bush beans and runner beans

I was thinking about these folks and their headline making front yard garden today.

And how a bean patch with a runner bean tepee or any trellis creation in the center (the possibilities are endless!) is such a beautiful thing for a front yard garden. 

 But not only is it beautiful, it's a fabulous way for grow-your-owners to actually get a huge harvest from a relatively small area.....there could even be enough to freeze for winter!!

If you're just starting out with the idea of producing your own food, it's good to start with easy projects.  Bush and runner beans are fun and easy, very productive and a great way to start!  They're very nice for seasoned gardeners too for all those same reasons.  If you don't have a patch of tillable land, check out this great idea!

I often plant beans in a circle.  This spring we planted purple bush beans around the edge of this circle and runner beans in the center, around the rebar and grapevine teepee.

This year, I asked my wwoofers to plant the beans.  I soaked the seeds first because it helps them germinate faster which seems to help get them big enough before the forest varmints find them and dig them up and eat them.  But if you don't live with a forest surrounding you, this might not matter.

Unlike the green and yellow beans I've grown that have white and yellow flowers, these purple beans have purple flowers.  They're so pretty, I use them in flower arrangements....the little maturing beans are nice in bouquets too.  They're also lovely edible flowers in salads.   And check it out!  Before they open up and bloom the flower buds look like bean seeds.

Teeny tiny beans forming on the bushes....it won't be long 'til they grow bigger and turn purple.

Look at them beans!!

The climbing beans are green with a kind of purple marbling.  They're producing piles and it never seems to stop.  Like the purple beans and purple flowers, they're interesting and nice to look at in the garden, and also just like the purple beans, they turn green when you cook them.  Their colour on the plant makes them easy to spot when picking which is very helpful....altho' I love eating beans, I really do hate picking them.  One of my least favourite harvesting jobs ever because as soon as you try to use one hand while the other is holding something else, you're ripping off entire vines....grrrrr...they insist on your engagement and care when picking...no distractions!....not only that, all the bending over when picking from the bushes can get back-breaking.  Bean-picking time is always a time for me to remember those yoga poses while I accomplish my task.  Sometimes I create new ones.  It actually can turn it into some kind of fun.   I especially like my Wide Leg Forward Bend when picking beans : )

These climbers are called "Selma Zebra' and they are so sweet, even when they get a little over mature...very delicious!  An impulse buy when I was at Buckerfields in Victoria last spring (probably because of the pretty image on the packaging)....was totally worth it...there are so many different types of beans to try!

These are really a fast food in the summertime. (well, ok, I mean after you do all the work to grow them and pick them, of course!) Anyway, so easy to snip into pieces, so fast to steam and so delicious (very colourful and beautiful too) when mixed with quickly chopped tomatoes of different colors, peppers of different colours too and just pulled onions with some chopped up homegrown garlic, thrown all together, it needs nothing else, (hmmmm....maybe some butter) the flavours are so darned fresh and amazing...perfect for an al fresco supper.  Maybe if more people knew how much better this good fresh grub tasted, more people would grow it?  Makes me think of that front yard garden again.  Three tepees or trellis circles in a front yard (or anywhere!) with climbing and bush beans would provide a huge bounty, maybe some for the neighbours and some for the freezer for holiday dinners in the wintertime too!

Some yellow beans from Christina's Garden, all packaged up for display at the Farmer's Market last summer.

Bean Patch Kid.  Getting to know some yellow beans in last year's late summer garden.  We're never too young to enjoy a nice bean patch!