Scarlet runners need rich soil and plenty of water and they stop flowering and fruiting in high temps. Pole beans can deal with hotter drier conditions.

I've never had bean plants last into summer; once it gets hot they're gone. I suppose you could train grapes to cover the teepee.

Passionfruit (Passiflora edulis) or the maypop variety. Lots of color, grows fast and is edible.

Hops. Then in the fall you and the kids could brew beer!

Otherwise, pole beans. Purple or yellow pods are easier to pick and the purple ones have pink/purplish flowers.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Fremont have the same cool climate as most of the SF Bay area? I used to garden almost directly across the Bay, in East Palo Alto. There was often a cool breeze, even in mid-summer. Under those conditions, scarlet runner beans would do very well. There are varieties other than scarlet too; white, pink, and some with red/pink or red/white bi-color. The young pods are edible as snap beans when cooked, later becoming huge pods with large, shiny, colorful seeds.

If you wanted to cover a structure larger than just a teepee, I would suggest chayote squash. The rampant, heavily branched vines climb aggressively, and would easily cover a 6' tall arbor. The cucumber-like leaves are attractive, the vines have few problems with pests or diseases, and will bear dozens of pear-shaped squashes in the Fall. The roots are perennial, so provided the ground over the roots is kept moist (I recommend a 4-6" layer of leaves or mulch) the vines will re-sprout from the root crown every year. They extremely healthy & productive for me in San Jose, to the amazement of my neighbors (who harvested from the vines which crept over the fence). You could grow them along a tall fence with training, 2-3 plants would easily cover a 50' fence.

Blauhilde bean would make a nice purple teepee.

In the UK, in what way do they cook "Runner Beans"? Young pods are kinda edible, sort of more textured stronger flavoured less tender Romano. I would think you need to cook them quite soft to make the texture more palatable and bring out the flavour of the beans. As you can tell I wasn't that impressed with Scarlet Runner, when in the US it is easy to grow a Romano or Blauhilde.

Maybe we have better tasting runner beans. They grow better in our climate than common beans. There are many varieties. You can't actually buy seed called 'Scarlet Runner bean'. They're all named cultivars. When the RHS ran a trial they grew 48 different sorts. They're all delicious and the pods are tender. We don't eat the beans, only the young pods. If you can see the beans bulging in the pods you've left them too long on the vine. We can buy a gadget for slicing and stringing them. They need no more than a few minutes boiling or steaming. They would be ruined by long cooking.

RHS runner bean trial here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/PDFs/Plant-trials-and-awards/Plant-bulletins/runnerbeans.pdf

Thank you for that link, Floral_UK... very interesting. While I can successfully grow runner beans to seed in my climate, I've never come close to getting pods like those in the link. For the most part, though, I am growing them only for their very large shelly beans (and for the hummingbirds) since P. vulgaris snaps do so well here.

Still... it would be fun to see how some of those modern runner bean cultivars would perform here. Maybe a good project for when I retire a few years from now.

Thank you for all the information and input! I love the idea of growing beans, as well as another flowering vine. Hopefully we'll have the teepee up soon, and I will report back on what we end up doing around it.

You can try beans, but here in Sonoma Co., they get pretty ratty by the time the August heat hits unless they get quite a bit of water. And I know you guys are quite a bit warmer than us (Daughter is a cop in Newark and lives in Livermore)

You might want to talk to a master gardener in your area for some ideas.

Grapes are a great idea, but you have to realize they are there for ever. Which is fine if they are in an area you want grapes forever! You could, after the kids tire of the teepee, build an arbour/pergola area for a nice shady sitting area. Grapes need yearly rimming, where beans die off each year and can be re

planted each year. There may also be late summer/fall vining veges that you can plant for succession planting. Again, a master gardener would be great to consult with.

Goos luck and have fun! Nancy

Would sweet potatoes grow there?

Thank you, Nancy, for reminding me about the Master Gardeners! I have been looking at their resources and meaning to talk to them, but somehow hadn't thought about looking for this there. I also like the idea of succession planting. I don't want to necessarily put down anything permanent there yet. I AM putting down some fruit trees and some perennials elsewhere in the yard, but not for this particular area/project, so grape vines wouldn't work.

This will be our very first year having the yard space and a garden, so we are very excited and eager, but a lot of it will be experimentation.

I hadn't thought about sweet potatoes -- will have to look into that. Thank you!

I don't know how you feel about morning glories but they grow fast and flower just about all summer, Black eyed susan vine is nice too.

I agree with Sweet Potatoes. I grow Beauregard Sweet Potatoes and grow the vines up trellises to save space.

Just remember that sweet potatoes do not naturally twine. You'll have to do that for them, probably tying them in place.

Sweet potatoes thrive in sunny heat, I don't know if the plants would grow like they do in Georgia.

Another fun novel idea is Mexican Gherkin "Cucumber", these are cute little edible cuke- like that look like tiny candy sized watermelons. Grows vigorously after they grow some leaves. They might do fine in your climate.

I grew the Melothria scabra, Mexican mini cucumbers, last year and the year before. In my climate the foliage was rather flimsy and the fruit few. They certainly wouldn't have created a secret hideaway like beans would. But they'd be nice for kids if the OPs climate suits them. The fruit are the size of a grape and hard to spot so it would be fun to search for them.

Actually... for a children's teepee, a climbing cucumber variety might be entertaining. Many of the Asian varieties climb readily (with a little training) and watching the long, straight cukes form will probably be interesting - and of course, the children could have the pleasure of eating them too. Climbing cucumbers sure got my attention as a young gardener, when I grew them over a folding clothes hanger.

Other climbing members of the gourd family would be interesting as well, if not as edible. Warted gourds or bitter melon are two other possibilities. I grow bitter melon every year, and told my curious grandchildren that they are "frog cucumbers". ;-)