You Can Grow Green Beans!

Hi Sweet Friends!
 Today, as it is still Harvest Season in our home, we are canning Green Beans. Green beans seem to grow better in a loamy soil. We add mushroom compost & our own compost each year to enrich the soil. Crop rotation is important as the nutrients are stripped from the soil after each crop season.

New planting of green beans with onion sets on the edge of the box.

Here is the 2016 A-Frame Bean Pole. It is 4(2x2's)end pieces, 2(1x4) brace pieces, 3(2x2) across the bottom but above the boxes, and attached across the top.

 The above A-Frame has worked wonderfully for growing hardy, sturdy green bean plants and the harvest has been more than expected! The added ease of the center of the A, gives an open walkway to pick the beans on both sides and the vines are not over crowded. However, on the top, they kept growing till they became a mass of vine.  A step ladder came in very handy for the picking!

Green Beans fall under the category of a Non Acidic Vegetable,  
 so to process green beans in canning, we use the Pressure Caner just like with canning corn.

 Having the chickens roam the garden has been and exceptional blessing! No bug damage. We put the chickens out when the plants were established and there were so many other things to eat, they did not get to the garden until the plants were well on their way! Chickens are a good pest control! And fresh eggs are delicious!

 Here are some close up shots of the A-Frame Construction. The bottom ends are attached to  already established garden boxes. The boxes are held in the corners by 2x2's that go down a few inches into the ground.

A shopping bag worked best to put the picked green bans in when harvesting.

 The 2012 Trellis was a good idea, but the A-Frame has proven the best design so far! In 2009 we used wire fencing, but it was not high enough for the climbing beans. We planted bush beans for years until we could find better ideas. Gardening is an experiment with each years crop. There seems to be no "set in stone" rule for every aspect of gardening. There are some great books to read, lots of people to chat with, but all in all each garden, each year is different. For instance, this year our tomatoes were non-productive. We may have gotten a few dozen off 4 large prolific breed plants. However, last year, we were inundated by tomatoes! Peaches last year were but a hand full, this year, we had a bumper crop! So don't give up!

Using a shopping bag makes for easy picking and cleaning of the pole beans. The handles slip over your arm and you can pick with both hands! Then keep them in the bag while you trim ends and string the beans. The trash will be all that remains when you are finished. Ours goes back out the the compost or the chickens.

I cut the beans 1inch or so, they fit in the jars very well and are good size for eating!

I have tried keeping the beans long, but they don't use the jars very well when canning. So, inevitably I cut them all.

Keep tending your gardens, keep looking to improve ideas, plants, and soils. Keep it Organic as much as possible, it is simply better for you and your family.
Enjoy!

 

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