A series of articles written by Debbie Moore documenting her personal gardening experiences.

  
 
 Beans. I have many things to say about beans. First and foremost, I love Jade green beans. Absolutely hands down my favorite fresh and canning bean. They keep on producing far longer than the others, taste absolutely amazing, and they can get fairly large without getting tough. Once you try them you are hooked. I always used to joke that no matter when I planted them, they always "came in" during fair week. I always knew that I had to plan on canning beans during fair week. Last year's crazy weather finally broke that tradition.
But the last few years, I've started branching out to other beans as well. It started out being part of the Master Gardener association in LaPorte. A couple in that organization had gotten seeds from a neighbor in England 60 or so years ago that had ordered seeds from Japan. His last name was Fauzi. I may have gotten part of that story wrong and anybody who knows it better is welcome to correct it. Anyway, nobody knows exactly what bean it is, so it is called the "Fauzi" bean. It is a pole bean with long flat beans, and they are a yummy change sometimes from Jade beans. But terrible canning beans. I know this from experience.
Doing the dangerous pastime of actually reading all the fun seed catalogs, I am now adding two other kinds of pole beans to my garden. That is just ridiculous. I don't need three different kinds of pole beans. And yet, I am still going to do it. I just have to try one called "painted lady" It is supposed to have large red and white blossoms that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Well, I happen to love butterflies and hummingbirds. And also, of course, you can eat the beans. AND apparently you can dig up the roots and store them in the winter and plant them in the spring for an earlier crop. Now that is just amazing!
The other pole bean I'm trying is called "Lazy Housewife"
LAZY HOUSEWIFE!
How can I not plant that. They really get me on these names. Apparently it was called that because you can eat them as a fresh green bean or a shell bean. I mean, the same goes for Fauzi beans and Painted Lady, but they didn't get named that. So of course, I need to see what that is all about. Also, all three pole beans, you can collect the seeds for the next year, so no need to ever have to buy them again. Not true with Jade beans. Those are a hybrid, and the beans don't reproduce the same. Also, I have never had any luck planting their seeds left over from the year before. So I have always had to buy fresh seed every year.
I still haven't even talked about Lima beans, but this post is getting too long, so I will save my thoughts for ​