Bush Bean Bounty
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| Photo Credit: Mary Moore |
| While larger plants are establishing, consider using the space in between to grow quick-growing veggies like green beans, radishes or salad greens. |
The green beans that I ate growing up were pole beans – thick, starchy vegetables that grew on vines and produced huge numbers of beans that stored well. They were the staple of many a Southern garden, growing on vines so tall that you needed a stepladder to harvest the ones at the top. Although my grandmother knew how to season them just so, I never learned the trick to making pole beans taste as good as Grandma’s.
Then I discovered bush beans. Tender, with a delicate taste and no strings, they’re easy to grow and cook – and delicious to eat! Bush beans are determinate plants (meaning that they grow, flower and produce beans in a short, determined time span). They can be green, yellow or purple, and they’re sure to add a variety of textures and color to your dinner plate. | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: Mary Moore | | Your bush beans will germinate within a week and grow quickly into small bushes covered with bean pods. |
Some varieties you may want to try include: Pencil Pod, a yellow wax bean with a sweet flavor; Tendergreen or Tendergreen Improved, both flavorful green varieties that can be frozen or eaten fresh; Bush Blue Lake 274, known both for flavor and high yields; and Maxibel, a French variety with long, thin pods. Whichever you choose, I’ll bet you’ll be pleased with the beans you grow!
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| Tips |
- It’s good to rotate your vegetable plantings to throw off bugs and discourage fungus or disease in the soil. You can do this in a small kitchen garden by planting something entirely different after you harvest your first crop.
- Soaking bean seeds before planting helps the germination process. Put the seeds in a container with water and soak for about 4 hours. Using bean inoculants (which can be purchased through many seed catalogs) can help your young bean plants get established.
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| Faqs |
- Q: How can I fit lots of green beans in my little garden?
A: You can fit plenty of green beans in a small garden by planting them between larger, slow-growing vegetables. By the time the larger plant needs the space, the green beans will be ready for harvest. After you harvest the beans and remove the plants, just be sure to add compost to the soil to feed that larger plant.
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| Definitions |
- Determinate vegetables: Veggie plants (like bush beans) that grow to a specific size and produce all their fruit over a few weeks. After that time, the plants should be taken to the compost bin. Then you can refresh the soil with new compost and plant a different crop.
- Indeterminate vegetables: Veggies that produce new growth over a long period of time. As a result, they still produce flowers for new fruit long after the first fruits have been harvested.
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| Resources |
- Whether you are a "farmer" or a "foody" this site connects food growers to food lovers. Find out where you can buy locally grown food.
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