The Grumpy Gardener Helps With A Green Bean Dilemma

About This Episode

Advice for an attack on half runner green beans. Plus, Grumpy shares his most shocking plant of the week.

Question Of The Week

"We've been growing half runner green beans for 60-plus years. This year there is a pest that rolls up the ends of the leaves. When we look closely, we see a worm inside. Ugh. What will get rid of it without hurting the beans?" -Marie

Grumpy's Answer: Half runner are these heirloom green beans that grow a little bit like pole beans and a little bit like bush beans. The plants themselves stay short, but if you give them a little stake or support, they will grow up it. They will climb a support. The leaf rollers are the larvae of skipper butterflies. And what the butterflies do is they lay eggs on the bean leaves, and then the eggs hatch out into these little caterpillars. And the caterpillars roll up the leaves so they can roll them around themselves and hide in there from predators and from people while they feed. Now, there's usually not enough of them to do any serious damage to the plant, but if things get out of hand, it's easy to control. Every time you see a rolled up leaf, pick it off, throw it on the ground and stomp.

Plant Of The Week

Cinderous blockous

Yes, and the reason that I have named this the plant of the week is because I get all these whiners out there every time I put anything in the magazine, anything on the website, my Grumpy page, whatever, with all these emails that go, "Well, I can't grow it in my yard. They eat it right down to the ground, you know? It's anything that I plant." It's like these are the only people that comment. "Everybody else is happy, but the deer ate mine." Okay. So then, what do I do? As a responsible journalist, I go and I investigate thoroughly. I search all the journals. I search all the cooperative extension places, all the university websites for plants that are termed deer resistant. And so those are the ones that I mention.

So I'm done with it. I am done with this subject. And so that is why our plant of the week is a very special plant that you all will love, and that is cinderous blockous. Now, you may have heard it by its common name, cinder block, but let me tell you, this is one carefree plant. You don't have to water it. You don't have to spray it. You don't have to fertilize it. It's cold hardy, all the way from the Arctic to the Antarctic and every place in between. It's not invasive. It doesn't spread and take over. And it's not fussy about soil.

About Ask Grumpy

Ask Grumpy is a podcast featuring Steve Bender, also known as Southern Living’s Grumpy Gardener. For more than 30 years, Grumpy has been sharing advice on what to grow, when to plant, and how to manage just about anything in your garden. Tune in for short episodes every Wednesday and Saturday as Grumpy answers reader questions, solves seasonal conundrums, and provides need-to-know advice for gardeners with his very Grumpy sense of humor. Be sure to follow Ask Grumpy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you don't miss an episode.

Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.