MARCH IS FOR BEANS Green beans are often called snap beans, or string beans (even though nowadays most varieties are almost stringless). Wax beans are very much the same as the green varieties, but they turn yellow as they mature and usually have a milder flavor. Then there are beautiful colorful beans available; purple, speckled, white, and scarlet. These beans will all do their best if they re planted now (March). For an early harvest, plant a good bush variety. Pole beans take slightly longer to produce, but they save space, and are easy to harvest because you don t have to bend down to pick them. Here are some tips for growing pole beans that should help you get a bigger and longer lasting harvest, and (usually) better tasting beans. Dig up and loosen the soil to the depth of 1 foot deep and cultivate a 4-inch layer of organic soil amendment (not manure) into it. Work in 1 pound of fishbone meal and inoculate your seeds. (Refer to September 2011 Garden Dirt For Peas Sake for tips on inoculating and pre-sprouting beans and peas.) Provide a structure on which your beans can climb. There are as many ways to do this as there are gardeners, but here s an easy one for a first timer (other methods follow below). Tie together at one end, 4 8-foot
long bamboo poles. Set up this teepee with the legs spread about 4 feet apart and shove the ends 3 to 4 inches into the soil. Plant 5 or 6 beans, 3 inches apart, scar side down, around each pole. Plant 1 inch deep along the coast, 2 inches deep inland. Cover the seeds with commercial potting soil and pat it down gently. Water deeply after planting. Don t water again until the beans come up, unless the soil begins to dry out. Sometimes beans rot instead of germinating. If the problem is cold, you can presprout the seeds before planting. If the problem is heavy soil, see below. Once the plants have emerged, keep them well watered and protect them from birds and snails. (We re lucky not to have snails at OPCG!) When the plants are 3 to 4 inches tall, thin to the best three on each pole by snipping the others off with scissors. Give your little plants a helping hand to start them winding up the poles. Once started they ll take off and need no further assistance from you. HOW TO PLANT LARGE SEEDS (BEANS) IN HEAVY SOIL. Heavy soils such as the clay we have at OPCG often bake to a hard crust on top. Large seeds - beans and squash for example - may not be able to break through it. Take these precautions to keep them from rotting under the ground. Make a trench of the right planting depth. Soak the trench deeply at least two or three times and let the water drain out. Place seeds in the bottom of the trench. (Place beans scar side down.) Cover the seed with an inch of dry potting soil in coastal zones, or with 2 inches of dry potting soil inland. Pat down gently, and don t water again until the beans pop through. The dry potting soil will act like a mulch and draw just the right amount of moisture to the seed for it to sprout. As was pointed out, there are many ways of supporting pole beans. The above method is a most basic, economical and easy one. The following methods are also relatively easy, and provide solutions for different spacial and functional needs in the garden. THE CONDUIT TRELLIS. One-inch steel electrical conduit is a great material for garden projects. It lasts a very long time, is inexpensive and easy to find at any hardware store. The drawing below shows the basic design. Start with a 9 length. Cut 4 more pieces 2 long for cross braces. Mark the centers of the cross braces. Use a hammer to pound the centers flat. This will let you use shorter screws and make the support more secure. Next drill holes to pass #8 screws in the center of the cross braces. Also drill another hole near each end. Drill a hole completely through the 9 pole near the top for a cross brace. Drill a second hole at right angles to and about 1 3/4 below the first holes. Drill a second set about 2 1 2 up from the bottom of the pole for the lower cross braces. Use #8 screws, lock washers, and
nuts to mount the cross braces to the vertical pole. Stainless steel screws, washers, and nuts are recommended. Run some strong wire through the holes at the ends of the cross braces to form the squares as shown in the drawing. Steel electrical fence wire is very strong and pretty inexpensive for this. Prepare the soil when it has warmed enough for beans. Pound the support about 2 feet into the ground. Plant your bean seeds about 3 apart all the way around and just outside the wire square formed by the bottom cross braces. QUICK TIP How to Protect Bean and Corn Sprouts from Birds. Birds, especially mockingbirds, love your bean and sweet corn sprouts. Pop a green berry basket (the kind that strawterries and cherry tomatoes come in) over each planted seed. After sprouts have touched the top of the baskets, you can safely remove them; by then theibirds will have lost interest. Finally, tie strings every few inches from the top wire to the bottom wire for the beans to climb on. Garden twine works well for this. The strings are not shown in the drawing. In the fall it s easy to simply cut the string off along with the dead vines and put it in the green bin, or on the compost pile. A few dollars and an hour s work will give you a bean support that will last for years. One bean tower provides enough beans for a meal for a family of 3 every few days. They will continue to produce until frost kills the vines. Thanks to Gary Sutcliffe, in Wisconsin for his sturdy, long-lasting conduit trellis. BUILD A WATTLE FOR YOUR POLE BEANS. You ll need a good supply of 7-8 foot sticks, some sturdy, some more flexible. If you can find it, willow works especially well. 1. Firmly push strong sticks into ground vertically until secure. Space 6-8 inches apart and repeat down the row s length. 2. When vertical sticks are in, start to weave weaker branches horizontally. 3. Alternate weaving the branches in and out of the vertical sticks. 4. Repeat, but the next row weave out and in. 5. Repeat until you have about 6-8 inches of sturdy weave. 6. Plant your bean seeds at the base of each vertical pole.
A wattle is simply branches woven as a fence. Strong enough for a flock of goldfinch and mess of beans. Thanks to Tom, on Vashon Island, Washington for his all natural wattle. BUILD A BAMBOO BEAN TEEPEE FOR YOUR KIDS. Materials you ll need: 10 bamboo poles, roughly 8 to 10 feet in length; A ball of twine; 4 wooden stakes. Tools you ll need: Hammer, knife, ladder, shovel. Lie four of the bamboo poles on the ground and tie them together in a bundle at one end using the twine. Set the bundle vertically, spreading the four poles 4 to 5 feet from each other. This forms the basic support structure of the teepee. To prevent the teepee from blowing away once it s covered with bean vines, you may want to hammer a 20 stake into the ground next to each bamboo pole and tie them off with twine. Space the six remaining pieces of bamboo evenly around three sides of the structure, leaving one side open for a door. Push the ends of the poles into the ground about 6 inches. Tie them all together at the top. You may need a ladder. Wrap the teepee with twine in a spiral fashion to give the vines more support as they climb their way to the top. Thanks to Eric Hurlock, the online editor at Organic Gardening magazine for this kid-friendly bean teepee. In case haven t caught the bean bug by now, I ve compiled some images that may inspire you to create your own work of art for supporting them this summer (next page).
Check www.oakparkcommunitygarden.org/pages/links for some excellent sources for seeds. The varieties mentioned here are a just a small sampling of what s available from online/catalog seed companies; offering a far bigger selection than what you ll find at the local garden center. Most also offer inoculant, which is often hard to find locally. Have fun, plant some beans, and build your own work of art to support them! Green Bean Queen by Mark Cox Our daughter is the green bean queen We all serve at her commands She sits her high chair like a throne And devours them with her hands She smushes, smears and paints her face And lobs goo across the room She dabe the gunk behind her ears As if it were perfume Sometimes the dog can share her fruit Though never maraschino cherries But when it comes to her legume loot Her pattern never varies She scoops them from the serving bowl Like an arcade s metal claw And sets them down like logs that roll Like others toward the saw She stacks them then like firewood Or piles of poker chips She holds some just like chapstick And she medicates her lips Then she taps the longest on her plate And raises that baton As if to conduct or orchestrate Each satiated yawn. Thanks to Pat Welch s Southern California Organic Gardening, from which comes much of my information. til next time. Vicki Rankin, Oak Park Community Garden