2026 Little Easy Bean Network – Plant A Garden, Water Your Soul, Join Our Family

[ruralmamma]

I get volunteer everything had some volunteer Cherry tomatoes last year that grew absolutely massive. The vines were 2 inch thick and reached about 11 ft tall trellised, harvested about 10lbs of it just at the end when we stopped eating them straight and started weighing!
My first volunteer melon/cucumber already has true leaves and a morning glory is spreading fast too.
I'm also zone 6(b) and we had some shocking low temperatures of -15-20 this year, but sky rocked to 80s for weeks several times too, so im surprised anything survived out there.

I've had lots of volunteers but rarely beans, and never remember any bean volunteers popping up when I was a kid. Maybe it's because I'm mostly no-dig now.

I'm in year 7 of homeschooling, my oldest is in 6th grade, but we have a 4th, 2nd, and 1st grader as well. Boy does it get difficult to juggle them all! What curriculum do you use and what is your primary goal for homeschooling?
I have morning glories, bee balm, marigold, rose of sharon, daylillies, echinacia, irises, gladiolis, and chamomile out there, aside from the early spring bulbs.

Most are in flower beds to the sides, but the day lillies and miragolds are next to/in the garden. I also decided to grow an Argentina avocado squash last year, I had to fence it off because the other 2 plants chickens ate all the 5ft tall 2ft leaves and even stem inside 1 day! The fruit was sub par for us, but the chickens loved it, and it produced huge amounts. More importantly though, you could smell the blossoms from 6 ft away! WONDERFUL smell! The bees would swarm it! So I'm thinking of putting it in between beans a bit away, as a sort of trap crop. It also bloomed about the same time I think the beans would. The okra and butternut was also a pollinators favorite, but no where near as much.

My daughter is in fifth grade with special needs. This year has mostly been an exercise in unlearning behaviors she picked up in public school and determining where she's at academically. She's very much a hands-on learner and I've been creating curriculum as we go. Math and reading are her two weakneesses and we just started All About Reading and Math With Confidence.

My goal is to provide her with a stable learning environment that welcomes exploration versus constantly putting worksheets in front of her.

 

[ruralmamma]

Oooh, so how do I know the difference between a "dry" bean and a Shelly bean? What happens if I wait until a Shelly bean is dry before plucking?

Honestly I never realized there was such a thing as shelly beans besides Limas until the last year or so. Evidently it's just not common in this part of Appalachia, but I'm working on that.

Last year I mainly focused on production with the Network beans but this year I intend to replant some of those that produced well and fully explore the tastes and textures.