Year of the Garden Bean!

​2021 is the National Garden Bureau’s "Year of the Garden Bean" in its many varieties. The National Garden Bureau is the non-profit information and marketing arm of the gardening industry in the US. They share information on what’s new and what’s old but still very relevant in the industry.

We need to thank Central and South America for this staple vegetable which made its way into the North American indigenous food basket along with corn and squash known as The Three Sisters. The Three Sisters was possibly the first example of mutually beneficial companion planting.  ​

Beans have been bred to various ends in modern times including stringlessness, enhanced flavor, color variety, texture, fruit set, stress tolerance and disease resistance.

Snap beans are distinguished from shelling beans in that the first are grown for their tasty tender pods while the latter are grown for edible seeds that can be dried and stored, a characteristic that made them especially useful to early agricultural societies and to us today.

Pole beans can be trained to climb a pole, trellis or fence allowing your garden to go vertical while bush beans need no support and are well contained in clumps. French green beans (Haricots Vert) varieties, also known as filet beans, a gourmet treat on many menus, can be found in both pole and bush types.

Beans are fun to grow with kids. The seeds are large enough for easy handling, they germinate in a few days to a week, they grow quickly and produce an abundant crop by mid-summer that can be eaten right out of the garden. They come in fun colors from yellow to green and purple as well as variegated, and pole beans can be grown on a teepee or fort frame for still more fun.

Regular picking can extend the harvest of both pole and bush beans, or start new seeds every few weeks to extend the harvest still further.  
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For lots of information on garden beans check out this National Garden Bureau page.
https://ngb.org/year-of-the-garden-bean/
Article: Pam Davies MGV
Photo: National Farm Bureau