The Little Easy Bean Network - Get New Beans Varieties Nearly Free

[897tgigvib]

Tepehuan Star, and several other "star" named varieties that have a similar look.

Some of the others I separated from mix varieties they have where most are mid season to moderately late, but a few special plants were very late producing. I do recommend their mix varieties for our climates. Some will be early enough from among them.

Also, you all do know that the bean varieties on that wonderful and special CIAT site will have among them some which are very late to produce, some being from the tropical and equatorial regions.

 

[PhilaGardener]

I heard Joseph Simcox has a large number of African varieties that require long seasons; the CIAT collection also seems like a rich source of unusual beans. Not to much info on those yet since few folks have tried to grow them in North America; that has made me reluctant to try them. In some places that remain frost free, I hear some keep growing for several years like short-lived perennials, so maybe folks in CA or FL have a chance.

 

[Hal]

You are really only a very few miles from where my girlfriend lives! Hayley lives in the next town south of you, about 10 miles south, in Penrith.

I'm passing through there on the way to my Horticulture course.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hello Idiggardening, and Philagardener !

So nice to have both of you come and knock on our Little Easy Bean Network door. Would be great to have you both be a part of the Bean Network this coming season.

 

[PhilaGardener]

Thanks, Bluejay77, and everyone else for your warm welcomes. They are helping make this mid-Atlantic winter more bearable. The garden is buried under a coating of ice that took out power for over 700,000 families in the Phila area last Tuesday/Wed. We just got power back last night and there are still 50,000 without. Lots of trees down, especially evergreens (which already had a coating of snow from an earlier storm). Last ice event of this magnitude that I remember was 1994. Things slowly are getting back to normal but it has been a tough week! Hope you all are doing well with your own Winter challenges!

 

[the1honeycomb]

this is a GREAT group of people. hope you leave no questions unasked!!!

 

[Naomi Schoenfeld]

Naomi in New Hampshire, clocking in -- what a great thread and awesome project! I'll definitely be participating this season.

 

[so lucky]

Hi Naomi, Welcome from Missouri!

 

[Naomi Schoenfeld]

Thanks, so lucky!

A little catch-up, as part of getting acquainted.

I'm actually much newer to veggie gardening than I tend to remember, with my garden just about to enter its fourth year. (Gosh, how much one learns...) My general focus is on traditional kitchen gardening, but beans, well, they kind of grab one, don't they. Each year they've taken up a bit more space, and I've really enjoyed them.

My space is pretty small - about a quarter acre including the house...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/waystone/8397858921/

... but golly, a lot can fit in there once one gets organized! From the start, I began from the premise that I'd be saving seed. The first year, I put what I thought were lots and lots of slightly raised beds on the kitchen side of the house...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/waystone/8397859111/

The next year, of course, that wasn't nearly large enough, so I started turning the lawn on the other side into raised beds...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/waystone/8397858917/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/waystone/8649837986/

... and this spring, the second half of that lawn is going down. Who needs grass when there are beans to grow? I've also got my eye on a plot or two in the local community garden.

Right now, my focus is pretty much exclusively on pole beans, because the extended harvest and space economy is a great fit for our needs. They also seem to do quite well - with the exception of some purple poddeds that just refused to thrive, I've had decent success saving seed from the varieties I've grown so far. Cherokee Trail of Tears introduced me to the world of multi-purpose beans (ones where both the green beans and the dried are tasty), and those multi-purposes are definitely my favorites - so much food from so little space, and a real sense of the potential scope of cottage gardening.

Looking forward to a great year, and learning even more as I go!

-N.

 

[baymule]

Welcome @Naomi Schoenfeld !!! This was lots of fun last year, can't wait to get started on this year!