Yard Long Beans

Yard Long Bean Seeds

It's that time of year again, when the yard long beans begin to produce in abundance in the garden.  We built two new planting beds at the end of March and the girls helped with the seeds and covering our newly planted beds with leaves.

We laid sticks out to separate our planting areas

The girls gathered leaves to cover the seeds after they planted each section

Hannah and Lauren planting their seeds

We watched as things sprouted and have been watching as our crops come up and then began our initial harvest of salad greens, lemon balm, cilantro, radishes and now as the heat turns up it's time for the yard long beans to be picked and enjoyed.

Kevin added a trellis for the beans to grow up, we were a bit overwhelmed last year with the vigorous growth of this type of bean, so we decided to be prepared this year. He used our old shade covers from the towers that had shaded them last year, but with the hoop house this year (I'll show this in the next post), we don't need these pieces of pvc pipe.  He made sure he pounded old stakes in the ground first and slipped the pvc over the top of these to be sure they stay put when the wind kicks in.  This has already been tested in a couple of good storms and they held up fine.

First bed this year planted, marked and covered with leaves

My little helpers in front of one of last years garden beds that still has papayas, nasturtium, lemon grass, a volunteer tomato and a jalapeno pepper that all survived from last years plantings - even with the freeze.

Positioning the second new bed

Laying out several layers of newspaper before adding dirt

Kevin putting together the trellis

Second new bed planted

Newest beds with trellis

Garden area in March

Four beds now, two from last year and two new ones - this is from the end of March

The beans have done beautifully growing up and are beginning to grow over the top of the trellis.  The air flow and accessibility has been helpful in controlling fungal issues, aphids and has eased harvesting the beans.

The girls with today's bean harvest

Yard Long Beans on trellis now in June

Pretty bean flower

Trellis still has a lot more beans that need to get a bit bigger to pick

Beans and flower

We still find the size and abundance of these amazing!!!