Beans Ideas, Tips & Guides

A little while ago I was talking about the recent extended period in my life when, for a variety of reasons, I was unable to garden. As it happens, I have been reading The Resilient Gardener, by Carol Deppe, which is subtitled “Food production and self-reliance in uncertain times”.

Hello! Welcome to Gardeners off World. The big news for space gardeners this week is that NASA has determined that the salads grown in Veggie are safe to eat. And a team of Russian researchers have developed a prototype for an orbital greenhouse. The Orbital Biological Automatic Module includes smart lighting to accelerate plant growth, specialised hydroponics, automated irrigation and harvesting solutions. It could be heading to the International Space Station (ISS) – “Humanity’s home in Low Earth Orbit” – in the next few years.

In previous years, my garden plan has revolved around what I want to grow. There are a lot of unusual plants that grow, or might grow, in our climate, and I enjoy trying them out. With my experimental impulses mainly focused on the Hydroponicum, I have been thinking about what we would like to eat from the garden.

Did you sleep well last night? You would not have felt so cosy if your mattress had been infested with bed bugs (Cimex lectularius), an ancient pest that is making a comeback in the modern world, complete with pesticide resistence. Looking for a new solution to this age-old problem, scientists from the Universities of California and Kentucky took their inspiration from reports written in the first half of the twentieth century (sadly not available online) that describe the use of bean leaves (in Eastern Europe) to trap bed bugs so that they can then be destroyed.

Can you imagine stepping outside your house and wading out onto a reef to collect seaweeds and shellfish for your lunch? Or talking the dog for a walk into the nearby forest, hunting for mushrooms and foraging edible plants to go with them?

In a typical year, I do my garden planning before Christmas. But last year wasn’t normal, and normality (whatever that means) has yet to return. I thought I’d thought about it, but it turns out – not so much.

One of the classic meals in Ryan’s family is bean feast. Ryan’s parents serve it occasionally when we visit, and Ryan’s mum kindly brought us over a bean feast when we moved into the house, to tide us over the first couple of days when we didn’t have the energy to cook. (It is the only time anyone has ever brought me food like that!)

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners Off World, your round-up of interplanetary news and views. NASA’s Christina Koch returned to Earth yesterday, after spending 328 days onboard the International Space Station (ISS) – the longest single spaceflight by a woman. Koch participated in three expeditions – 59, 60 and 61 – during her first spaceflight. ESA’s Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov came home on the same flight.

We’re not quite done with April showers – it’s raining. Spring is a bit behind schedule this year, but it is May and there are spring flowers!

Last year I thought I’d planted climbing French beans in the garden, and was later disappointed to find out that I’d sown a dwarf variety! This year I rectified that issue and sowed two different climbing beans – Blauhilde and Helda at the beginning of June. I sowed some indoors and some directly into one of the raised beds, where my intention was that they would climb the sweetcorn (and be 2 of the 3 Sisters). That hasn’t worked out – for some reason the sweetcorn has been a complete failure, with most stems barely reach two feet tall. In the end I put up tripods for the beans instead, and they’re really getting going now.

The broad bean season is largely over now (unless you invest in the new autumn-cropping variety, Luz de Otono), but every time I pod my beans I ponder how much waste is going straight onto the compost heap. Broad beans have to be some of the best packaged seeds in the plant world, with a thick pod filled with fluffy wadding.

THE WEEKLY RATION FOR TWO PEOPLE, UK, 1943 (D 14667) This photograph shows the amounts of milk, sugar, bacon, cheese, butter and chocolate received by two people per week in Britain. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205200125

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners Off World! I am writing this from lockdown, and you’re probably reading it from lockdown, too. The good news for UK gardeners is that it’s still OK for most people to do some gardening – and that includes people who grow their food on an allotment.

If you’re keeping track of the news to see how Brexit is progressing, then the only possible answer (whatever your political persuasion) is… not well. MPs have vetoed the PM’s deal (again), the Speaker has vetoed her plan to make them vote on it again, the PM has been forced to ask the EU for an extension, and the French PM has said he won’t agree to one. With 9 days to go, we still don’t know what’s happening, and whether we will crash out of the EU without a deal (even though Parliament voted that wasn’t what they wanted).

It has been a momentous week for space news, with the USA announcing its new Space Force insignia. It’s very much like the old Air Force Space Command insignia, and also very much like the Star Trek logo, which had the internet in stitches. And this just days after they announced their new uniform, and it became apparent that they would be going about their business in a totally appropriate woodland camouflage pattern.

This is one of a series of posts looking at what we might eat on Mars, where most food would have to be shelf-stable, tinned or freeze-dried. You can find other posts on this topic under the Martian Meals tag.

In this episode, Emma the Space Gardener talks to Mission Specialist Susan Young. Susan’s new book, “Growing Beans: A Diet for Healthy People and Planet” aims to get us to look beyond green beans, as growing and eating shelled beans – fresh and dried – has numerous benefits for us and our home planet. 

Ryan and I are big fans of Firefly, the painfully short sci-fi Western series following the adventures of Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his motley crew aboard the spaceship Serenity. When Shepherd Book boards for what is supposed to be a short transit across the galaxy, he brings fresh strawberries and plenty of wisdom:

We asked you what pest, disease and plant problems you’d like Alan Titchmarsh’s advice on. Hundreds of you responded with questions about a host of problems on a wide range of flowers, fruit and veg.

Summer was made for fun, but those long, hot days at the pool, beach, or lake can be tiring, and sometimes sneaking in a quick nap is in order. Whether you curl up in a shady spot outdoors or a cool space indoors, here are 18 products we love that will take your warm weather snooze to the next level.

A blood meal is a natural fertilizer made from dried animal blood; it is widely used for plant growth and health. With its high nitrogen content, blood meal can enhance soil fertility, prevent pest infestations, and promote lush foliage and vibrant blooms. Learn more in detail aboutBlood Meal Uses for Plants below.

Whether you like to use your homegrown green beans in a good old-fashioned green bean casserole or in modern stir-fries, learning how to freeze green beans for later use is important, especially when the garden is producing them like crazy. Thankfully, freezing green beans from the garden is an easy process, but there are some essential steps to follow for success. In this article, I offer simple step-by-step instructions so you can enjoy the fruits of your garden for many months to come.

Great Runner Beans need plenty of water retentative and nutrient rich soil. That is why preparation is important but here are some more tips to rescue this years crop.

Some trees are named to confuse. The Indian Bean Tree is not from India and it doesn’t grow beans. As a native of north America it is named for a North American native Indian tribe. The seeds are produced in long bean like pods.

After salad crop failures in Spain and shortages of courgettes, broccoli and other ‘long distance’ vegetables gardeners could to worse than focus on traditional and non-traditional root crops.

The early insect damage on my runner bean leaves (above) has not damaged the crop of beans. Cool evenings and warm sunny days with adequate rain, has helped produce a bumper crop of tender beans.

One of the easiest and highest yielding vegetable crops to grow are runner beans. You may not need all these 5 tips to do well but here goes:

Many plants have dangerous components, leaves, seeds and roots. Some of the most dangerous must be grown under government license. Below are notes on just a few plants to avoid eating.

I guess I am lucky to have 3 compost heaps and have had the ‘fun’ of emptying one over the last 3 days.  It would probably have been better compost if it had been left a few more months but the other 2 were full or filling up rapidly. I wanted to trench out the bean and sweet pea ground both of which should benefit from the moist compost at their roots. Another reason for action was created by corona virus and the cessation of garden refuse collections and closure of local refuse tips by our MDC.

Few things compare to the intoxicating smell of brewing coffee in the morning—whether you enjoy the taste or not. As a cornerstone to morning rituals across the country, coffee culture runs deep with fancy gadgets and equipment to make virtually anyone a barista in their own home.

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Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.

You don’t have to be a Starbucks aficionado to know Americans are obsessed with coffee. They love it so much that it’s the most popular beverage in the country, with consumption being at a two-decade high, according to the National Coffee Data Trends report.

Summer, summer, summertime! Summer is the time to be outdoors, gathering with friends and family enjoying nature, and let’s not forget, food. July is the griller’s favorite time of year. Time to showcase your skills, new recipes, and let everyone know who the Grill Master is!

What’s for dinner? Instead of getting take out or running to the grocery store, consider “using what you have on hand”. A beauty YouTuber called it ‘shop your stash’ as she described using what you have one hand. With that, I will share a simple dish I recently prepared that my family really enjoyed.

When I was growing up in S.C., we kids played outdoors, most days. The weather didn’t matter; I was all about being outside – running, biking, swimming, climbing trees, and exploring. I’ve always enjoyed the woods and creating trails and forts.