Weekend Gardening: Green Beans

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   Second only to tomatoes, green beans are the most common home garden crop. Many wonderful summer afternoons have been spent seated on a porch next to our loved ones snapping beans for an evening meal or a late day canning. Easy to grow and bountiful in their harvest, green snap beans are truly a home garden necessity.

    In my home garden green beans are seeded thickly in raised rows with successive rows planted every two weeks to ensure continuous harvest. Bush varieties, such as Contender and Blue Lake, are direct seeded in the large 'victory garden' near our greenhouse while runner beans, such as Scarlet and Kentucky, trail their vines along the corn stalks. Soaker hoses run along the planting rows while row covers keep moisture at hand and pests at bay.
    Our bush are planted first for early harvests due to their tender nature. Once our southern heat makes an appearance, these plants scorch and slow production while their climbing counterparts kick it in high gear for long summer bounty. Pests are kept a bay with gentle dusting of natural BT or Neem oil sprays..but only if hand picking the critters becomes too overwhelming.

The bare facts:

Bush beans are direct seeded in rows throughout the month of March; runners are direct seeded at the base of a trellis or near corn shoots when they are a foot high.

Common Southern Varieties:

Bush: Blue Lake

Contender

Derby

Provider

Gator Green

Runner: Scarlet runner

Kentucky wonder

     Bountiful harvests of beans can be pressure canned or blanched and frozen for later use. As a home gardener, it's quite satisfying to step into the pantry seeing all those wonderful jars of bright green beans lined up in a row. 

     Are you planting green beans this year? Or maybe wax beans? Share your garden plans with us...let's inspire each other to get out there and grow something wonderful!