You know what is cool about growing green beans, other than they are the best of the best in the world…the fact that their roots are nitrogen-fixing, which improves your soil fertility.

Most commonly grown are either bush (Phaseolus nanus) or pole green beans (P. vulgaris). There are several bush bean varieties, but most often you won’t see the little 6 pack labeled any further than the descriptor ‘bush.’ That is true of pole beans too. Seed packs, of course, will tell you the variety and planting times.

Planting time is after your last frost and when air temperatures are at least 65+. For growth and germination, 65-85 degrees is what you will want. Starting green beans from seed is quite simple. Once they have germinated and grown to 5-6 inches (and if your temperatures are as mentioned), plop them into the ground and watch them grow.

Beans need plenty of sunlight and regular watering. To keep down weeds surrounding your plants, remember to mulch. You might want to plant successive crops of beans in the same location as your first crops, especially the bush beans. This will ensure your bean crop from summer into the fall.

Pole beans need a structure to grow (twine) upon. There are numerous structures that are successful favorite ways to support pole beans, one of which is on wooden or bamboo teepees.

You can take three 1x1 inch stakes (6 feet or longer) and drill one hole through all three at one end. A large screw bolt is inserted through the three hole and a butterfly nut tightens them together. That's it! Simple. Equally elegant is tying together three 6-8 foot bamboo stakes and forming the same type of teepee.

Plant at least 3 bean plants at the base of each of the three teepee legs, too, so there will be at a minimum 9 bean plants per teepee. You can also add a stake between the teepees, interconnecting them, to give the bean plants further growth support, once their height has exceeded the teepee stake heights.

Our wooden trellis structures will also work perfectly for the pole beans. Hammer a 5-6 foot 2x2 inch stake into the ground. Hammer a second one into the ground at the opposite end of your trellis. This provides about a 5-6 foot long vertical trellis structure for your beans. This looks great and is a fabulous way to grow beans as well. Leave space on both sides of this structure, so that you can access all the beans.

We mentioned the nitrogen-fixing roots as a quality other vegetables just cannot offer. But don’t forget, just the ability of going out into your veggie garden at dinner time and hand picking beans for immediate consumption … well, there is just nothing better that that.