Fun With Beans
July 22nd, 2009 · No Comments · Posted in garden
Planting beans is easy
As one of our blogging pals recently remarked, how hard can it be to plant a row of beans?
Well, we don’t plant in rows in our kitchen garden here in the District of Columbia, about a mile from the White House. We plant in big squares. But the principle is the same. And we’ve found that one crop that does very well is green beans. So when one vegetable finishes its life cycle–say, potatoes–and leaves a big empty spot in one of our beds, we quickly fill it with something else. I’m a very opportunistic gardener that way. No master plan. Just filling holes in the beds.
Green beans do the job nicely. They are extremely productive in a small space, and they don’t take too long to do the job. I’m referring to bush beans here, not the climbing variety. One variety, Contender, can mature in as little as 42 days. We also like the Blue Lake variety and our favorite is the flat, Italian-style Romano bean. A relatively small area in the garden will yield big bowls full of beans, and all for the small price of a seed packet.
To plant, I just work a dusting of compost into the soil with my stirrup hoe, then plunge the seeds into the groud about four inches apart. Does that seem like not enough room for the plants to grow? Not to worry. You will have a dense patch of beans, but they will be just fine. Just keep the soil moist, watering every day if needed, until the plants germinate. Make sure they get plenty of sun. You’ll soon be braising your own green beans.
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