I don't know the answers to all of your questions, but I'll give it a shot.

"Can peas and beans go on the same teepee?" I am assuming you mean English peas? If so, yes, the peas will be about ready when it is time to plant the beans. And if you are talking about cow (crowder) peas they can be grown together. The chain link fence would be ideal!

"Others say to leave one bean plant per pole. ???" IMHO, Yes, they will crowd each other and end up with diseases.

"Can I plant carrots and radishes around the outside circumference of my teepee?" Never done that but they should be ready before the beans shade them.

Keep in mind that even though full sun is good on most veggies, they are normally OK with partial sun.

I've tried 4 pole teepees (6 beans to a pole), and 6 pole teepees (4 beans to a pole). The 4 pole works better for me. I have lots and lots of sunshine, so I can get away with 6 vines to a pole.

If you're going with more than one teepee, you can try to find out what works best for you. I'd recommend 3 vines to a pole on one teepee, and either 5 or 6 on the other. If you have plenty of seed, you can plant two seeds in each hole, and clip out the weeker seedling, as I do.

Mixing different varieties on the same teepee works, if you know what you're doing. Varieties should be fairly equal in vine growth. Planting one variety that grows to 14 feet in length alongside another variety that only gets to 6 feet can lead to problems.

Gary

My pole bean teepees are six feet high and have wire wrapped around them to give horizontal support to the vines. I plant my seed in a perfect circle around the entire teepee with the plants spaced about 4 inches apart. The teepees get completely covered with the vines and they are beautiful as well as very productive. I planted two teepees like this last summer and we ate beans and ate beans all summer (April to November) plus I put 10 gallons in the freezer. I was happy. (It was an unusual summer that never got so hot the vines shut down. It was Rattlesnake beans. My first time. Winners.)

Yes, you can grow different types of beans on one teepee, but I don't think you'll like it. The reason being, you will likely never have enough beans of one kind to make a mess, and you will get tired of keeping them separate, and when they are cooked, you won't know which is which anyway. The point of growing more than one variety is to see which not only grow better, but which TASTE better to you. Maybe you can grow two teepees? Or two crops at different times? My growing season is very long....maybe yours isn't. Just a thought.

Peas and beans on the same poles? Yes. You plant what we in the south, call English peas (shelling peas) early, when it's too cold for snap beans anyway. Then sow your snap beans (green beans) around the pea plants at the right time. By the time the beans need the space, the peas are burned up by hot weather anyway. This technique is called succession planting. If you Google the term, you can read all about it. As stated above, a chain link fence is also ideal for English, Sugar Snap, or Snow peas.

I rather suspect that you would have a hard time with Limas in Zone 5, mostly because your growing season may not be long enough. They need really hot weather for a really long time. But then, I have never gardened in Zone 5, and if your grand daddy did it, who knows? Personally, I would go for easy successes the first couple of years and work into the hard stuff. You'll be less likely to get discouraged.

Carrots and radishes, as stated above should have time to grow and be harvested before beans get going, because they are Cool weather crops. You can plant them much earlier than beans. Before your last frost date even.

I'm thinking you would find it very helpful to Google "Planting Guide" for your state and/or county. It will have the best planting dates for your area. Look at the seed packets (or catalog descriptions) for the number of Days to Maturity. Then start counting from the suggested planting date on your Planting Guide to the DTM on the packet. This will tell you when that crop will be ready to be pulled out. Do the same with your beans. There will be some overlap, which is fine. This technique is called intercropping. Google that term and you'll learn some more!

Good Luck! We'll love hearing how it goes for you.

Thank you so much everyone for the help! This is a wonderful forum. Still trying to decide what to plant in my sunny spots, but it's incredibly helpful to sort of know what's possible and what isn't.

Wishing you all good gardening and a bunch of free cupcakes!