Seedmama,

I did chuckle.

It just so happens that this is the year of the bean for me too. For the last two years, I haven't had as large of a bean harvest as I'd like, and even though it has been weather-related, it is frustrating. I think beans and peas are the only frozen veggies from last year that we've run out of already, so I'm planting and growing more and hoping to harvest/freeze enough that we won't run out next winter.

I don't have my planting plans mapped out as precisely as you, but I'll have about 300' of trellised, row space for pole beans and I'll squeeze in bush beans here and there around the main veggie garden.

Here's the varieties I'm growing this year (Lord willing and if the creek don't rise):

Garrafal Oro
Meraviglia di Venezia
Supermarconi
McCaslan
Rattlesnake
Greasy Grits
Cherokee Trail of Tears
Musica
Louisiana Purple Pod
Red-Striped Greasy
Genuine Cornfield Bean
Emerite
Long Cut Old Timey Greasy Bean
Ruth Bible
Tennessee Cutshort
Cherokee Stripe
Roma II bush bean
Tanya's Pink Pod bush bean
Top Crop
Derby

And for limas...

Jackson Wonder Bush Lima
King of the Garden Lima
Christmas Pole Lima

I hope we have good bean weather this year. In 2008 it was too hot and too dry here and the grasshoppers arrived in huge quantities in May and wanted to eat nothing but the bean plants. In 2009, it was too wet, too cool and too cloudy although I eventually got a good late summer/autumn crop. I feel like we are 'due' for a good bean year.

Dawn

I got distracted getting dinner on the table and forgot to finish the post.

I'm interested in what beans you will grow or have grown and WHY? I'm interested in expanding next year, or maybe the year after next, and I want to start thinking about it now.

Here's my list:
Tennesee Cutshort Because that's how many seeds I grew from the seeds George gave me last year, and I really liked the green beans
Asparagus Bean because the seeds were on clearance last year and tempted me
Greasy Grit, because I got them in a round robin trade last year and I've heard they are similar to Tennessee Cutshort
Thai #3 Extra because soonergrandmom shared with me and I like trying the exotic
Mennonite Purple Stripe, because I got them in a round robin
Blue Lake Bush Beans because they were given to me
Cherokee Wax Yellow Bush, no clue where they came from, but I'm growing them because we make a lot of three bean salad
Top Notch Golden Wax, for three bean salad
Garden Bean, Tenderpick , picked up a pack for Mom and said why not me too.

I am also hoping to grow Kentucky Wonder pole, but I don't have the space ready, so I can't say for certain I'm going to do it.

In general, I'm using both pole and bush beans to fit the space I have available. The bush beans will edge the sidewalk and the green beans will grow on last year's tomato stakes.

What about you?

I don't have anything written done, as to what we'll be growing. But I know we'll grow:

Tennessee Cuthort, which is our mainstay and family heirloom from Jerreth's family.

Barksdale Was Pole Bean - another heirloom from my wife's family (paternal grandparents). Stringless, yet tender podded until they begin to dry down.

Cherokee Striped Cornhill - heirloom from Eastern
Tennessee, an old fashioned string bean, tender until it drys down. Prolific, with great flavor and up to 10" pods.

Ruth Bible - another Appalachian pole bean, similar to Tennessee Cuthort, but with more variable pods and apparently a bit more heat tolerant.

Childers Cutshort - Apparently identical to Tennessee Cutshort, but traced back to KY. Excellent.

Tennessee Cornfield Pole Bean - From Sustainable Mountain Agriculture. Old fashioned string bean which I want to trial and compare to others.

Frank Barnett Cuthort - a real square seeded, genuine cutshort pole bean, also from Sustainable Mountain Agriculture. Growing for trial.

I'll be growing Fowler Bush Bean, which I received from my seminary prof., Dr. Don Fowler, back in 1983. This bean was carried over the Oregon Trial by settlers. It's a hard one to produce a lot of seed, so I need to grow it again to renew my seed supply.

Finally, Jerreth asked me to grow a packet of Blue Lake Bush beans! A special friend gave her the packet. So... I'm going to make room for them.

I'm sure there are more. But I can't recall at the moment.

George
Tahlequah, OK

I'm going to include the link for Sustainable Mountain Agriculture. If ever I want to acquire another variety, I'll probably look here!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sustainable Mountain Agriculture

You guys are so organized. I have a ton of different beans to try this year, but you are way ahead of me on planning.

Carol,
You know what Winter Sowing does. It opens up new vistas, empowers you to believe you can grow anything, and sets forth an unstoppable inertia. The problem is, I only have so much plantable area. I can live with a few ornamentals dying in the jug, but it still kills me to waste seeds for a food crop. So I have very carefully planned how much will fit in a given space this year, so I know exactly how to prepare. I've spent yesterday putting down cardboard and fresh mulch to prepare for where the bush beans will line the sidewalk. When I finish, my next chore will be removing viburnum shoots from where I want to plant the zucchini, pumpkins and squash. Once I finish mulching that area I will evaluate whether I have time to prepare space for melons. Notice I'm focusing first on crops I can preserve and the rest will be for fresh eating.

I had the pleasure last spring of watching spademilllane in action. He was tilling a traditional rectangle in a wide open field for what I recall was going to be his first large vegetable garden. The rototiller was sitting there and I asked him how large it was going to be. His response intrigued me. He set aside a block of time every evening to rototill after work. The final size of the garden would be dictated by how much he finished between then and April 15. Then it was time to put the rototiller away and start planting.

In years past I've gotten so carried away with wanting to plant this that and the other thing (because I can) that I end up with more seeds than dirt. This year, I'm following SML's lead and preparing a space with cardboard and mulch, then allocating seeds to that space, preparing another space, then allocating seeds to that space and so on.

I got the peas and the greens into their allocated spaces just as last Friday night's pre-snow rain began to fall. I was so pleased with the timing.

Someday I hope to have enough space prepared that I can work backwards into my plantings. If I want to put up X cans of green beans, I'll know to plant y number of seeds and I'll have plenty of space to do it. Although there are guidelines like this from the county extension, those charts are averages that don't reflect your specific environmental conditions, or how much extra to plant for for the deer, raccoons and bunnies.

Dawn and George, thanks for the lists. That will give me something to study up on. George, I recall you telling me you had harvested some quantity of Tennessee Cutshorts for dried beans. How did they eat? Do you grown any of the others for dry beans?

Seedmama, If you were to read individual descriptions of each of the varieties I listed, you'd see that many of them are the romano-type beans with flat pods (mostly green, but Miracle of Venice has yellow pods) because we adore those, and they are not terribly easy to find fresh in stores.. We mostly eat beans as snap beans and we freeze tons of them. I don't grow a lot of dry beans. I'd like to, but we love beans so much that we never leave any on the vine to dry. We eat them fresh almost daily when they're available, freeze them and use them to make dilly beans.

I have more pole types than bush types this year and I'm going to put the pole beans wherever I have a fence or trellis they can climb. Emerite is one I'm growing that produces the very slender, green filet-type beans often referred to as haricot verts. The bush beans will essentially edge raised beds of other crops. I squeeze in a row of bush beans here, there and everywhere whenever I can. I grow some of the cornfield types in my Three Sisters Garden as well.

The lima beans produce well some years and not as well in other years, but you can't beat the flavor of fresh limas. In a really hot and really dry summer, the limas don't do terribly well for me.

I also tend to grow heirlooms more than hybrids, but there's room for both in our gardens. The TopCrop beans are specifically for our granddaughter's garden because the beans are produced right at the top of the bush plants and will be easy for her to see and harvest.

Dawn

I just did a search, as I should have from the beginning, and found this great bean thread from 2008. Great stuff!

Here is a link that might be useful: 2008 Oklahoma Bean thread

Dawn, you're right. Many of those you listed are flat beans. So here's my next question. Can you put into words why you like them? What exactly is their appeal? Right or wrong, I associate flat beans with fuzzy beans, and the fuzz really turns me off. Probably just an anomoly from childhood, but nonetheless.... Are your beans fuzzy?

Seedmama - "Are your beans fuzzy?" Isn't that a little personal?

I do understand the question tho. I prefer "greasy" beans myself, but until George educated me, I had no idea what to ask for, since I didn't know they were called "greasy". George is the man when it comes to beans.

Seedmama,

Well, you know, I find it kind of hard to describe what is different about the broader, Romano-type beans, but I'll try. In general, they are slightly fuzzy, but no more so than most standard green bush bean varieties. After they're cooked, it doesn't matter, and we don't eat many green beans raw. What we like about them is their richer, deeper, fuller bean flavor. I guess I'd just have to say their flavor is more intense, or 'beanier' than many other beans. They also have a somewhat meatier texture, and by that I do not mean that they are tough or especially chewier, but just more substantial and they don't get quite as tender when cooked at the young, green bean stage. You also can leave them longer on the vine and cook them as shellies.

Just because we like the broad, Italian romano type beans best, though, doesn't mean we don't like all the others....fuzzy or greasy, regular or cutshort, heirloom or hybrid, pole or bush. We pretty much like all beans.

Standard green beans are easy to find at grocery stores and farmer's markets. Good, romano types are not, so that's another reason I devote so much space to that type....because if we want to have that type, we have to grow them ourselves. I also love all the unique appearances of the beans and pods....green beans don't have to be green, you know, and we like the yellow, purple, and streaked/mottled pods/beans too.

Dawn

seedmama - I re-read your original post this morning and had to laugh. I think I see the architect and the CPA in that selection.....make it pretty, but account for every bean.

You guys know that I now must go and dig out my bean seed and decide what I am going to plant, don't you? It's too early. I have plenty of time to decide. Just got the peas in. Stop it!!

Dawn, I don't normally plant bush beans but had decided that I would this year because I had several packs (an understatement). I started looking thru them and see that I have a package of Roma II which appear to be flat beans. I saw them on your list and wondered if you had grown that one before? If I have other flat podded beans, I am not aware of them.

I also have several of the same things that are listed for seedmama, macmex, and you. I suspect that if elkwc were to post then my list would look a little like his also. One would think we traded or something. LOL In addition, my DH went a little wild at Baker Creek.

I can grow 32 feet of pole beans, and a row or so of bush beans. In addition, I have set aside two 5 feet wide trellis' for growing long beans. I have two different types of yellow beans and one of them is a climber. I am thinking I could grow them up a tall tomato cage inside a large nursery tree pot. I like the taste of green ones better, but I do love the way the yellow ones look in bean salad. Maybe I can find some more room as the spring crops get removed.

I just checked my yellow beans and one of them is a flat bean as well. It is called Goldfield, a climber, from Thompson and Morgan.

Yes soonergrandmom, we've got left brain and right brain living under the same roof. What a riot. I'm Phyllis Diller and he's Fang.

I hope everyone will check back in later in the summer with comments about what they've grown. The only flat bean I seem to have is the Topnotch Yellow Wax. If I find one more flat bean, I'll probably grow it, just because Dawn said so. I've already had to rework the planting plan above. For the first time in years, I've hit the end of March with more planting space prepared and available than I'd made plans for. It won't last long.

If mom ever finds the sack of seeds I sent home with her, I'm going to take back some of the Lima beans I gave her. I hate Lima beans, but I'm going to try one more time this year to like them. I mean I really hate them. In my dating years, when men would ask what kind of food I liked, I would assure them the only thing that would disappoint me would be a restaurant that served only Lima beans. This accomplished a couple of things. It let them know I was open minded, flexible and willing to try new foods. (A great thing when you live in a food mecca like Houston) I think it also took some of the pressure off and it let them know I had a weird sense of humor right from the start. Hubs was forewarned!

My three varieties of peas are up and going, but it's all much later than last year. It's always a crapshoot with peas in Oklahoma.

I never knew that peas were hard to grow in Oklahoma because they have always worked for me, but I have never planted this late before, so we shall see. I had several kinds that I could have planted, but only planted Super Sugar Snap.

Somewhere out here on the web is a recipe I posted for my favorite Lima recipe. It is one of my favorite bean dishes, but I guess I like most beans with the exception of garbanzo beans.

I will never have a problem filling up a garden space. I always want to plant much more than I have room to grow. You don't have strawberries growing in strange places this year, do you? I still laugh everytime I think about that.

Carol,
I thought I had posted my bean list somewhere. But looked and didn't find it. So if this is a duplicate just ignore it.
I don't have a lot of some of them. But enough to save seeds if I like them. And will have to crowd them in everywhere I can if I'm going to plant all of them. Jay
Tarahumara Pink Green Bean
Penny Rile Cowpea
Noreaster Pole Beans
Cranberry Vermont Unlce Walt's
Dragon Tongue
Anasazi Bush/Dry bean
Ruth Bible Pole Bean
Tennessee Cutshort Pole Bean
Cosse Violette Pole Bean
Long Cut Old Timey Greasy Pole Bean
Cherokee Trail of Tears
Hopi Pink Bean
Yoeme Purple String
Tarahumara Bak'amina
Fortex
Emerite
Calico Willow
Childers Cutshort
Purple Podded Pole Bean
Cascade Giant Pole Snap bean
McCaslin Snap Pole Bean
Zelma Snap Pole Bean
Blue Coco Snap Pole Bean

Are ya'll planting the beans seeds in the ground now or did you already start them? I just picked up some seeds and was wondering what I should choose/do. Feel like a complete rookie reading ya'll posts. lol but would rather look like an idiot than not ask and prove that I am. :)

I have strawberries growing everywhere. Several years ago I did lasagna gardens in several thousand square feet of space. The ingredients included 28,000 pounds of strawberries. Who knew the seeds would sprout!? That same year, from the compost ingredients I harvested sweet potatoes, green beans, cantaloupe, yucky tomatoes, and something else I can't think of right now. The sweet potato harvest was 6 bushels that year and we've replanted from that same stock every year since. Too much fun!

I can't say I'll have difficulty filling up the space. It's just that this year I actually exercised the restraint I always give lip service to. Spring is not over yet.

SGM, Here's your bean recipe, located in the 2008 Oklahoma Bean thread.

I was never a lima lover either until I tried this recipe. Now they are second only to pintos.
From Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery

Beans, Creole Style
1 pound dried large Lima beans
6 cups water
1/2 pound bacon, diced (I sometimes use ham)
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, diced
1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspons prepared mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 1/3 cups (one pound 3-ounce can) tomatoes

Cover washed beans with water, bring to boil, and boil for 2 minutes. Cover and let stand for 1 hour; then cook until tender. Drain. Cook bacon in large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon and drain. Add onion and green pepper to fat in skillet and cook for 5 minutes. Blend in flour, seasonings, and sugar. Add tomatoes and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Add beans and heat. Sprinkle with bacon. Makes 6 ot 8 servings.

We love garbanzos, but I'd never thought of growing them.

annieokie - No, I am not planting beans yet and it is still awhile before I can. I live in zone 6 in the NE corner of the state. I'm still trying to get all of my spring crops planted, but I am late and should have already had that done.

I am getting tired of taking transplants in and out so I will not plant a lot of things until I can put the seeds in the ground. There are a few exceptions and I am thinking I will 'wintersow' a few things so they get a little headstart and I don't have to harden them off.

I have to make some planting decisions in the next few days because my tomato plants need to either be planted or potted up. They are not large but they are growing in small cups and I checked today and I have a few roots starting to circle, so they need more space quickly.

My peppers are all in plastic pots and they still have plenty of room to grow and can live in that size container until they can go in the ground, I think.

I have planted a few onions, 2 kinds of potatoes, cabbage transplants, a few broccoli plants, and a bed of salad greens that included chard, lots of types of lettuce, spinach, tendergreen (a mustand/spinach plant), and probably other salad things that I'm not remembering. I have broccoli transplants ready to go in the ground and hope to do that tomorrow.

I have some onions and leeks that I starting using the winter sowing method and although tiny, they are also ready to go into the ground. The onions will probably only be used for green onions, but the leeks are not day length sensitive so they should be OK. This is my first time growing either of those from seed, so was an experiment of sorts. They are so tiny.

I have a couple of hundred tomato plants, that were started under lights, but have been staying outside on all but the very coldest nights. I have many pepper plants that are still living under lights but are beginning the harding off process by being out on nice days. They are in individual pots inside flats so I can carry them in and out. Mixed in with them are about a dozen eggplant which are very, very tiny because I forgot to plant them when I started the tomato plants. Today I had two empty spots in a flat so I planted those two pots with Hales Best Jumbo Melon. Since it is only two, I will later put them in a larger pot which I can move in and out as needed. They may be put in the garden later or just into a larger container.

I'm not a pro, and there are lots better gardeners on this forum than I am, but that is what I have done so far.

Carol, your lima recipe is under "Beans for Oklahoma."

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Beans for Oklahoma

Sure wish they had an edit feature on this site. I forgot one bean variety. Wienlanderin Pole Bean.

Carol, I have grown Roma II many times. It is sort of the romano bean equivalent of Better Boy or Celebrity tomato---a good, reliable, heavy producer. I usually grow it every year because it is easy to squeeze a row of bush beans into a little bit of space here or there. I don't get very good yields from most yellow beans, but the exception is a yellow roma called Marvel of Venice, which was one of our heaviest producers as a fall bean in 2009.

Seedmama, My peas are up about a foot and climbing the trellis just fine, but the recent temperatures in the mid-80s were really hard on them and starting browning/yellowing their foliage. Now that the temps are slightly cooler, the beans seem to be recovering from the heat wave. I hope it stays a bit cooler for a while so the peas get a chance to produce this year.

If you're going to be at the Spring Fling, I can bring you some flat bean seed to try....

Jay, Where in the world are you going to put all those beans? Should the horses be worried?

Annieokie, You can start planting beans any time now. I think the Oklahoma Garden Planning Guide specifies April 10th-30th and beyond. You can plant succession crops for several weeks, but bean production will drop off a bit when the really hot weather hits. Last year, I planted fall beans in August and was harvesting beans through November.

The only beans I have in the ground are Top Crop bush beans, planted earlier this week in our granddaughter's Peter Rabbit garden (with plants chosen because they're mentioned in the Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit book, so simple things like beans, peas, lettuce, rosemary, onions, strawberries, potatoes, etc.). Her beans are up and have their 2 seed leaves open and I think she'll have her first true leaves any time now. With the warm days, the beans popped up almost overnight. I'll probably start planting beans next week...

Carol, I'm going to try that recipe this year if I can manage to find it again when I am picking beans. I think after last night that I shouldn't have to carry flats in and out any more. I can't believe we went down to 33 degrees here....but that's what happens when you're down low in the valley.

My forecast looks good, long-term, and we're 10 days past our average last frost date here, so I believe I am going to go wild planting, beginning today. The tomato plants are getting huge and I need to get them into the ground in the next 3 or 4 days, and then I'll work on the ones for containers next week. After that, I'll repot the remaining ones into larger cups and save them for the Spring Fling, which is getting closer and closer.

I know I'll be planting like a maniac for the next week at least, but I'm just thrilled the ground is finally dry enough for planting (more or less...there's still a few really wet spots), it is finally warm enough, and the weather looks perfect, if a bit windy, for the next 4 or 5 days.

Carol, you are a fine gardener, even if your plant addiction is a more recent affliction for you than for some of us. I'd put your plant and seed addiction right alongside mine and your gardening ability as well, and you can blame the plant and seed addiction on your proximity to Baker Creek if you want. lol I have been wondering how long it will be before you offer to "help" your son and daughter-in-law put in their/your garden on their new place.

I've decided I'm not happy in the spring unless I'm growing a bit of everything and have far more plants than space in which to plant them, and I think you are just like me in that regard.

Jay, if they had an edit feature on this forum, those of us who grow "too much" would never stop adding to our lists in the same way we never stop adding to our gardens. Stil, there are times an edit feature would be nice.

Dawn

So I was sitting here playing with the beans I was given at the swap today, and counting them to best determine planting location. A vision of my original post above came to me, and then it hit me...I really am a bean counter!

Seedmama, all atwitter over her new bean seed acquistion.

Seedmama,

Well, bless your heart....I hope you can find space to squeeze them in, and I wasn't trying to 'force' you into redoing your amazingly well-thought-out bean planting plan.

Yes, you are a bean counter, lol, but above and beyond that, you're a very talented gardener and I suspect you'll manage to find just enough space to squeeze them all in.

Hope you're having fun. I think I'm too tired to think at this point.

Dawn