tracydr,

Here are some links of calendars we use for veggie crops:

http://www.gardeninginarizona.com/calendar.html

http://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/outdoors/articles/2010/03/17/20100317arizona-spring-planting-guide.html

http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/az1005.pdf

http://cals.arizona.edu/maricopa/garden/html/t-tips/

Thanks. I've checked all the calenders. Any personal experience? Which season is best, spring or fall?
Do the various "mountain" heirloom varieties such as greasy beans do well here? How about butter beans and other southern style favorites such as cowpeas? Sometimes I've used the calender and found that it didn't account for the fact that certain heirloom vegetables aren't the same as the hybrids that are commonly used.
What are the most productive, favorite heirloom varieties for the valley? I'd hate to set my sites on a bunch of varieties that have no hopes of growing here because they only grow in some mountain valley at exactly 3750 feet with 57% humidity or some such nonsense.
I have no idea why beans seem so intimidating to me. I guess because it's going to take such a huge chunk of time and garden space. I get all sorts of things to grow and do well that other people complain about from parsley, cilantro and lettuce to fennel, tomatoes and peppers.

These were planted from seed about a month ago:

Snap Beans - Romano

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Garden Beans - Habichuela (Amerillas, Borgona Real)

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Yummy- your beans look beautiful, I have some Scarlet runners growing in a container although I think they're unhappy about the soil mix. I need to help them with something.
I planted some yard longs and asparagus beans yesterday. How about greasy beans and baby Lima beans (butter). Should I wait until fall for these?
Are there some Mexican or tropical varieties that really like the Valley?

Tracy,

We use a 1:1 ratio of "Amend" mix and "Kellog" potting soil (Both from Home Depot/Lowes). And now have added some Potting soil mix from Gro Well Western Organics (had about 5 cu/yds dropped off for our beds that are going in).

Both sets of beans are watered every 2-3 days with a good 15 minute soak in the front, and just a top of the bucket lip fill on the snap beans in the back. The potted plants seem to dry out a LOT quicker, being that the soil maintains ambient temps compared to our plant beds which maintain an even temp.

Our beans get full sun in the front yard and partial late afternoon shade in the back.

Baby Lima, Pinto and Black Turtle (Bush) (and most other beans) can go in the ground around the end of June, first week in July.

I'd like to grow some baby limas and some sort of greasys or shellies, plus some other sort of pole beans. Maybe another green bean.
I think I need to throw some chelated iron into my containers, they are looking pretty anemic. I believe the ironite takes awhile to work. I wasn't thinking when I made them last winter (or actually hubby and son did this while I wasn't around so I was stuck with it) and they have straight compost on top of clay so they aren't very well designed. I need to do something to the soil before next season somehow.
It's sometimes hard here to stop growing things for awhile to fix the soil because stuff grows for such a long part of the year. Hopefully, now that I have enough different garden plots growing I can leave one or two empty for awhile when I need to work on it like I do these containers
Right now I'm building a large lasagne garden with plenty of places for pole beans to climb. Hoping to have it done in a month or so. I'm going to have chicken wire going up two palms and I also have a hedge of juniper backing it that they can grow up. This should be a perfect bed for my beans and squash type plants.

I've decided today, after the neighbors inadvertently caused my garden to flood from not opening their irrigation gates that I must be the only gardener in Arizona that's gardening in a wetlands bog.
Just found someone willing to share some black butterbeans with me from a southern state. I'm so excited. I'll be working the area of my yard which I've planned for bigger and trellised vegetables for this. I'm also going to have to build a berm for my flood irrigation problem. My poor tomatoes are standing with heads barely above water this afternoon.
They're barely dried out from their flood two weeks ago. I have no place to put a french drain unless I trench about 100 feet or more because the irrigation dumps into a low spot right behind the garden. I'm hoping the berm will fix the problem. Has anybody grown peanuts and favas? I'm thinking I'll use peanuts to cover crop the berm in the summer, favas or some other cool legume in the winter. Something that can handle some shade will be necessary as this will be an area in partial and full shade.
Thank goodness I'm having a large hole dug in a few weeks to bury a propane tank. I can have them dump the dirt in a berm for me.
Beans, here I come!

Can I ask how much Western organics charged you for the soil that they dropped off? I'm starting a few new beds and that may be a very good option for me. Plus, a large area that I'd like to turn from gravel to bermuda grass for my new agility course for my dog training.

Tracy,

I wish we lived in the irrigation district, it would save us some money on watering the gardens. :)

We do a simple lasagna garden technique, rock hard soil, some newspaper, the gro-well soil, amend then kellog potting soil (soils all mixed and watered each layer). This is done until we can get something out of our compost bin, maybe the fall?!

The soil was just of $20 a cu/yd + delivery, which was almost as much as the soil itself, we live in the far west valley, so it raised the delivery charge quite a bit.