2025 Little Easy Bean Network - Growers Of The Future Will Be Glad We Saved

[flowerbug]

Woke to the first snow of the year and had nearly 6" on the ground by dark. No plans to leave the house this week but will finish up sorting the last few varieties and get a box ready to send to @Blue-Jay next week. Still more photos to take and notes to update, but I think I can officially say my gardening year has come to an end.

it is so strange to me that people on the southeastern coast have such an early snowfall, but perhaps you are more inland and uphill and so i'm confused? ah, ok, similar zone so you must be inland enough for that to be the case... nevermind...

however, as a postscript i should also note that you had more snow than we had...

 

[heirloomgal]

I finally did a count on this years number of bean varieties.

This is always somewhat thrilling because from start to finish when it comes to growing I don't keep track of numbers, I just plant 'em and hope I can find space. (That's probably a bad strategy, but hey, so far it's worked! lol) So, 140. Not sure of the breakdown between poles, semi's and bushes yet.

I had 3 complete fails as a result of vole related fatalities. 1 from ants. My entire main garden bed was harassed by the voles; my yields were definitely knocked back significantly from plants getting killed 3/4 of the way through the season. It depended on how far along the pods were, luckily most were at least 1/2 way to maturity. The loss was severe but not as bad as it might have been. I have a new plan for 2026 to try and prevent that from happening again. No question about it, this was a bad vole year. But still, I can't complain it was a decent haul.

In early June DH was working outside and 2 baby weasels ran up having a real party playing together. They were so caught up in their game that they almost ran across the top of DH's shoes as they wrestled. Not a common sight for sure. I was confident this was a good omen for rodent pest control, but wow I was wrong about that!

 

[Decoy1]

Yes, 100% true to type. I think I grew 4 plants altogether. In your climate, do you find these a fairly easy to mature bean even if a bit late?

I do find that they’re late but they have made it in time reasonably comfortably. In a cool season it might be quite borderline.

 

[Decoy1]

I finally did a count on this years number of bean varieties.

This is always somewhat thrilling because from start to finish when it comes to growing I don't keep track of numbers, I just plant 'em and hope I can find space. (That's probably a bad strategy, but hey, so far it's worked! lol) So, 140. Not sure of the breakdown between poles, semi's and bushes yet.

I had 3 complete fails as a result of vole related fatalities. 1 from ants. My entire main garden bed was harassed by the voles; my yields were definitely knocked back significantly from plants getting killed 3/4 of the way through the season. It depended on how far along the pods were, luckily most were at least 1/2 way to maturity. The loss was severe but not as bad as it might have been. I have a new plan for 2026 to try and prevent that from happening again. No question about it, this was a bad vole year. But still, I can't complain it was a decent haul.

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In early June DH was working outside and 2 baby weasels ran up having a real party playing together. They were so caught up in their game that they almost ran across the top of DH's shoes as they wrestled. Not a common sight for sure. I was confident this was a good omen for rodent pest control, but wow I was wrong about that!

That’s extremely impressive. A great achievement.

 

[ruralmamma]

it is so strange to me that people on the southeastern coast have such an early snowfall, but perhaps you are more inland and uphill and so i'm confused? ah, ok, similar zone so you must be inland enough for that to be the case... nevermind...

however, as a postscript i should also note that you had more snow than we had...

I'm located in central WV with an elevation of just over 1,700'. My in-laws live five miles away in the next county and at a lower elevation and we generally average 4-5" more snow. The neighboring counties to the east have even higher elevations and more accumulation.

When I moved here I discovered that this area is a week or two behind for wild blackberries, ramps and other wild edibles than where I grew up in a neighboring county. That actually was an advantage as it meant I could help my grandmother harvest and process berries and then she would come help with mine a week or so later. I've always been one to push the limits and have successfully harvested jicama the last 4-5 years, though I start the plants indoors in February and baby them along until late May.

 

[flowerbug]

i don't count varieties any more because this year i planted a blend that has a lot, plus a lot of out-crosses which do not have names yet.

in my harvest so far i'm seeing about a dozen brown beans alone, and no sure how many of those are unique or not, most of them will probably just end up being eaten.

the Purple Dove out-crosses may run into a few dozen by now. same for the Lavender and Painted Pony out-crosses.

some pretty beans for sure. pictures eventually...

 

[heirloomgal]

I really messed up this year with photos of the beans.

I waited too long to get to it and now I'm struggling to take pictures in the low, poor quality sunshine of fall - when there actually is any sunshine! And in the cold too. So, lesson learned. Take the photos in summer when I can be outside comfortably. I did manage to take some today, not ideal ones, ones with all the limitations that come with photos at this time of year. I'll just have to live with it!

Ode to 'Blue & White of Bernardo', a network bean I failed with last year but got a great crop of this year. Love this bean! Will be sending some of these your way @Blue-Jay.

'Dakota Bumble' the bush bean. No question about it, this was the top producing bush variety of 2025. And this despite the fact I crowded them a little and grew them in a raised box, not in ground. Really, really nice one.

The marvelous 'Atlas' bean!
I took the photo in the shade because direct sun really fades the prominence of the eye markings.

This is the info I dug up about it:
"The specific 'Atlas' variety was developed and introduced for commercial and home garden production by W. Atlee Burpee in the late 19th century. It gained popularity as one of the new "stringless" snap beans, making it easier and faster to prepare for cooking, a quality also valued in other stringless varieties of the era like the 'Lazy Housewife' bean."

The lovely, lemony 'Gialet' pole bean. This variety surpassed expectations indeed. I really do love this color, I think it oxidizes to a more dull color in storage but right now the yellow is so fresh, upbeat and perky.

The photos in shade show that it has a rather glowing color, which isn't as evident in full sun shots. From the Veneto region of Italy I read.