They are just under 7' tall, but I have trimmed off a foot or or so. It took about 2 years from a 1 gallon container with a plant 1 foot tall to get to 7 feet. I think they grew 1' the first year and 5' the next year. Then I lightly trimmed the tips at the very top and they got dense. It is a matter of, do you want to spend $20 now but you are trimming all the time, or $100 and trim once a year. Its the same with lawn. Lawn is much cheaper to install than shrubs, which is why builders always put a big lawn and skinny planting beds. But lawn costs a lot to water and maintain over time compared to slow or moderate growing, drought tolerant shrubs. Slow shrubs may seem not good, but on the other hand, you are not out there chopping at them all the time. Fast, aggressive plants are cheap to buy, but take time and money to keep under control. You have to do what you have to do, but it is something to keep in mind for the long haul. If you move in a year or two it becomes someone else's problem. If you are there for 30 years, it is your problem. One thing you can do is get the Cape Honeysuckle to the size you want then cut way back on the watering. It will slow them down. Try to keep the lawn away from them also, as they will invade the lawn looking for water.

It's the same peat moss that I've been using forever, Whitney Farms Sphagnum Peat Moss. All my plants are in it, usually with a eyeballed 50/50 mix of Whitney Farms Perlite, with no problems. I also have a bale of pure Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss in the shed I could switch to. I've been loathe to use it on a "real" plant -- I wanted to buy some test plants from CPN/CaliCarnivores to test it first but I just don't feel right doing that to a poor plant, heh. It looks the same although it's a slight shade browner than the Whitney Farms stuff. Water is Distilled water from WinCo. They recently changed brand names but the smaller Sundew had started having problems before they switched. I did discover a 2 year old dipping a spoon I was using to repot my Spider Plant into the water, that might be where the water got contaminated, if he had poured a bit of his apple juice or something in there -- but again, the other Sundew is about 4" off the ground, he couldn't have gotten to it to do that. Should I be leaving standing water in the tray, or should I be letting the tray dry out before watering? The former is how I've been doing it, the latter would be more akin to a standard pot/saucer setup, which seems counterproductive. I've honestly just been eyeballing it, maybe they're getting too much water? Is that even possible? I did find a little more room by moving my Pygmy Sundews and 2 Butterworts (one of the Butterworts is Temperate (Pinguicula grandiflora), the other is Tropical (Pinguicula moranensis)) into one big 8" saucer, that freed up a lot of space, as they used to each be in a different 6" saucer. Only worry now is if they're getting enough sun and if the tray watering style will harm them.

We really need to pictures to see what's going on :-) First to correctly ID the plant - a number of plants have the name of 'fuchsia' that are not true fuchsias: Cape fuchsia (Phygelius), California fuchsia (Zauschneria/Epilobium), for example. Second, to see what exactly is happening - hardy fuchsias are remarkably drought tolerant once established and require minimal watering - recycled or gray water should be no different from regular tap water afa the plants are concerned, unless you use a lot of detergent or other cleansers.

You can usually get a professional soil test done through your local county ag extension office. Cost is about the same as the price for one of those kits. They are especially inaccurate when it comes to nitrogen results. One problem you face is that beans and peppers have very different nitrogen needs from each other and both differ from that needed by tomatoes. So any blanket application of a high nitrogen source can be ideal for one crop and way to much for another. Beans don't actually need any supplemental nitrogen and don't tolerate it at all well so yellowing of bean leaves almost always indicates excess watering and root rot. Over-watering is a chronic problem for many gardeners, especially new ones. So when in doubt I try to encourage them to reduce it by half. They often find the crops improve quickly since most garden crops will tolerate under-watering far better than they will over-watering. Yet another possible consideration is that the the garden soil you added may have been contaminated. It seems to be an increasing problem over the past couple of years - outside soil sources contaminated with herbicides - so I'd suggest some research into the symptoms that shows in plants exposed to it and compare with yours. Lastly, the form of the nitrogen you add makes a big difference. Not all forms are equal by any means. Dave