Saturday, November 20, 2010

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.

2 comments:

  1. So, do you harvest using a stepladder?

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  2. Well, I should harvest using a stepladder, but to be honest I just haven't bothered, so I'm sure the ones at the top have made some nice mature seeds by now.

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