Beans Ideas, Tips & Guides

If you’ve ever wondered how to grow peanuts or why the average home gardener would even want to, you’re in the right place—and you’re in for a treat. Peanuts are easy to grow, tasty, and protein-packed. What’s more, they’re not only good for you, but they’re also good for your soil. Much more than a garden novelty, peanuts are practical and prolific. They can be eaten fresh out of the pod, pounded into peanut butter, or otherwise preserved for the long haul. Best of all, individual plants can yield as many as 40 to 50 pods each. In this article you’ll learn all about how to grow peanuts. Meet the peanut Hailing from South America, the peanut (Arachis hypogaea) isn’t technically a nut like pecan

Planting pole beans should be on the to-do list of every vegetable gardener. Not only are they a reliable crop, but the vining plants are serious space savers and produce a far larger harvest than bush beans when given the same square footage. In this article you’ll learn when and how to plant pole beans, the best site for the vines, and how to care for the plants to ensure the best possible harvest of tender snap beans. Why you should be planting pole beans in your garden I grow a wide selection of vegetables like tomatoes, peas, beets, lettuce, a

JULIE SOEFER

Zucchini is the squash of summer. This green, mild vegetable often leaves people with a plentiful harvest that has them trying everything from zucchini bread to zucchini panzanella before they end up offering zucchini to any neighbor or friend that will take it.

What I love about my vegetable garden at this time of year is that it is almost as full of flowers as it is with fruit and veg. Alongside the rows of beans, kale and lettuce, beds are edged with marigolds or zinnias, and there are obelisks of sweet peas at either end of a bed (or sometimes in the middle). I also let a hollyhock or two seed around, as well as opium poppies, toadflax, ammi and verbena. Growing flowers alongside vegetables – or companion planting, as it is known – is something I’ve always done. There is no particular science to it, but the flowers attract more pollinators, which will in turn help the pollination of your crops. They can also lure the less beneficial aphids and other pests away from the vegetables and fruit; blackfly, for example, will colonise Ammi majus, lessening the chances of an infestation on your broad beans. And, more than anything else, letting flowers creep around the edges of your vegetable plot makes it look so much more attractive.

Kelsey Hansen

In my father’s victory garden, we planted a single crop of beans in late spring. The endless rows came in all at once, and we spent a long, hot week harvesting the beans. And while I love the taste of fresh snap beans, enough is enough. I’d rather have a number of smaller, more manageable crops of beans.

I had never met a fava bean until I moved to Northern California in the early 1980s and started my market garden. I noticed that the local Italian folks seemed to love these strange, giant, puffy-looking beans, so I decided to try growing them. The real eye-opener came when I took my crop to the farmers’ market. It wasn’t just Italians who were enthusiastic about them; I was amazed at how excited customers of Middle Eastern descent got over the favas. They bought bucketfuls! So I figured favas must be a great vegetable.

Summer is arriving and, all of a sudden, the kitchen garden is coming into its own. I am harvesting masses of salad leaves, broad beans and strawberries, and hopefully the first new potatoes. I can almost see things growing before my eyes, including the weeds, which I make an effort to keep on top of every few days (although I leave self-seeded dark pink poppies and some mauve linaria to encourage insects and add colour). To make the most of a small space, I grow salad leaves in large galvanised metal troughs, making sure that I sow a new crop every few weeks so I have a constant supply through the summer. Salad leaf mixes, including swift-growing, cut-and-come-again lettuce, rocket and mustard leaves, are available from almost any seed company, or at garden centres. Winter salad leaves, including mizuna, are best sown after midsummer, as they tend to run to seed quickly. I grow my salad leaves in the least time-consuming way, scattering the seeds thinly on the surface of the prepared soil or compost, and raking them in gently with a hand rake. Keep them watered and they will germinate within a few days and be ready to harvest in about six weeks. If you want to grow them in your vegetable beds, it is better to sow them in drills, so that the emerging seedlings are easily distinguishable from the weeds.

When it's time to harvest summer squash, whether it's for asummer squash casserole, squash cake, or stewed squash, gather all your best squash recipes because these plants produce abundantly. Before you count on your bounty a couple of months after planting, some insects may want to feast on the summer squash leaves and stems. This can negatively impact the plant if not kept at bay. Companion planting is a method that can help reduce pests in the garden as well ad attract pollinators, such as bees, butterflies, and birds, to help increase summer squash pollination and put important nutrients back into the soil.

While many plants love company, this is not true for all. There are vegetables you should plant separately to prevent competition for nutrients and reduce the chances of pests, disease, loss of flavor, or stunted growth.

Hummus lovers rejoice: You can learn how to grow chickpeas in your vegetable garden. Chickpeas, also called garbanzo beans, cecci beans, and Egyptian peas, are a staple in diets across their indigenous Mediterranean region. And like other legumes, they’re easy to grow and the plants improve the soil. Plus you can enjoy chickpeas fresh from the garden, much like shell peas, or harvest them at the end of the growing season for drying. In this ultimate guide for how to grow chickpeas, you’ll learn all about growing chickpeas on a small scale. Read on for tips on sowing, caring for, harvesting, and enjoying these tasty and nutritious beans. Why grow your own chickpeas Until now, you may not have thought much about how to grow chickpeas. There are a lot of reasons why

The furniture in your garden is about more than eating and relaxing, it also forms part of the overall design of the garden. The type, size and finish of the furniture comes into play, and the surrounding hard landscaping and planting can help turn your furniture choices into a design feature in their own right.

May is historically the hungry gap in the vegetable garden, because it is the time when the winter crops run out and before the summer crops get going. If you have been well organised, you may have some early crops of salad leaves, broad beans, radishes and even strawberries to harvest towards the end of the month – as well as asparagus, which is at its prime now. But the main focus this month is the sowing, nurturing and tending of your crops, as growth accelerates. Potatoes should be earthed up so the tubers are not exposed to light, while peas and broad beans need supporting with pea sticks or canes and twine as they get bigger. Weeding must be done regularly (little and often is my motto) and, if the weather is dry, watering is essential. It is best done as a thorough soak every few days rather than a scant daily sprinkling. At the start of May, I sow tender crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes in seed trays and individual pots. I keep these in the greenhouse until later in the month, when it has warmed up and they can go outside. As the month goes on, the focus shifts to planting out. I find it very satisfying to be able to plant a neat row of seedlings along a garden line, rather than try the lottery of direct sowing into the ground, then thinning out. Using the no-dig method, I will have already prepared my beds with a layer of well-rotted compost. Just before planting out, I will rake the bed to break down any larger clods and give the seedlings a better chance of establishing.

There are some veggies out there that you can use to grow many palnts from! This means, more specimens, more harvest!

Do you remember that garden Bunny Guinness designed at Chelsea Flower Show in 2011? You know, the one with the beautiful hazel-hurdle-raised-beds burgeoning with edibles and ornamentals. Well, if you don’t, it was stunning. I could not stop staring at its honed perfection. But, I thought at the time, ‘this is a Chelsea Garden that can’t be recreated in reality’. So, was I right? Can you combine ornamentals and vegetables without either party being compromised? Can you truly make a space that is at once pretty, productive and practical?

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Looking for creative ways to up-cycle old candle jars? These days, candles are often outfitted in jars that are every bit as beautiful as the scents themselves, making it hard to pitch the empty jar into the trash after the candle wax has been burned down to the wick. Giving new life to an old candle jar isn’t just sustainable—it’s also a great way to transform a candle that was a sentimental gift (or a luxury splurge) into a forever decor piece. To help get you inspired on how to best put old candle jars back to work, we asked a handful of organizing pros to share their favorite reinventions. From makeup brush holders to coffee spoon crocks, these are the best ways to give your old candle jars new life.

Have you ever wondered, holding a bar of Hershey’s in your hand, Is Chocolate a Fruit or Vegetable? If you ever did, today is your day where we’ll solve the mystery for you!

KitchenAid

What if I told you about some delicious vegetables that produce many from one plant? Fresh harvest for all the family members right from a single container!

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This is a purposeful moment in the vegetable garden. Spring is in the air and I’m gearing up for the busiest time of year. You can start sowing hardy crops such as broad beans, chard, beetroot, lettuce and carrots. But the weather and soil can still be cold in March, so only sow seeds outdoors if you are feeling confident it is warm enough. Alternatively – and, I think, preferably – you can start sowing these crops under cover, either germinating them indoors and growing them on in a cold frame, or in a greenhouse. Sowing seeds in trays and modules gives you more control, as you can plant them out as seedlings rather than taking the risk of leaving them to germinate in the ground. A compromise is to sow seeds in raised troughs, where the soil will be warmer and you can cover them with cloches or panes of glass to protect them further. However, onion sets and garlic can be planted straight out in the garden now.

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This crop growing on John’s Island in Charleston are fava beans or broad beans. They are grown in small acreages in South Carolina.

If you are seeing a deer like the above picture, having a tempting look at the succulents that you have grown in your garden, then keep reading my friend!

Canned beans, pasta sauces, various spices—we all have our must-haves for the pantry. Since new products are always lining up on grocery shelves, our editors cooked and tested our way through more than 200 products. It was a delicious task, and we determined what deserves a spot in the pantry.

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Beans include many types of snap beans, pole beans, and Southern peas, such as black-eyed types. Plant these in spring after all danger of frost has passed. Because they grow so fast, start beans from seed directly in the garden. To speed their sprouting, soak seeds in water overnight before planting.

Heluva Good!

These were certainly known to the Ancient Egyptians and are probably natives of northern and western Asia. They are extremely hardy.

After several years of sowing at different time, I’ve come to the conclusion that the perfect time for me to sow my Runner and French Bean seeds in the greenhouse is on 1st May. That way they have exactly one month to grow and be the perfect size to be planted outside on 1st June. I live in the South East of the UK so all worries of frost have gone from that area by the beginning of June. If you live further north or south of where I am, then you know your frost dates and can adjust your timings.

Today I was only supposed to be working from 9am-1pm and was planning on being in my garden when I got home. But first thing this morning the heavens opened and it was going to be one of those on and off heavy rain shower days again. So having spoken to the client I was supposed to be visiting that day, we both decided that it would be better to take the morning off. It was good that I did, because it did exactly what it said on the tin.

Where has this month gone? Where has this year gone? I know the older you get the quicker times goes, but this is ridiculous.