My green thumb came only as a result
of the mistakes I made while learning
to see things from the plant’s point of view.
~H. Fred Dale
As long as I’ve been growing vegetables in our backyard, I will never tire of harvesting beans. Beans, be they bush or pole, snap, shelly or dried are the dependable working grunts in my vegetable garden. I love them! The seeds are easy to sow, the plants relatively quick and easy to grow and the harvests are more than fifty-fold for each seed planted. Unlike many other vegetables in my zone 5/6 garden, I’m able to sow bean seeds once a week through mid-summer and have harvests until a frost kills them… even then the spent plants are nitrogen-rich additions to our garden beds! When friends ask which seeds are best to start with in a new vegetable garden I always suggest heirloom beans.
The popularity of heirloom seeds has brought a bevy of lovely old bean seeds back into seed catalogs and local shops… do try a few! Where the delicious and prolific Provider bean is my “staple” bean for canning and freezing, we’re enjoy “Dragon Tongue”, “Vermont Cranberry”, “Rattlesnake”, “Purple Queen” and more all summer for fresh eating and recipes. Pole bean varieties “Gold of Bacau”, “Trionfo Violetto” and “Borlotti” pick up where the bush beans leave off and one one pole bean “Christmas Lima” will be dried and used all winter along with other beans we’re drying. The tastes are unique, the colors are beautiful and most heirloom beans are delicious at the snap and shelly stage (when the seeds begin to bulge in the pods). It isn’t too late to sow a few beautiful heirloom bush beans for a fall harvest, but get them in the soil soon. Keep the soil moist and pick any pesky beetles that may appear to chomp the foliage. No room in the garden? Tuck a few heirloom bean seeds in among your flowers where they add a splash of color or sow a few in a container. Wherever you plant them you’ll be glad you did… say hello to beautiful heirloom beans! Happy gardening!
From top to bottom we’re picking today:
“Rattlesnake” bush bean
“Dragon Tongue” bush bean
“Purple Queen” bush bean
“Vermont Cranberry” bush bean
Yum, I really want to try the Dragon tongue and Vermont Cranberry next year. I love their colors.
They’re delicious, too! The color of the cranberry beans this year are much more vibrant than years past, I believe the cooler weather at the beginning of summer may have played a part in that. Do try them and let me know what you think!