#bean trellis

I have about a quarter acre of land. When we first moved in it was just grass, a gravel play area and one small oak tree. Fast forward eleven years and my yard is fully planted. There are fruit trees and bushes, flowers and habitat for birds etc. I grow almost all of my vegetables in raised beds of a hugelkulter design you can find out how I build these beds here:…

I have about a quarter acre of land. When we first moved in it was just grass, a gravel play area and one small oak tree. Fast forward eleven years and my yard is fully planted. There are fruit trees and bushes, flowers and habitat for birds etc. I grow almost all of my vegetables in raised beds of a hugelkulter design you can find out how I build these beds here:…

Goaties got out for the first time in three weeks. It was raining off and on, so they only got as far as the grass right past the cement, a few times. They went back and forth a lot. Very cautious.

No one touched the fence net yet. I didn't realize how tiny 50 feet would actually be. Oh, well. Gets them on grass, in fresh air, for now. Of course, I work this morning, and have a beekeeper meeting tonight, so not sure I'll have time to supervise them outside today.

Long beans are growing up the trellis:

I recently checked a quick and easy afternoon project off my garden to-do list: assembling a simple bean trellis! I used an old wooden folding screen that my partner grabbed from the trash heap at his restaurant a few years ago. I've used it for a few different things over the years, such as a 3-sided trellis for lemon cucumbers and a basic "fence" to wall in a compost pile on my garden bed during the winter. Here's how I laid it out for this season's bean trellis:

I reused the old hinges (so glad I kept them when I first tore it apart!) and some short screws to attach the panels side by side.

Next, I decided that the beans might need more to grab onto, so I used garden twine to create a simple lattice with the existing wooden rungs. I started by tying lengths of twine at the top of each panel, weaving them down to the bottom and tying them off:

I then used more twine to add horizontal lines, weaving around the wood again and tying to the vertical lengths of twine as I moved along:

Once it was all finished, I took it out to the garden and set it up over the bean bed. I placed the bottom next to the bean plants I started a few weeks back and leaned the whole thing on a diagonal, attaching it to a couple metal poles I pounded into the ground early this season before planting. Here it is all finished:

Tada! You might see some lettuce and kale plants underneath the trellis. i'm hoping that as the beans grow, they will provide some nice afternoon shade for those babes during the hottest part of the summer!

By the way, this year I'm growing organic Turkey Craw pole beans from Seed Savers Exchange. I chose this variety because I can eat them fresh as snap beans, or let them mature and dry on the vine for storage.