Gardening Tips for Beans

Growing Beans

Why go to all the trouble and commit the time it requires to read gardening tips about growing your own food?

Maybe you feel, as we do, that gardening can provide healthy and delicious food without damaging your budget or our planet.

Maybe you enjoy the process of partnering with Nature.

Perhaps you want to make an ethical statement about lowering your carbon footprint.

If you have young children, you may be using your garden as a tool to teach your them wonderful things about growing plants, being healthy, enjoying fresh food, working in the garden and doing a project together.

The list of great reasons to garden just keeps on…

Why Do We Garden?

First, we are committed to healthy eating and to delightfully fresh, tasty food.

To us this means that we know what has been put into the soil and on our plants to produce the food that we eat. We prefer to use only naturally produced fertilizer.

Thankfully, our neighbors have three equine manure factories – Cody, Bueno, and Bugsy – plus a coop (2 dozen chickens) of feathered contributors to the compost pile. It is amazing how much great fertilizer three horses and a small flock of chickens can produce. A serious fertilizer factory!!!

For garden pests, when the little critters show up, we use products that are as environmentally friendly as possible, such as BT or Safer, an insecticidal soap approved for organic use.

Second, we derive enormous satisfaction from growing, preserving and eating our own food.

Being outdoors and tending our garden with only the sounds of birds around us makes for a pretty good day. We love the idea of having healthy bodies, a healthy budget, and a healthy planet. Good gardening helps toward all three.

Third, we are concerned about our planet and want to heal, not harm, the earth. We want to grow good food as naturally as possible with the smallest carbon footprint.

Your Garden...

Climate and weather patterns, soil conditions, and local competitors (from rabbits to mice to grasshoppers) – all these are factors that will depend on where you are doing your gardening. As a result, some of our gardening tips will differ from your specific needs. A garden in Maine or Georgia will have different requirements from our desert garden in Cochise County, Arizona.

References to the resources that we used when we were learning to garden are mentioned in this section and can be found in greater detail in our book reviews pages.

We want to share the knowledge of the experienced gardeners/authors whose work has inspired and guided us as we became better gardeners. We continue to consult these “garden gurus”, experts in all facets of gardening, when we need help with some new gardening situation.

What Kind of Garden is Right for You?

From a child’s bean garden project to patio/container gardens to backyard gardens to community gardens and large family gardens, there are many similarities. All need fertile soil, water, sunshine, cultivation, and effective pest control.

If you want to develop a patio/container garden to grow food, our friend Rick has an excellent site that covers many aspects of the subject.

Late Winter is the time to order your seeds for the Spring planting season. Be sure to plan ahead!

Click here to get $20 off your first order at Gurneys!

In the pages linked below, we discuss our gardening tips in greater detail. We share our successes, as well as those bits of knowledge learned through mistakes. And we will share gardening tips from experts around the country with information for your unique regional needs.

Garden Preparation How big is big enough? What about garden design? How about fences, pathways, bed size? Select the right garden tiller!

Irrigation What irrigation system is right for me?

Fencing/Pest Control Can I control insect pests without toxic chemicals? How about keeping rabbits out of the garden?

Raised Garden Beds What advantages do raised beds give a gardener, and how do I build one?

Composting How do I go about enriching my garden naturally? What are my alternatives for compost bins and methods? Choosing an urban compost bin.

Building a Cold Frame How do I build a cold frame for growing early-season seedlings?

Cold Frame Gardening How do I use a cold frame to give my plants a jump start on the growing season?

Planting beans When do I plant? What condition and temperature should the soil be for bean planting? Can I get a jump on the season by growing seedlings in cold frame?

Harvesting Beans How do I know when beans are ready for picking? How often should I pick? How do I prepare dry beans for storage?

Preserving Beans Whether you want to freeze, can, or pickle green beans or store dry beans, we offer tips to prolong the shelf life of your beans for long term healthy eating.

Please share your gardening tips with us and our readers. Enriching the knowledge of fellow bean growers is to everyone's benefit. If you have questions, comments or a gardening story to tell, please contact us and we will respond directly or post it on The Beans Blog. Join the gardening conversation!

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