When I have a hole in my planning, i.e. a bed is left open with no transplant ready, I always think of beans first.  That's because they are so flexible time-wise.  You can plant them in my zone 6 from April 1 to August 1 more or less, a truly long span that few other plants can match. 

They sell well enough, except when facing a glut which may happen around July.  But the rest of the time, it's a shoe-in at market, assuming that you are bringing a nice, stringless, vibrant bean.  I get this kind of result with a bean called "strike" which also offers a generous yield, available at Morgan County Seeds .  It is a bush bean.  I am usually tired of trellising and caging at that point in the season (where are my apprentices...?) with cucumbers, tomatoes, etc... So it is kind of a relief to just throw the seeds in without extensive preparation.

Still there is some work involved.  The above-pictured bed happens to be the curved bed which I have showcased in previous newsletter issues with a crop of baby greens.  The very week I made my last cut on the greens is when I seeded my beans.  You can actually see some of the leftover debris.  Following greens with beans seems always easy on the soil and big seeds can germinate in a fresh, "trashy" bed.

After I spaded the greens into oblivion, I reset the irrigation line. Then I trench on both exterior sides of the hose for 2 rows of beans about 2 feet apart.  I seed about every inch using a simple box with a lid into which I poked a hole big enough to let the beans drop.  I use bean inoculant.  Then I finish by closing the trenches with the back of a flat hoe.  The mulching should be heavy except on top of the 2 bean lines where it should be light.

A week later (now), the beans are up as the weather has been next to perfect.  But garden perfection as we all know is very elusive.  And this morning, as I did my early check, I discovered about 20 feet of my beans mowed to the ground, probably by some rodents.  And that's 20% of that bed...  I put a row cover with all sides closed and hope to save the balance.

last modified on: Sunday December 26, 2010 03:47 PM -0600