Where Have You Bean?

I’ve had a small harvest of French runner beans (Equador) in the past, but only enough for a couple of meals. This year I thought I would give beans a bigger chance and put them in the Earthbox®. The Earthbox® is one of my better investments and the Karmazyn broad beans are doing very well in it.

Beans, June — *If you look carefully, you can see the developing beans*

The beans themselves are salmon pink and quite small. There is a thick, spongy lining to the pod, as if the beans are snuggling up inside a duvet, making them appear larger than they actually are.

: Karmazyn beans

Another bean I grew last year and looked quite attractive was the purple dwarf French bean, Amethyst. The yield was not good with the Amethyst beans either, at least not for me if, the snails got to them first. They must have enjoyed them, they ate plenty of them.

The beans which didn’t germinate this year are the psophocarpus (winged bean), peculiar looking beans with frilly pods. They like hot, humid climates as in their native New Guinea, but there has been no excuse for them not germinating here this year, we’ve had unusually hot weather.