If I am not sidtaken the diatomaceous eath is ground up sea ahells that when consumed mess with buf tummies... There used to be another organic product which we can not longer find call "sabadilla dust" which worked very well with most critters with 6 legs...
We use horticultural oil or insecticidal soap with water for the aphids...
Also, if I haven't netioned it, birds are our friends... Make yer garden bird friendly... Even a bird bath helps... Song birds will eat lots of bugs... A bat house is a good idea if you have a pole or garden house to hang it on... Crows are the enemy and a scare crow will ward them off... Dangle a couple of aluminum pie pans from Mr. Scarercrows arms and this will also scare off the deer... Somewhat...
We are lucky to have hundreds of frogs that inhabit our veggie garden and not only aare they cute as a button but they eat lots of bugs...
Other pests:
Voles: They hate castor bean plants... These plant are quite decorative... You can cruash the caster bean and put the crushed beans in the vole holes... That really bugs them... Voles can also be caught in mice traps... Put eh trap with some peanut butter on it and then cover with a pot and rock on top and ....bango!!!
Deer: We swear by "Liquid Fence"... Okay, the smell takes a little gettin' used to but it will keep the deer away from your ornimentals... You can also use it one veggie plants but wouldn't advise hitting anything you might want to, ahhhhh, eat... We also have deer fence around our veggie garden with colored surveyors tape tied in little bows all around the garden... It isn't 100% becuase once or twice a season a knothead will try to jump the fence anyway and occasionally get over just enough of it to kinda get tangled in it and panic and make a mess of the fence which then needs to be repaired...
Groundhogs: Grrrrrrrrrrr!!! .410 shotgun!!!
Oh, BTW, I think someone asked about our composter... It is a Mantis (yeah, same company as the tillers) and is about 100 gallons, 2 chanbers with big ring gears on both ends of the cylindar and a crank handle that turns an axle that runs under the tumbler... On the exle are two smaller drive gears that are situated under the ring gears and so when you turn the handle the drum goes round and round... it has two chambers whcih is nice because you can use some of the good compost with new stuff to get the bacteria that is needed to get the process in motion... So the smart thing to do is have one chanber which is about ready to use and the other new stuff... that way you aleternate chambers and you always have some compost just about or ready to use...