We planted three kinds of beans this year, Molly Frazier White Cutshort Pole Beans, Dragon Tongue Bush Beans, and Scarlet Runner Beans.  We planted our beans about 1″ deep and 3″ apart for the runner and pole beans, and 4″ apart for the bush beans.  They all sprouted in a week or two with no problems, but we had trouble keeping the Molly Frazier alive, we had watering problems with our drip system and the ones that were getting watered right still did not flourish.  Once the Scarlet Runner and Molly Frazier pole beans sprouted we put several tall garden stakes in the ground with strings running between them.  Then tied a string from the plant to the string above for the beans to run up.

The Dragon Tongue Bush Beans have been doing well and made quite a few beans, but the Scarlet Runner Beans are what we’ve had the most luck with. They can be used as a green beans or if you don’t harvest right away you can leave them on the vine for dried beans. The Scarlet Runner bean flowers are red and very very pretty, apparently some people grow them just as a pretty flowering vine.  I’ve also read that bees love Scarlet Runner Beans bright red flowers and we have noticed a lot of bees and butterflies around ours.

We finally had enough Scarlet Runner Beans to cook a couple of nights ago, I just sauteed them with olive oil and some shallots and they were very good, tender with a mild flavor. We tried some of the Dragon Tongue Bush beans this way as well but didn’t like their flavor quite as much and they didn’t get as tender, so I think we are going to try to save those pods and use them as dried beans. Apparently the Scarlet Runner Beans are a very popular variety in England and from what I’ve read you can buy the green beans in the grocery store fresh or even frozen there.  I’ve also read that they like cooler summers better than warm summers which could explain why we are having such good luck with ours because we have had a really mild summer here in Colorado.  I think next year we will try a different variety of runner or poles beans along with the Scarlet Runners again.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 11:29 am and is filed under Colorado Gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.