I love growing (and cooking) beans because they’re a versatile vegetable. When the pods are young and tender, they can be eaten raw or steamed, or you can leave them on the vines until they’re dry, and then harvest and store them as dried beans. This article tells  why you should add beans to the vegetable garden.

Personally, I use beans from our garden in everything from salads and soups to stews and chili. You can add color to a dish with bean pods that are purple, burgundy, yellow, striped or mottled. There’s the unusual asparagus pole bean, which grows 14 to 30 inches long and can be blanched or stir-fried. At the top of my list is the Romano bean, a prolific producer with pods up to 10 inches long. I like them simmered and prepared with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and parsley to bring out the Romano’s mild beany flavor.

For best results, grow beans in full sun (more than 6 hours a day) and well-drained, fertile soil and they generally are a carefree crop. They’re ready for picking anywhere from 45 to 60 days or so from the time they germinate depending on the variety.

The Power of Pods

Green beans were once called string beans because of the fiber that developed along the pod’s seam. Over the years, plant breeders reduced the fibers and green beans are now called “snap beans,” which includes both bush and pole beans, such as Kentucky Wonder, Royal Burgundy, Purple Pod, and Blue Lake.

One of my favorites is the stringless French filet bean or haricot vert. These tender beans reach their peak flavor when they’re about 5 inches long and only 3/8-inch wide. Pick them every three days for an ongoing harvest.

A healthy plant should produce about 2 quarts of bean pods. Fava or broad beans yield about 1 pint of shelled beans per plant. Windsor is a classic fava bean, with 5-inch pods that contain up to 5 large beans that can be used as fresh green “shell” beans or dried beans. Most beans like warm weather, but fava beans prefer cool mild conditions found in spring and in fall.

Bush versus Pole

Beans are classified by their growth habit. Bush-type beans produce 2-foot-tall plants. Plant seeds 1 inch deep and 4 to 5 inches apart and space the rows 2 to 3 feet apart. For a continuous supply, make successive sowings of bush beans every 2 to 3 weeks through mid-summer.

Pole beans can climb 6 to 10 feet on a tall trellis, a 4-pole teepee, a single stake, an arbor or a large mesh fence where their tendrils can wrap around a support. If you’re using poles, plant 7 seeds at the base of each pole.

I like pole beans because they take up less space in the garden. They take a little longer than bush beans to begin producing, but they also out produce bush beans, producing pods for 2 to 3 months. Bush beans, on the other hand, produce for about 3 weeks and must be replanted for an ongoing harvest. Depending on the variety, pole beans may be yellow, purple, filet, yard-long, wax, string, stringless or Romano types.

Edamame (pronounced “eh-dah-mah-meh”) is an edible specialty soybean from Asia that has become increasingly popular in this country. Rich in protein, calcium and vitamins A and B, each pod yields three to four beans that can be cooked after shelling. Or you can boil whole pods in lightly salted water for a shell-it-yourself snack. In Japan, the pods are popped open and eaten like peanuts from a shell.

Reading the Seed Packet

When planting summer crops, keep in mind that they mature more slowly than spring-planted crops. The daylight grows shorter and is less intense as we move toward fall. Using the days-to-maturity figure on the seed packet, I add an extra 14 days to the harvest time to factor in the shorter daylight. So, if the packet says 45 days to harvest, I add another 14 to be on the safe side. In the Chicago area, our first fall frost tends to occur about October 15 and all beans must be harvested by then. With that in mind, I work backwards from October 15, figuring 59 days is needed. I would sow bean seeds by mid-August for a mid-October harvest.

Bean Woes

Bean leaf beetles are pests that can chew holes in the leaves, but placing a light “floating” row cover (available at garden centers) over the plants can prevent damage. When I head into the garden, I take a bag for harvesting and a pail filled with a few inches of sudsy water (a few drops of dish soap does the trick). I knock the beetles into the pail to get rid of them.

Bacterial leaf blight also can be a problem as well, but breeders have developed several disease-resistant types of beans. You can avoid leaf blight by leaving space between rows for air circulation. More important, don’t work around plants when their leaves are wet as this could spread the bacteria from one plant to another.

Beans are also subject to soil-borne diseases. If you have the space, grow beans in a different part of the garden each year to avoid the spread of disease. If you have leftover seeds this fall, save them for next spring. Bean seeds tend to last for two or three years.

Where to Find Beans

Look for bean seeds at most garden centers. For heirloom and newer disease-resistant varieties, here are a few mail-order sources:

John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds, search for www.kitchengardenseeds.com

Johnny’s Selected Seeds, www.johnnyseeds.com

Seed Savers Exchange, www.seedsavers.org

Seeds of Change, www.seedsofchange.com

Territorial Seed Co., www.territorialseed.com

Vermont Bean and Seed Co., www.vermontbean.com