How To Grow Green Beans

Green beans are so yummy fresh out of a garden. We usually grow a lot of greens beans each year because we can quite a few to last us through the year. Green beans can be planted until after the danger of frost is past. In our area locally this means after April 30^th. This is why these can be planted where your sugar snap peas , cabbages, or other cool weather plants were planted. Green beans can make a lot of beans per plant. I only had a couple of plants at my house last year, but I still had enough to get a mess of beans most nights for supper. There are many different varieties of greens beans. However, the two main types are bush beans and beans that grow up trellises. Bush beans can produce a lot of beans and are good for smaller gardens. Our favorite type of bush beans are tenderettes.

Beans that grow up trellises and be easier to pick because a lot of the beans are at your height, however, you still have to bend down to get the beans at the bottom. My personal favorite green beans that grow up trellises are Greasy Grits and Granny Pluma beans. Greasy Grits are a mountain type of bean, so they will only do well in my area. Even in the Raleigh area they don’t do too well. Obviously in the mountains they do even better. My most favorite green bean though is my great grandmother’s green bean. She cultivated it and gave us the seeds. They are the yummiest green bean ever. I wish there was a way I could share them with all of you, but unfortunately they can’t be bought she just grew them. We have tried about every kind of green bean to see if we could find others like hers, but we can’t, . We just keep saving her beans each year.

Green beans are picked before they get too full. They should be picked about every 3 days. You want them to be tender and snap easily. If you do have some that you leave too long and the pods are really full, you can shell them.

For more budget saving gardening tips, click here.