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.