I only grow Insuk's Wang Kong as an ornamental, which essentially means I've admitted defeat and know I'll never get enough seed here to use it as an edible. It is such a pretty plant and so vigorous. It was the first bean variety this year to climb to the top of the 8' tall garden fence. This year the other long-lived pole bean from the spring planting has been TenderStar. It also is a runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus) instead of a standard bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). It is described by retailers as a cross between a runner bean and a French bean. It is the only runner bean I've ever grown that produced a harvest in May from seeds sown in March. Often the true runner beans (P. coccineus) do not produce a harvest until fall----if they survive the summer heat. It also is the only runner bean I've grown that has produced a harvest in May and June and still is producing in July. I stuck the runner beans back in the far NE corner of the garden so that I wouldn't have to look at them much (the garden gate is at the SW corner of the garden) if they didn't do well. So, naturally, they're doing great and I enjoy looking at them this year. The blossoms are beautiful and so far the plants themselves have been pretty resilient, fighting off bean rust in May and early June, and tolerating a sustained attack by several pests including spider mites and grasshoppers. The first couple of years I tried TenderStar, it did not produce impressive yields, but that was more an issue caused by drought and extreme heat. Here, in the wettest year ever for us, it has been a very happy camper. We have a freezer full of beans that will carry us through the next year and I really don't need to plant any for fall. I might plant some anyway just for the sheer pleasure of having fresh ones all autumn.

While blueberries are technically self-fertile, you will always have better berry production when growing at last two different types - berries are very hit or miss with just one plant. And anything grown in a container will need routine fertilization. The plant has no other access to required nutrients unless supplied by the gardener.

There are multiple issues going on here. First, the shrub (which appears to be a camellia) is suffering from a whopping case of sooty mold. That is what is making the leaves dark. The sooty mold is not a terrifically serious issue itself - tends to be mostly cosmetic - but the causes behind it are worth investigating and correcting if possible. Sooty mold is a fungus that grows on the honeydew or sweet, sticky excrement of sucking insects like aphids and scale. And they can be damaging to the health and vigor of whatever plant they can be found on. And sometimes they are not on the plant that develops the sooty mold but on overhanging or adjacent plantings. I don't really see anything in the photo that would qualify, so would assume the shrub itself is the source. However, since the SM takes some time to develop, the honeydew producing insects may or may not be present now.....I'd check anyway. If no honeydew producing insects present - no sooty mold development. It can be washed off the foliage and that will immediately improve the shrub's appearance and help it to 'breath' easier :-) The flies are also attracted to the sweet substance. I am not 100% certain but but it sure looks like a camellia. And they can be pruned relatively easily, typically right after the bloom cycle. How small you can be able to keep depends on the type or cultivar - some get a lot bigger than others. Offhand, it looks like a less than ideal choice for that tight siting without requiring at least annual pruning to keep size in check. I'd consider moving and replacing.

Sorry for the epic gardening saga to follow. I have 2 half-high varieties of blueberries (Northblue & Jellybean) that are in 10-gallon grow bags. I bought them three years ago as two-year-old plants, I think, put them in a 50/50 mix of peat and potting mix, and then a bunch of life and health issues got in the way of gardening. They survived three years of ignorance and almost total neglect, not realizing how shallow their roots are the first year and scrubbing fertilizer into their roots that first year, and my non-gardening husband adding sulfur in really large amounts. He meant well. I took the pH this spring and it was at 3! I'm making it a point to start gardening again for my well-being and I am hoping to nurse my babies back to health. We got about 15 blueberries last year and we pinched the buds the previous 2 years. The leaves were red-tinged last year. I have re-potted (re-bagged?) them into a mix of pine bark, peat, a pinch of perlite, a handful of worm castings, a handful of sulfur, and a couple handfuls of DTE Acid Mix and covered them with pine bark mulch. My husband had just put the old bags on the ground so unfortunately they grew into the soil and I had to rip those roots out of the soil. They're now on u-posts that cross over stacks of pavers (elegant, I know). We rent so I don't want to put them in the ground. Plus, about a third of the Northblue's crown ripped from the roots as I was trying to repot by myself and couldn't get the momentum to level it in the new bag without a bit of force - the 50/50 peat and potting mix was so compacted around the roots after 3 years that I was trying to spray it off with a hose and eventually gave up out fear of doing more harm than good, so it was very heavy. The Jellybean was easier; I scrubbed the roots a bit around the outside and bottom to loosen the compacted soil and then made extra sure that the soil was level in the new bag before I put it in. I waited a week and then, after saturating the soil, fertilized with 1 gallon of Jack's Acid Special split between the two. I was conflicted between their lack of being fertilized and lack of growth over the past few years and wanting them to recover from such an assault on their roots (especially poor Northblue). I also got a new Reka that I put in a 7-gal bag with the same bark/peat mix. The oldest cane must be more than three years - it's gray and the bark is peeling off. I know I'll need to pot up the Reka but I didn't realize I had run out of 10-gal grow bags. I haven't fertilized the Reka yet. Questions: - Should I pinch all/some of the flower buds on the Northblue and/or Jellybean? What about the Reka - I think it's very clearly over 2 years old, even though I just bought it. - When should I next fertilize? - I did notice that some of the roots had a brown coating - is this normal? They were white inside but had a brown sheath-like material outside. Some of the upper roots where the massive amounts of sulfur were applied are definitely dead. - Do half-highs need pruning? Northblue has a productive cane that could not be growing in a more irritating and inconvenient direction (about a 40 degree angle from the ground and 2 1/2 feet out from the grow bag). I did prune according to high-bush recommendations (twiggy growth, dead canes, crossing growth, low-growing shoots, shoots that will be shaded by the outer growth) but left most of the canes except obviously weak ones. I think it's too late to prune now (I'm in zone 6a). - Do the Jellybean and/or Reka have recommended cross-pollinators, or any variety will do? I see that Northblue does better when paired with Northcountry, but I kinda wanted to get a Northland or a Blueray. We're obsessed with blueberries so I wanted to add one more member to the family after Reka.