Beans

These Cannelini beans are a variety of dried French Beans. I'll be growing some of these, along with some other types - for pods and for mature beans.

These are the beans I'll be growing - from left to right: canellini, pinto and black turtle beans.

Despite their quite different appearance and culinary properties, they're all varieties of the same species - Phaseolus vulgaris - the common or French bean.

I dug three shallow trenches next to the fence and scattered the beans (one variety in each trench). I planted them probably a little more densely than I meant to, but I think they'll be OK.

It will be interesting to see observe the differences between the leaves, flowers and pods of each variety, assuming they do actually grow...

I covered them up with about an inch of soil and tamped it down gently, then watered thoroughly and covered with agricultural fleece,

This should protect them from any chilly night conditions for the next couple of weeks, until the weather warms some more.

08 May 2010 - the bean shoots are finally beginning to peep through the soil surface.,

However, the weather has been colder than I anticipated - including a couple of nights where we had a light frost. I fear this may have killed some of the seedlings.

So here's plan B - I've made 54 little newspaper pots (using the 'paper potter' device in the foreground).

I'll plant a bean in each of these and germinate them indoors, planting out only when the weather really does get around to warming up.

If the beans already planted out in the veg patch do all come up, I'll just have to find another spot to plant the pot-grown ones.

13 May 2010 - That was quick!

The first of this batch of beans has germinated - I'll grow them on until they're easily big enough to handle, before hardening them off for planting out.

18 May 2010 - There's now a forest of very healthy-looking, strong seedlings.

About two-thirds of the beans have germinated so far.

I'll move them out to the greenhouse soon to harden off. When they're planted out in the garden, they'll probably need some kind of protection against slugs and snails.

10 June 2010 - I planted the beans out at the start of the month and they did well - quickly producing a thick tangle of growth - they mostly appear to be dwarf varieties, as they are showing no tendency to climb and twine.

By mid-July, the plants were really well established and started to produce some beautiful-looking pods - some flat and pale green, others round and flecked with purple - because they were after all severl different varieties of bean.

I left them a week or so more, to reach their ideal size for picking as green beans - but not so long that they would start to turn tough or stringy.

At the end of July, I was able to start picking green beans - on three occasions, I picked enough for a generous portion of green beans for our family dinner.

I deliberately left some pods on the plants to fill up with mature beans, for drying.