The Busy Woman's Garden Book

by Ida D. Bennett

BEANS

Being somewhat tender, should not be planted until the ground is warm in spring. Corn-planting time will do for the field and navy bean, but the white podded string bean and the lima bean should not go into the ground until all danger of frost is past and the ground is in growing condition. At the present advanced cost of seed—fifty-five cents a pound for the string and lima sorts with postage added by some dealers, it will not do to take any chances by being in too much of a hurry to get seed into the ground; neither will it pay to buy seed of any but reliable dealers. There has never been a time when so much importance attaches to choosing one's seed merchant wisely. Cheap seed never pays, for the time lost in replanting seed of poor germination, or, worse still, that comes untrue to name, giving one inferior or mongrel vegetables, offsets, many times, the amount saved in money.

String beans are the first form in which this favorite vegetable appears on the table and a very delicious and attractive dish they make when such white wax or golden wax as Wardwell's Kidney, Davis's Kidney Wax, Improved Golden Wax are selected; well grown plants of these varieties, well laden with their long, wax-like pods are a joy to the gardener; and if the pods are gathered as fast as they mature, and this may be done as soon as they whiten, up to the time they are fully grown, when they will still be sweet and tender, the bushes will continue to bear heavily until cut down by the frost; this should always be done whether the beans are wanted for use or not; they can be canned, sold, or given away or fed to the pig—anything rather than to check the vines' bearing. If one wishes to save seed for the next year's planting, and this is worth while when such high prices prevail, it will be well to set aside a row, or portion of a row, for seed, allowing the first pods to ripen as this establishes the early bearing characteristic of the plant.

In planting beans good soil should be chosen, but beans do not need rich soil as many other garden vegetables do. It is said that beans will grow on soil that will not grow anything else; this is rather an extreme statement, but it is a fact that they will thrive where more exacting plants will languish; this is accounted for by the fact that the bean is a legume and so empowered to draw an important part of its nourishment from the air in the form of nitrates, which it stores in little pockets or nodules on its roots and so has a larder of its own to draw on.

Open a drill a couple of inches deep and drop the beans at regular intervals two or three inches apart, or they may be planted three or four in hills, six inches apart; cover and tramp down the rows and draw the rake lightly over them. Except for the distance at which they are planted, all beans require practically the same treatment; they should never be cultivated when wet or gathered or handled in any way; the rule should be to give them a wide berth in wet weather; working among them when wet is the cause of the disfiguring rust that makes them unsalable and in bad cases uneatable. Wardwell's and Davis's Kidney Wax are as free from rust as any of the white podded varieties and are the best selections the amateur gardener can make.

For those who like a green podded bean the Stringless Green Pod is a fine variety and very popular with gardeners. Giant Stringless, Green Pod and Longfellow make up a trio of beans hard to beat.

Boston pea bean or navy bean is the best selection for baked beans; these should be allowed to ripen their pods until quite dry. The usual method of harvesting is to wait until all the beans are ripe in late summer and harvest by pulling the vines and piling in heaps until dry; this is not an economical way, however, nor specially adapted to the small home garden; a better way is to gather the pods as fast as they ripen, storing them in a dry, airy place until ready to shell easily; if this is done many more beans will be produced and there will be no loss from the earlier beans shelling out on the ground as they will when the vines are left for the entire crop to ripen. Usually it will be necessary to go over the vines about four times but the result will be a much greater quantity of beans and all in the finest possible condition; when left until all are ripe it will be found that there is a considerable amount of mouldy or injured beans.

Lima beans require somewhat different treatment from the string or navy bean; to begin with they require a much richer soil and the ground should be well manured and a supplementary dressing of hen manure, rabbit droppings or ashes about the plants when well established will be of much benefit; they require more room in the row than the string beans, not less than eight or nine inches with the rows two feet apart; the beans should be planted about two inches deep, setting the seed with the eyes downward and covering and tramping the rows. Rather late planting is advisable for limas than for string beans and for very early beans a few may be started in the hotbed and transplanted in the open ground about the twentieth of May at the north—add or subtract a week for each hundred miles north or south. The bean, having no tap root and a broad spread of lateral roots, is one of the easiest plants to transplant and by starting a hundred plants in the hotbed a much earlier crop will be obtained; that will be filling up the time while the open air planting is coming forward.

Another very important advantage in starting seed in the hotbed is the larger per cent. of plants obtained; if good seed is used every one may be depended upon to grow. The hotbed also affords protection from the enemies that destroy the lima, one of the most destructive being hens, and it will be wise to assure Biddy's absence from the garden until the beans are showing their first leaves as the succulent looking white seeds that first break through the ground have an irresistible attraction for her and she will walk along the rows, nipping off every pod as it appears; this seems to be due to curiosity as she does not eat, but drops them on the ground; I have seen whole plantings of lima beans destroyed in this way. English sparrows also are known to destroy the tops. String beans do not offer the temptation that the limas do so are seldom molested.

For the home garden the bush limas are to be preferred as they take less room and are easier to handle. The Improved Fordhook Bush Lima is one of the best varieties if not the best. The New Wonder Bush Lima is highly recommended. Beans may be planted every two weeks for succession up to August. Dry limas that remain on the vines in fall may be used for cooking in winter. Limas are not injured by light frosts as much as the other varieties of beans; the pods cuddling under the thick foliage are protected and one can frequently gather a mess after the frost has cut everything else in the garden; the thick pods, too, are a protection to the beans inside.