Gardening Articles: Landscaping :: Yard & Garden Planning
Planting Other Beans by National Gardening Association Editors
If you like bush beans, try growing these other members of the
legume family. Pole beans like to send their vines up poles,
strings or wire, but they don't like chicken wire or fences with
a lot of horizontal wires or small mesh. Horizontal wires cause
the vines to wind around each other and choke. A pole diameter
of 1 to 2 inches is good, and poles with rough surfaces are
better than smooth ones. A good height for a pole is 6 to 7
feet. A variety like 'Kentucky Wonder' can easily grow to 13
feet if you let it, but who wants to harvest from a stepladder.
By using 7-foot poles, the vines will head back down, and all
the harvest will be within easy reach. Short poles are okay,
too. If you use stakes that are 4 feet high, your beans will
grow quickly to the top of the stakes and then fall back down.
However, the ease of planting and care will probably outweigh
the occasional nuisance of harves