Would love to have you be part of our growers bean network next year. What ever number of beans you can grow will be a help even if it's only one or two. They all add up one at a time.
I've heard from a few growers that were with us last year and they are coming back next year. I'd love to have about 50 growers each year. This year we hit about 21.
Blue jay, I'm not a bean aficionado but I like to follow your thread. I didn't realize that we could grow as little as 1 or 2. I think I might have room for that for next year. Just don't trust me with valuable ones
I got done planting all my beans about Tuesday this past week. Then Friday I went around and took pictures of all my bean planting spots and I'll put them up here now.
This first photo is new ground that I started preparing from a grass field last year. Tilling it up frequently to kill the grass. It's about 11 miles from my house. I asked the fellow who owns the property if he would allow me to put up a tall fence because this rural area is also the home of garden enemy #1 The Deer. So this is how this bean man will fight the deer. Rabbits don't seem much of a problem in the area. We built this fence the first week of May and the fenced in area contains two 1,000 square foot bean garden beds.
It was a bit chilly and very muddy when the fence was being built
So after it got warm and my deer fenced area got planted I took a few more photos.
This is my roto-tilling hauler rig.
All tilled nice and soft and ready to plant. The fenced area is 80 feet long and 48 feet wide. each of the garden beds is 25 feet wide and 40 feet long.
I've got a gate at each end of the fenced area. One on the northeast side and this one on the northwest side.
All planted and watered just the rows where the seed is planted to get them to start germinating.
All bush beans planted in the fenced area except for these two rows of pole beans. 4 seeds planted around 1 x 2 inch furing strips 80 inches long with points cut on one end and hammered in the ground about 12 to 15 inches.
This rented garden spot is located a 1/4 mile from my house at the home of the former Hardwood Nursery. The plot is 40 feet long and 32 feet wide. My neighbor lady wanted me to split this with here so I planted my half all in pole beans. Rabbits are a problem here and I'm just hoping the beans will grow fast enough and get tough which seems to be the point at which the rabbits seem to lose interest in them.
This is another plot at the former Harwood Nursery. I have about 16 rows of semi runner beans planted here and about 5 rows of carrots. Nothing planted in the foreground. This plot is 19 feet wide and 75 feet long. This is probably about 50 feet away from the shared plot and rabbits don't seem to bother beans as much in this spot.
This is part of my home bean nursery. A south side of my house plot 4 feet wide and 40 feet long. Rabbits are a problem in the city limits and I put up this plastic lattice fence and it's 100% effective against the bunnies. It's 2 feet tall. I have about 13 varieties of pole beans here.
This is my backyard bean nursery. My backyard is west of my house and gets the afternoon sun. I fenced the backyard last year with this vinyl privacy fence. I told the fence installers to put the fencing down to the ground. I've had no problems with rabbits in my backyard. This plot has been here for 4 years and I used to surround it in that white plastic lattice before I had the privacy fence. This little plot is 12 feet wide and 24 feet long.
So this year I had another bean garden put in my backyard. Now my backyard contains very little lawn and lots of beans. This plot is 12 feet wide and 16 feet long. I had gotten about 18 old bean varieties from the USDA last year and didn't grow any of them. All the samples are only 5 seeds and wanted a safe place to get them grown out this year away from the teeth of those bunnies.....so another part to my backyard bean nursery had to be dug and filled with top soil.
Also in my backyard on my concrete steps. Beans in pots. I have some varieties that might be only one or two seeds and I presprout them and nurse them along in pots. Two Robert Lobitz varieties are being grown here and one variety that @Hal sent me several years ago (Tostado) that I thought better get grown before the seed gets any older.
Another narrow bed behind the house 2 feet wide and 22 feet long. I've grown pole beans here the last two years and it's occupied by my tomatoes this year.
One last shot of the backyard bean nursery looking the other way towards the north.
Don't know where you got the idea that you had to grow lots of varieties to be part of the Little Easy Bean Network. No.. not true! Any number you want to grow is a help. Even if it's only one.
Hope we will have you back next year.
