Bean Teepee Lesson Learned

Last spring when Nick was preparing to construct bamboo teepees for my bean vines to climb, he asked me how tall he should make them. I lifted my hand above my head as far as I could comfortably reach and said, "About to here." When my neighbor got a look at these monstrous creations he looked at me skeptically and said that he thought beans only grew a few feet tall. Since I had ordered seeds for "King of the Garden" lima beans, advertised to grow to 8-10 feet, I was pretty sure the teepees were not too tall. Later, when I realized that there isn't quite as much light shining on my new garden plot as I had hoped, I was really glad these things are so tall and the plants are such good climbers, since it gives them a chance to soak up an extra 1/2 hour or so of sunshine.

Here's what I didn't count on: the place where we joined the poles together is about where I can comfortably reach, but some of the bamboo poles extend a good two feet higher than that, and for some reason the vines think that's just as good a place as any to grow a whole bunch of bean pods. Lesson learned.