Growing Wild beans!

[veggiechicken]

Next nutty idea! Are you ready?

Fact 1. My garden is fenced with pig/chicken wire about 3-4' high. There are bushes & trees alongside it but not a formal hedge. There are gaps.

Fact 2. I have lots of bean seeds, far more than a normal person could grow in their lifetime.

Fact 3. I don't like frozen beans so growing lots to freeze is a waste of effort.

Fact 4. I like dried beans but have never grown any for drying. I pick them to eat fresh as I'm impatient.


Add all of this together and the idea is that I grow lots of bean plants, bung them in alongside any space on the fence and leave them to their own devices. No fussing, no picking, no beansticks. At the end of the season, I collect up all the bean pods and dry the beans.

That's the theory anyway. What do you reckon - nutty or sane?

[fishpond]

Just plant the tins.

On a more serious note, I am not sure why you do not like them frozen, as to me, once they have defrosted, they taste the same.(don't bother blanching them, straight from the plant to the freezer)
No reason why your plan shouldn't work, providing you do not get an Aphid plague of biblical proportions.

[Jay-ell]

Nothing nutty about this idea - I have a bag of self saved runners I plan on scattering into the hawthorn hedge along the side of my plot to harvest at the end of the season.

I too love dried beans and though that growing beans and winter squash up the hedge will make use of the space and can be forgotten about till autumn. The hope is that the flowers will poke out of the hedge into the sun and therefore the beans and squash would more likely be near the front to harvest - although no doubt the biggest will hide in the most prickly part of the hedge just to watch me bleed as I harvest.

[Scarlet]

I hate frozen beans...they are disgusting! Brill idea!
VC, you'll get loads if you've got the space! Spread your sowings over several weeks though as you can then get some fresh young pickings too

[veggiechicken]

I have a space set aside for fresh beans so no worries there. Any that grow elsewhere would be a bonus

[roitelet]

Make the most of the space! You can eat them as fresh beans as well as leaving them to dry. Just wait until they get big and fat. Borlotti are really good for eating fresh. So you get three bites of the bean, green, fat fresh beans and dry beans for winter.

Win all round!

[happyhumph]

Don't see why it shouldn't work if the beans have got space and decent soil. Give it a go! Shame to waste all those bean seeds by leaving them sitting there....

[happyhumph]

far more than a normal person could grow in their lifetime.

Shouldn't be a problem then VC

(Not the pointy stick please.....)

[veggiechicken]

I'm amazed that it took until #8 to pick up on that
Top marks, HH, go to the top of the class

[happyhumph]

Thanks Teach! I'm disappointed that I did a sensible post first though

[Jay-ell]

I'm amazed that it took until #8 to pick up on that
Top marks, HH, go to the top of the class

Saw that, but didn't think it applied to you

[veggiechicken]

Me too! Quite out of character

Now, to be serious I'm thinking about trees/shrubs and whether there are any that could host a bean or three. Ideally, they'd be quite open and lose their leaves in autumn in time for me to spot the bean pods. I think a boring elder would be cheered up with the bright red flowers of an RB or a buddleia with some delicate mauve CFBs...........
I'm on a roll here

[Jay-ell]

You might need a few short canes or some string far the beans to climb up until they reach the branches.

Once they reach the branches are you going to pinch out the tops to encourage more sideshoots? One thought is if the extra canopy of leaves and tangle of vines would interfere with nesting. The denser canopy would offer more shelter but would the vines restrict access? Probably not but ...

[veggiechicken]

Pinch out sideshoots!! Nope, that's mollycoddling.
Interfere with nesting? Not in the little bushes I'm thinking of using There are some hazels that I keep cutting back for bean sticks. This way I can leave them in situ

[Bren In Pots]

Good idea VC its one way to use up those soya seeds from this months mag.