"I plan to pre-sprout them so that I only plant the ones that are definitely viable..." Too much labor. A bag of seed is $1.50 - just soak the beans overnight and plant. Plenty will come up. Trust me. "I have no idea exactly what variety these are, how long it will take them to mature and put out fruit, etc. " It makes little difference; they are all about the same. "I do know that they are most likely bush beans, but I do plan on giving them some support if necessary. " It won't be. Let em do their thing. My questions are: "1. If I am planting one 4-ft row, would 4 plants be too many for that space? I may not get many... DH seem to believe that the time and effort to harvest them may far outweigh the relatively cheap cost at which they can be purchased and low output of bean plants." Plant them 4" apart all around - 9-12 per SQUARE FOOT. DH is RIGHT, TOO. I grow them as cover and forage for chickens. And I eat some. But it takes a LOT of plants to make a season. Machine methods make them cheap. But you don't need to adopt them. Grow in sq . foot groups. "2. Since there is a chance that they may be slightly more vine-y than bush-y, is there also a chance that I might be able to clone them?" Don't bother - too much labor again for cheap seed. Just plant more beans. And it won't work anyway; theu don't grow from cuttings. "3. If I pick off pods at some point, will this at all encourage them to grow more? Yes, They keep producing for 2-3 pickings, when picked green. "Say for example, if I pick them off to dry them myself, as opposed to waiting for them to dry on the vine? Can you even do that?" Three pickings: 1. When young pods are about 3-4" long; eat like snap beans. 2. When matured, but still soft and green, as "edamame" or Southern-type "field peas," 3. When completely dried as cooked beans and seed. "4. I understand that they might not set pod once temps reach 80 and above. Being in Chicago, that means potentially by mid-June, but more likely July and August. If they have not set pods by then, will they never set pods, or will they simply set pods later in the season after it cools off again?" Pinto's, Navy's, Limas - they will struggle setting in the heat. Black beans, field peas/cowpeas, lentils, pigeon peas - they love the heat. "5. If they do set pods before the temperature gets too high, and I harvest them, will they again set pods once the weather cools again?" Possibly. They don't last long, and too early will subject them to bean beetles. Once they give their all, I suggest you chop em em up and compost em. Better to grow two crops than try to hold one. "6. I have read in many places that you are actually supposed to wait for the plant to DIE before harvesting the beans. How accurate/efficient is this?" For dried beans, sure. But once the pods are obviously dried, pull the plants up and re-use the space. "7. Lastly, again being in Chicago, we tend to have a very wet fall season. I understand this can complicate the drying process, so what would the recommendation be as far as harvesting the beans before they might be completely dry on the vine, but before the weather gets too wet?" Plant in late May and add plantings every two weeks until mid-July. Your last bunch will come off end of September/early October. Once the beans are mature, you can pull the plants, broom them and hang until completely dry if you wish. By then you will have had your fill of beans, I assure you.

I have a spot which sounds very similar to yours, without the woods behind. The mower marks, poor grass growing, weeds, puddles of water, & the consistent wetness are/were exactly the same. In my case it was a man-made depression to handle run-off from 6 houses in my subdivision to a large drain located in the corner of my back yard. There is a 2nd drain just outside my property by a few inches on the other side for the houses on that side to drain into. My yard is quite sloped side to side and front to back with a bit of extra dropoff just before the drain area. There was no possibility of raising the elevation or using the lasagna method. Here's what we did. We left the lowest part alone, except for digging out a bit here and there to direct the flow a bit. We added some gravel, some 2 inch egg rock, and a few semi-big rocks to make it more attractive, making a sort of dry creek, which isn't all that dry. This rock/gravel area also serves as a pathway through the area when it's dry enough. We added a couple of smaller sideways gravel paths so we can get in and work in the area as well. These don't actually handle water, but they look like they could & we tried to keep them as natural looking as possible by meandering the paths a bit and putting rocks at strategic points. We also have a few areas where we use large flat rocks for crossing. Any green stuff that intrudes into this area is cleared out by using Round-up once or twice a year. This area is a really small portion of the whole & we tried to keep it as small as possible (narrow paths etc.) & quite simple (Round-up) because rock hauling & weed removal from rocks is for people much younger than us! In the rest of the area we used a modified lasagna method. We used newspapers (6-8 pages dampened) and put down over it a small layer of dirt, mixed with bagged Humus and Manure, and covered it with a 2 inch layer of mulch, trying hard not to raise the elevation more than a little bit & start a war with our neighbors (all at a slightly higher elevation than us & them wanting to keep it like that). We did the work in the fall and let it go for the season. It looked neat and needed no more mowing, with only a moderate leaf cleanup off the rocks (pushed onto the mulched areas). Over the winter I developed a plan to add shrubs to the area, checking books & catalogs for things that can tolerate both wet and clay. I decided to plant only small bareroot shrubs, 12, 18, 24 inches tall, because I had no faith in anything actually being able to live in this spot. I settled on Variegated Red Twig dogwood which I bought locally as small shrubs & Itea, Clethra, a cutleaf Sambucus, & Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) that I bought as whips through a catalog. In addition, I purchased a couple of Emerald Arborvitae shrubs locally for some Evergreen color near the back center of the garden on higher ground. I also bought inexpensive (no cultivar name) starts of things like Ostrich Fern, water Iris, & Cardinal flower from a catalog and added a few plants from the pond section of the local nursery, plus moved a few astilbes (that I didn't like the color of) from another part of the garden. To my surprise most everything took quite well. Since that time (more than 5 years ago) I have tried different shrubs and perennials, pulled out a lot of things that got too big too fast, & had a great deal of fun with my "wet" garden. I have no idea if it would ever have qualified as a bog or a fen - but it was certainly wet enough. I have found that a lot of things will grow in the area and on the edges of the area. It never has to be mowed, there aren't any mower ruts anymore, it doesn't need watering, there isn't even much standing water anymore, and it's quite lovely. BTW, local landscapers, 5 of them, had been brought in to look at the yard during the summer before we did this work - none would give us an estimate (no way to get heavy equipment into the yard) and only wanted to plant River Birches or Bald Cypress trees in the corners. They said nothing else would work. A wee bit big for my small suburban lot & wouldn't my neighbors have loved the tree branches spreading all over their yards! I'm glad we did it ourselves. There are really just so many things that love this area. Here's a few: You can't tell from the picture but behind the Lady's Mantles (themselves 2 ft tall) is a dropoff and a big drain right in front of the yellow zinnias, which are further away than they look in the picture. To the left on the top ridge of the bed is Miscanthus sinensis Strictus and to the left Hibiscus moscheutos Sweet Caroline, both huge tall plants, blocking the view into the "wet" garden, except for this peek. Behind them are various water/damp loving perennials & some small shrubs, with a mixed row of damp & clay tolerant shrubs behind them along the fence. Here's the rest of the Strictus grass and Lysimachia Alexander. The entry path to the "wet" garden is just on the left of Alexander. On the left side of this narrow path is a dwarf Meadowsweet, about the same size as Alexander on its own little island. There is another path to the left of it going the other direction to higher ground. You can also see a bit of the Ostrich fern which is actually about 5 ft back and on the far edge of the drainage ditch. Trollius, an early bloomer likes damp. The dark shrubs in the background are Physocarpus Diablo on the higher back ridge, not quite filled out yet this early in spring. Bowles Golden Sedge looks great against the Diablo foliage. Japanese Primrose (Crimson Strain) sprinkled here and there in the area. Love the color. Virginia Bluebells, one of my favorite spring ephemerals. This runs along the fence side of the bed, before the Swamp Hibiscus is even out of the ground.

I am going to build a bog garden. I recently moved and need some place for my EE and bog plants that I brought from the old house. This year I kept them in pots but I am going to build a garden and went in search of how to build one. This may help you. Some of the ingredients I am going to ignore such as the destiled water. LOL Creating an artificial bog garden Strange as it may sound the first step to building a bog garden, dig a hole! The area can be whatever shape you like about 18 Â 24 inches deep and slightly raised from the surrounding bed area to keep runoff from entering the bog (this is explained shortly). Locate the bog garden where it will get full sun at least half the day, preferably afternoon sun. The worst part is done! Now line the hole with rubber pond liner. DonÂt worry if there are sharp roots etc. that could puncture the liner. A few leaks do not matter. Begin filling the bog with the following combination: add 1 bale (4cuft) of sphagnum peat, mix in 100lbs of silica sand and a big mess of conifer needles (white pine is my favorite). Add rain, distilled, or dehumidifier water till saturated. This is the second hardest job because peat is extremely hydrophobic. Repeat above until the bog is full and fully saturated. Sculpt the "dirt" such that it is low in the center and higher around the edges. Because it is saturated and all the air is worked out, it will not settle. If you wish to plant a Fen type garden (ph neutral and slightly more nutrient rich) add 50 Â 100 lbs of calcium rich lime in place of the conifer needles. Most species of Cypripedium will prefer this to the bog garden. I made the mistake of using crushed oyster shell, it added too much saltÂso donÂt use this for calcium! Time to plant! Place plants that like more water near the center of the bog where it is low and plants that like less water around the edges. This works well because the edges dry out far faster than the center. Be patient! A bog garden takes at least 2 years to become well established as a mini ecosystem. DonÂt pull any weeds that you are not sure are weeds! Some really good stuff can come to your garden from peat bales. But keep seed heads of sedges and other more aggressive plants trimmed so more tender plants will have a better chance of survival. The cardinal rule! NEVER EVER EVER WATER WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN RAIN, DISTILLED, OR DEHUMIDIFIER WATER! TAP WATER WILL KILL A BOG GARDEN IN A SEASON AS WILL ANY SORT OF FERTILIZER! Plants suitable for bog gardens and sources

Hi Anthony - I'm glad to hear that so many of them survived. I know you were worried there for a bit that you'd have few viable plants this year. Guess they are tougher then we give them credit for, tight? ;) Cagers often say that they don't prune and they get lots of production. QUESTION: Does this have many fruits ripening at the same time, are the fruits smaller that typical fruits for the variety? More pounds of smaller tomatoes is not something that I want. Hope it's alright if I restrict myself to just this part. As you probably know, I'm a cager and don't prune. But this year I also set up a Florida weave row to try and for comparison. Same varieties in each - Stupice, Bloody Butcher, Brandy Boy, Opalka, Black Cherry, Tappy's Heritage, Super Marmande, Marianna's Peace, and Sweet Cluster. We are eating the Stupice, B. Butcher and a couple of S. Cluster so far. I pruned all of them up to the first fruit cluster and then stopped on the caged ones but pruned the FW row to 3 stems each. Right now they both have just about the same number of fruit +/- a couple, with the exception of the Opalkas, Black Cherry, and the Sweet Clusters. The caged plants of those varieties are at least 18 inches taller and have 1/2 again more green fruit than the pruned ones do. On all the plants the fruit size is the same to the naked eye - I didn't dig out the calipers. ;) The caged ones are ripening from the lowest cluster up - same as the pruned ones - no faster, no slower so far. Don't know if this helps or not? But so far the only real advantage I can see is that the pruned plants are going to be a lot easier to pick the fruit on but I am also worried that I'm going to have more sun scald on them and less production. Time will tell. Hope this is of some help. Dave