June 2010

This month’s article is on one of my favorite vegetables – beans.  Early every year I plant fava or broad beans and have converted many of my gardening friends to this wonderful and nutritious food. 

I also love to plant lots of heavy cropping runner beans.  The runner is much neglected in the US – only the Scarlet variety is easily available.  On my Irish trip I purchased 3 different varieties including Painted Lady with beautiful pink and white flowers.  Scour the internet and find yourself some flavorful and nutritious beans this summer.

Roland Evans
Organic Bountea

Transplants outdoors: tomato, cucumber, eggplant, melons, gourds, peppers, pumpkins, winter squash, summer squash.

Ornamentals: plant tender annuals

Seeds Outdoors: Regularly plant bush and pole beans (see article), radish, lettuce,
and all salad greens every 2 weeks or so. If you have a cool shady spot, sow some summer spinach.

• Make sure your irrigation system or hand watering keeps the soil consistently moist
• Mulch between the growing plants to conserve moisture and keep plant roots cool
• Do not let your weeds grow too big or go to seed.  Keep on top of them.
• Harvest any salads or greens that seem to be growing leggy or starting to seed
• Clear spent plants fast. Replant the space with a different crop or green manure
• Start more seeds indoors or undercover for continual replanting

• Fava or Broad – a cool loving legume that sets upward
  pointing pods with strong tasting beans
• Runner – a medium temperature, heavy cropping pole bean
  grown for its long crisp pods, mainly in the UK
• Bush, Snap or French – the commonest type of low-growing heat-loving
  bean with green, purple or yellow pods
• Dried Bean – similar to the bush bean but grown for the
  beans which are allowed to mature and dry in the pod
• Pole or Climbing– many different varieties that grow up to
  10′ high with round or flat beans of different colors – heat-loving
• Lima or Butter – bush or pole varieties that have large
  flat soft buttery-tasting beans – heat-loving
• Soybean or Edamame – heat-loving Asian bean grown
  to eat cooked straight from the pod or as dried soybeans

Indoor Sowing:

Most beans do not like to
be transplanted, so direct sowing is usually recommended.  However, runner beans can be sown
indoors, 1 seed per container in late April.  Harden off and transplant in late May
or early June after your last frost date.

Outdoor
Sowing

• Favas – Direct seed in the garden or greenhouse from early
  spring (or even late winter) every 3 weeks until mid summer.  Sow seeds 2″ deep, 8″ apart in double
  rows.
• Runners – Sow in late May and early June 2″ deep, 8″ apart
  against long poles or trellis.
  Runner beans will not flower in high heat but may set beans again in the
  fall.
• Other Beans – Plant after last frost date in full sun, 1″
  deep, 4″-6″ apart depending on type… read more
  

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