How to Grow Green Beans

by Lilliann

Green Beans are fairly easy to grow. They need full sun, warm soil, and plenty of water. Pole beans grow long climbing runners that will need to be trained to climb in the desired direction. Bush beans grow in small bushes and require no staking. Pole beans produce continuously until frost. Bush beans produce for a couple of weeks. They tend to produce longer and more tender pods than the pole beans. Both varieties are tender and delicious if cared for properly.

• Plant the seeds directly in the ground as soon as the soil is warm. Don't plant them too early. If they get cold, they won't grow as well.
• Beans do not transplant well.
• Plant Bush beans in two week intervals for a continuous harvest.
• Plant seeds 1/2 in deep and 3 in apart.
• Keep ground moist until the seeds sprout.
• Once the plants are up, water deeply twice a week.
• Train pole beans to climb stakes.
• Feed plants once when they have begun to grow. Feed them again just before the plants start to produce pods.
• Harvest when pods are young and tender. Keep the pods picked regularly. For pole beans, regular harvesting is important. The plants will continue to produce if the young pods are picked. If pods ripen, or mature, the production of the plant will decrease.
• Water deeply after each picking.

Find a Great Summer Get-Away in Your Own Vegetable Garden

By Lilliann

Grow your retreat in your own back yard. Enjoy cool refreshing shade on a hot sunny day. Eat tender home-grown pods as a rewarding treat. Have beautiful greenery that every neighbor will comment on. A Green Bean Tent will give you all this and more.

The first step to starting your Green Bean Tent is to decide how large you want it, where you will put it in the garden, and what shape it will be. You will need to plan the tent first and then the rest of the garden as the beans will create more shade. Treat it as a large bush or small tree. It can be the back of the garden (along a fence or wall) or the center piece with everything else planted around it. How large to make the tent will depend on how much space you have and the availabilty of the poles. Be sure to not make the tent too tall or you won't be able to reach the beans when they need picking and you may not be able to find poles that are long enough. Choose which shape, rectangle or circle, would be best for your garden. Once you have the size, shape, and placement you are ready to start.

You will need

• Stakes or poles (at least 8 feet long)
  


• Pole Bean seeds
  


• Twine or strong string
  


• Garden hoe
  

For a rectangular tent mark two straight rows as far apart as you would like your tent to be wide (5-8 feet). Plant poles 6 in. apart in each row. Make sure each pole is straight across from a pole in the other row. Lean each pole toward its matching pole and tie them together with twine.

For a circular tent mark the center of the tent. Put a pole in the center. You will use this to tie the rest of the poles to. Tie a string to pole. Make the knot loose so the string will slip around the pole. Measure from the pole to half the width your tent will be. Mark this length on the string. Holding on to the string at the marked spot, walk around the pole keeping the string tight. As you walk, use your hoe to draw a circle on the ground. Plant your poles 6 in apart all around the circle. Leave an opening so you can enter and exit the tent once the vines have coverd it.

Plant three bean seeds around each pole. Train the vines to climb the poles. With proper care the bean vines will cover the poles creating a fantastic display of green and a shady get-away for you.

Spring is Here!

By Lilliann

The sun feels good. The air is sweet. The dirt out in the garden is calling me. "Come dig in me. Plant something. It's time to start your GARDEN!" Of course I don't want to dump alot of chemical fertilizers in that lovely soil. So I turn to ORGANIC gardening. Organic Gardening is simply nature's way of producing wholesome food without the harmful chemicals. Beginners will find this type of gardening very rewarding.

Is it a Flower Garden or Weed Garden?

By Lilliann

Spring time always makes me want to spring out into the garden and start planting. I gather up my gardening tools and head out. After I get the ground tilled and rows made, I start putting in the watering system. Here in the west, if you don't have a good watering system you may as well not plant anything. Then I go to the nursery and get carried away. All those beautiful flowers, promising seeds packets, and and yummy looking vegetable plants are just begging me to buy them. I always get home with five times too much for me to plant myself. That's why I always end up getting the neighbor girls to help me.(This year they're begging me to not plant. They know who'll end up taking care of it.) Any way, after we get all those seeds and plants in, I turn on the watering system and life is good. The seeds start to grow. The plants double in size, but what's this. Twice as many weeds as plants. No, three times as many, no, four. With so many weeds, my plants don't have a chance. Once again, out into the garden I go. With my trusty gardening gloves, I start the battle of the weeds. Ripping, yanking, pulling, piles of weeds mount up between every row. All summer this goes on, but alas, my garden is still submerged in those awful weeds. If I want to show off my lovely flowers, I can't remember just where they were suppose to be. And then I realize, they're dead. Joked to death by menacing weeds. I always think I'm going to get them all out before they go to seed so I'll have a better chance next year. I never do.
This year will be different. I'm taking a new strategy. I'm going to make sure all the weeds are dead before I plant anything. I am going to grow it and hoe it several times to be sure the weed seeds have all grown and destroyed. Then I'll plant using a good mulch to be sure any surviving weed seeds don't have a chance to grow. To learn more about gardening get your copy of The Real Gardener's Handbook. This book tells about the basics of gardening and is great for beginners or children.