makes any difference, and I usually have plenty of tomatoes.
A few holes in lettuce or arugula leaves might - to some - look unsightly, but they don't really hurt the produce. You can ignore them when you make a salad, or cut the holes out before you chop the greens.
If you have "problems" that you can't control, or better yet, do no harm, adopt the Alfred E. Newman gardening technique - "What, Me Worry?"
I'm John Fischer with Good Gardening.
