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Plant a Summer Crop of Beans

© Arzeena Hamir

Ever looked back at your gardening year and thought, "If only I'd planted some more...."? If that's ever been the case, July & August are the months to re-plant a number of vegetables. If you do have room in your garden before the end of July, consider planting another batch of bush beans for a wonderful September harvest.

Gardening in the Pacific Northwest, I seem to always miss the first planting window for beans. Late May/early June has been cold & wet for the past couple of years. Seeds that have been planted tended to rot in the cold soil. Slugs ravaged any feeble plants that did eventually emerge.

I've now given up trying to plant beans early and instead wait until July when my heavy clay soil has warmed properly and slugs are few & far between. Summer planted beans tend to produce more and, Here are some tips to starting beans in the summer:

1. Plant beans in the sunniest spot you can give them. The extra heat will help them germinate quickly and mature all that faster. Sow the seeds 1-2 inches deep, two to three inches apart. After the seedlings emerge, thin plants to about 4 inches apart.

2. Grow a snap, bush bean variety. Pole & dry beans take too long to harvest. I prefer early maturing varieties like Blue Lake, Nugget, Jade & Nickel that are ready to pick in 60 days or less.

3. Use an inoculant if you've never planted beans in that area of your garden. Inoculant will provide Rhizobia (a naturally-occurring bacteria) for the bean roots, allowing them to fix their own nitrogen from the air. Inoculant is available in most nurseries & mail order catalogues.

4. Beans respond well to phosphorus so make sure to amend the soil with rock phosphate, bone meal, or any other fertilizer high in phosphorus (the middle number).

5. Once the plants begin flowering, you should have beans within 3 weeks. Keeping the plants well picked will ensure that they produce well.

The other great thing about beans is that they work really well in a garden rotation. When frost finally kills the plants, I remove the leaves & stems, being careful to keep the roots in the soil. Any nitrogen-fixing nodules on the roots will slowly decompose and provide nutrients for the next crop.

I like to plant garlic after beans. If you can't fit in any other crops, planting fall rye will help absorb any of the left over nutrients and keep them from washing during fall/winter rains.

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