Same question: What is barnyard grass?! But if it is hard to pull and spraying can hurt your veggies, make a round up solution, put it in small bucket, use a paint prust and get the leaves real wet. What I have heard is that most herbacides are just very strong fertilizer(mostly nitrogen) that is absorbed by the broad leaves and sent to the root. The root has noway to get rid of it and therefore it will die of extreme thirst (haha). That is why it is better to make the treatment when there is no rain in the forcast and it is hot. Otherwise, if the root can get water (foliary through leaves or from moist soil) it might survive.

With aphids, it really depends. A few aphids are no big deal. Some aphid predation will signal the other plants to start producing anti-aphid chemicals, and possibly attract predators. If you have a modest infestation AND you see predators at work, I'd take a stance of watchful waiting. Sometimes dry hot weather takes care of it anyway. If you have a serious infestation, though, I would spray the aphids with neem oil. That will take out most of the population; perhaps enough to break the cycle and get the ants to stop farming them, so the predators you have can keep up. Don't repeat too many neem oil applications; it's not good for the plants. If neem doesn't work, you may want to move to a stronger pesticide... being of course careful not to kill any bees or beneficials. For my garden, it's way too early for SVB to show. I was decimated last year. Other than my zukes, I only grow C. moschata now, though.

alisande and fusion I planted my Fortex in a double 8-foot row using cattle panel for the trellis and spaced them at about four inches apart (2 per each panel opening). The vines are so healthy and vigorous this year that they're a tightly-wrapped jungle, so I don't think I'll space them that close next year. I think I'll plant them in double rows with 8" spacing or single rows with 4" spacing. It isn't that the plants are being less productive than I think they could be -- I'm harvesting between 3 and 4 quarts of Fortexes every other day, and in my book that's a lot of beans. (If it continues, I'll be begging people to take some of my beans, like you do with overenthusiastic zucchini!) And this may be an unusually good season for beans. But the beans are hard to get to in the middle where so many vines are wrapped around each other. I think they have enough root-room but I, myself, could benefit from more vine room in the picking!

Macky, your technique is quite similar to mine. I have two matching stainless steel kettles with large strainer basket inserts... this works well for large-scale freezing, since one basket can be cooling while the other is blanching. But rather than fill a sink with cold water, I place a kettle in the sink large enough to immerse the basket, and keep the tap running slowly into it. My well water is cold enough to make your teeth hurt! The cold water sinks to the bottom, and the warmer water is constantly flowing over the top. I stir constantly when the basket is first immersed, for about a minute, then let the veggies sit under the running water. Meanwhile, I strain out any fragments that might remain in the blanching kettle (the wide hand strainers sold in Asian stores work great for this), place the second basket in, and once the water resumes boiling, put in another batch to blanch. I remove & drain the batch that is cooling about a minute before the blanching is complete; by that time the water in the cooling kettle is cold. The other sink holds a colander for draining; but it's not that important to get the veggies completely dry. I initially freeze veggies in square plastic freezer boxes, then vacuum seal the frozen "blocks" into bags (this lessens the chance of debris interfering with the seal). A little water helps the veggies hold together during the transfer. I freeze greens (such as chard) covered in water; this reduces freezer burn. If you don't use a vacuum sealer, covering with water is a good alternative for extended storage. Place the veggies in a ziplock freezer bag, cover with water, squeeze out air bubbles, and seal. Be sure to leave enough room for the bag to expand as it freezes. In my experience, you don't want to use a cheap freezer bag for this, the seam might pop open or leak as it freezes. For me, vacuum-sealed green beans will last for over a year with good quality, if kept at 0 degrees F. A refrigerator ice box generally doesn't get that cold, so storage life would be reduced in the warmer conditions. A small chest freezer is a worthwhile investment if you want to freeze enough veggies for the year. Oh, one last note about blanching. For the best quality, it is best to work small batches. For me, one pound seems to be the magic number... the blanching times tend to match those listed in the Ball Blue Book, which is my reference of choice for canning & freezing. When freezing a new variety for the first time, it's a good idea to do a test batch & check for proper blanching, before freezing large quantities. One tip I've noticed is that when properly blanched, the beans (and most other cut veggies) will sink as they cool.