Year of The Bean

I am determined to grow beans for long term storage. You might remember a few years ago I had great success with black eyed peas. Those guys lasted for over a year in glass jars. Cooked up nicely every time I tried them out.

This year, I’ve already started snow peas, purple green beans, pink cowpeas (black eyed peas), lima beans (butter beans), and edamame. I plan to split them between the roof and the neighbor garden plot. My goal is long term storage, so I have several of each plant. I LOVE beans, and I’ve finally figured out how to cook them from dry. Argh. My years of canned beans might soon be over.

We’re trying to decide on a support system for the beans, but this past weekend we put in a “fluffy creature deterrent” to protect the smaller plants. Last year the rabbits ate all of our pepper and bean plants. They have lots of stuff to chose from, so this is just supposed to be a blocker. They likely won’t dig because they’ll just move on to the next plot. We still dug about 2″ down. Hopefully this will work, but we might also put some individual cages around the plants.

Tags: beans, community garden, neighbors, seedlings, urban garden