Growing Your Own Vegetables: Beans & Peas

Beans: Both pole and bush beans can be grown in most gardens. They grow well in almost any good garden soil and adapt to a wide range of climatic conditions.

Pole Beans begin to bear later than bush beans, but yield more heavily over a longer period of time. They grow best if the vines, which grow to heights of 8 ft., are supported. Rough poles placed in a tripod form are generally used, but the beans also produce well when they climb a fence, trellis, or a string arrangement. One pound of seed is enough for about 100 pole arrangements or 280 ft. of trellis or fence.

Bush beans have been a longtime garden favorite. They are easy to grow in almost any soil, mature early, and produce well. Beans can be harvested in less than 2 months and bear through a long season if kept picked. One pound will produce a row about 150 ft. long.

Plant seed when danger of frost is past in rows 20 to 30 in. apart for hand cultivation and a little further apart for field cultivation. Furrow the earth to a 2-in. depth and space the beans 2 1/2 in. apart. Cover the seed with fine soil and firm the soil over the seed with your foot. When the plants are 2 to 3 in. in height, they should be thinned out so they are about 5 in. apart in the row.

Peas: Peas are an easy-to-grow vegetable and will thrive in almost any average good soil, growing best during cool weather. Seeds should be planted as early as the soil can be worked. In order to maintain a continuous supply during the growing season, sow an early variety several times at 10 or 12-day intervals. In late summer, make another sowing for a fall crop.

Peas are often planted in double rows 3 in. apart, with spacings of seeds 2 in. apart. Seeds are placed in furrows and covered with 1 to 2 in. of soil. Space double rows a minimum of 24 in. apart. For the tall-growing type, a support must be provided for the vines. Supports may be netting, wire, or string.

There are many varieties of peas including the Sweet Early Green type. Of this variety an average packet of seed will sow 20 ft. of single row and 1 lb. will seed 100 ft. The main crop green pea, which matures from seed in about 80 days, is excellent for the home garden. The large pods grow 5 to 5 1/2 in. long, are almost round, and generally have eight to ten peas in each pod. They are excellent for eating, canning, and freezing. Vines grow to a height of about 26 in.