[Ag-eq] Garden

[Tracy Carcione]

Today, I cooked some dried beans I grew, and they came out very nice.
Delicious and nutritious.  I love pole beans.  They are very easy to grow.
The hardest part is building a structure for them to grow on, and, once
that's done, it lasts for years.  I've made structures of various materials:
steel plumbing pipe, PVC pipe, and bamboo.  They're all about 6 feet tall,
with 2 vertical poles joined by a crossbar with strings hanging down from
it.  I have to replace some of the strings every year, but that's no big
deal.

I plant the beans a few inches apart when the weather warms up.  They really
don't take up much space.  They take longer to start producing than bush
beans, but, once they've started, they keep going until frost.  Some I
harvest green as string beans, and some I leave to dry.  Dry beans keep a
long time, easily over winter.  And pole beans are very easy to harvest.
The beans hang down within easy reach, and no scrunching down on the ground
required.  And another plus, they can be quite decorative.  The main variety
I'm growing now has red flowers and purple pods, 2 of my favorite garden
colors.

If I could only grow 2things, I'd choose tomatoes and pole beans.

Tracy