How to choose the right heritage beans for climbing on hazel poles and feeding the soil at the same time
Eleanor Ashford
Every morning, as I stroll through my garden with a steaming mug of tea in hand, I feel deeply appreciative of the natural wonders around me.
The dew-kissed emerald leaves, the rich scent of damp earth, and the gentle buzz of bees in the distance remind me why we cherish these green spaces. Today, I’d like to share with you the joys and virtues of a very special plant: the humble yet extraordinarily versatile heritage bean. These lovely legumes not only grace our gardens with their vibrant presence but also perform a stellar job at enriching the soil. They'll elevate your garden through their delightful companionship with another favourite of mine, the resilient hazel pole.
Why Heritage Beans Matter
In our rush towards modern gardening solutions, we often lose sight of the invaluable treasures rooted in tradition. Heritage beans, also known as heirloom beans, offer much more than a simple crop yield. These varieties have been passed down through generations, each one carrying stories of flavour, resilience, and history. The charm of heritage beans lies not just in their diverse hues and intriguing shapes but in their ability to naturally fix nitrogen, giving back to the soil a richness we needn't resort to chemical fertilisers to achieve.
Growing beans, especially those of heritage calibre, is akin to hosting a symphony in your garden. As the beans ascend their hazel pole companions, they work tirelessly below ground in a harmonious exchange that nurtures their bedfellows, enriching the soil with essential nutrients. For those of us committed to sustainable gardening, this is a melody worth playing.
The Perfect Partnership: Beans and Hazel Poles
If there’s a match made in heaven, it is the aspiring climber, the bean, and its stalwart counterpart, the hazel pole. Hazel wood, with its robust yet yielding nature, provides excellent support for climbing beans. In my garden, you can often find hazel poles artfully woven into teepees or leafy arches, a tribute to British gardening’s rich heritage. This dynamic duo not only looks superb but encourages a thriving environment for your beans to flourish.
Why choose hazel over other materials? For one, hazel is locally sourced and sustainable, making it a delightful choice for the environmentally conscious. Its natural texture offers just the right grip for bean tendrils and can be rekindled at the end of the season into biochar to enrich your compost further.
Selecting Heritage Bean Varieties
Now, how does one go about choosing the right beans for this lush tapestry? My advice is to start with a vision of what you hope to achieve. You may want to focus on taste, with rich buttery textures or nutty nuances to grace your table, or perhaps you're captivated by colour, watching as vivid reds and purples dapple your greenery.
Consider varieties like the 'Borlotti', with its vividly speckled pods that add a splash of Mediterranean charm, or the 'Scarlet Emperor', whose fiery blooms entice pollinators while delivering a bountiful harvest. There's also the venerable 'Yard Long', which amazes with its metre-length pods and boasts a delicate, sweet flavour.
It’s worth noting that beans, like people, enjoy companionship. Mixing different varieties not only brings visual and culinary delight but can also mitigate risk should one variety not flourish as expected in a given year. Diversity strengthens resilience, a lesson well taught by nature.
The Art of Planting
When the earth begins to warm, and the days stretch luxuriously into long evenings, you know it's time to plant your beans. The planting of seeds is always a ceremony filled with hope and anticipation. As you sow each seed alongside its hazel pole, take a moment: a pause to visualise the transformation that will take place over the coming weeks.
Plant your beans in a sheltered, sunny spot, spacing them comfortably to allow air circulation and prevent moisture issues. A depth of about an inch should do, a gentle pat of soil a reassuring embrace to send them on their journey.
Caring Through Consistency
Like any relationship, the bond between beans and their supports flourishes with a bit of care and attention. Ensure they have consistent moisture; too little and they may wither, too much and they might succumb to mildew. Mulching can help maintain this delicate balance, offering both moisture regulation and a moderating barrier against weed intrusion.
Observe with gentle eyes how your beans respond to care, adjusting as necessary and always with an eye to sustainability. The rewards, both in growing and feasting, are well worth the effort.
Harvest and Celebration
Harvest time is a glorious period of abundance and gratitude. Check your beans every few days, gently picking them when they reach their full size but before they bulge with rebels against the pod. Frequent picking encourages further production, allowing your garden’s performance to crescendo into the late summer days.
As you gather your beans, relish the thought that you are not just feeding your family. You’re nurturing your soil, supporting biodiversity, and perpetuating a legacy of heritage gardening.
A Tangible Legacy
When the seasons turn, and your garden seems to fall into its slumbering beauty, recall the bounty it brought with a warm heart. The heritage beans and hazel poles have enjoyed their shared symphony, enriching both earth and spirit. Leaving the bean roots to decompose into the soil provides continued nourishment, a final gift to the world that embraced them.
As a gardener, you become a custodian of this legacy, passing on not just crops but stories of sustainability and respect for our environment. Heritage beans, with their rich past and promising future, are more than just a plant: they are a celebration of resilience, biodiversity, and tradition that we are honoured to partake in and preserve for those who follow.
With this in mind, may each seed you sow bring joy and wisdom, for gardening is not just a pursuit but a way of life imbued with purpose and peace. Thus we find ourselves grounded in the glorious connection between earth and sky, where each hazel pole stands steadfastly, a testament to the quiet strength and beauty of our natural world.
The dew-kissed emerald leaves, the rich scent of damp earth, and the gentle buzz of bees in the distance remind me why we cherish these green spaces. Today, I’d like to share with you the joys and virtues of a very special plant: the humble yet extraordinarily versatile heritage bean. These lovely legumes not only grace our gardens with their vibrant presence but also perform a stellar job at enriching the soil. They'll elevate your garden through their delightful companionship with another favourite of mine, the resilient hazel pole.
Why Heritage Beans Matter
In our rush towards modern gardening solutions, we often lose sight of the invaluable treasures rooted in tradition. Heritage beans, also known as heirloom beans, offer much more than a simple crop yield. These varieties have been passed down through generations, each one carrying stories of flavour, resilience, and history. The charm of heritage beans lies not just in their diverse hues and intriguing shapes but in their ability to naturally fix nitrogen, giving back to the soil a richness we needn't resort to chemical fertilisers to achieve.
Growing beans, especially those of heritage calibre, is akin to hosting a symphony in your garden. As the beans ascend their hazel pole companions, they work tirelessly below ground in a harmonious exchange that nurtures their bedfellows, enriching the soil with essential nutrients. For those of us committed to sustainable gardening, this is a melody worth playing.
The Perfect Partnership: Beans and Hazel Poles
If there’s a match made in heaven, it is the aspiring climber, the bean, and its stalwart counterpart, the hazel pole. Hazel wood, with its robust yet yielding nature, provides excellent support for climbing beans. In my garden, you can often find hazel poles artfully woven into teepees or leafy arches, a tribute to British gardening’s rich heritage. This dynamic duo not only looks superb but encourages a thriving environment for your beans to flourish.
Why choose hazel over other materials? For one, hazel is locally sourced and sustainable, making it a delightful choice for the environmentally conscious. Its natural texture offers just the right grip for bean tendrils and can be rekindled at the end of the season into biochar to enrich your compost further.
Selecting Heritage Bean Varieties
Now, how does one go about choosing the right beans for this lush tapestry? My advice is to start with a vision of what you hope to achieve. You may want to focus on taste, with rich buttery textures or nutty nuances to grace your table, or perhaps you're captivated by colour, watching as vivid reds and purples dapple your greenery.
Consider varieties like the 'Borlotti', with its vividly speckled pods that add a splash of Mediterranean charm, or the 'Scarlet Emperor', whose fiery blooms entice pollinators while delivering a bountiful harvest. There's also the venerable 'Yard Long', which amazes with its metre-length pods and boasts a delicate, sweet flavour.
It’s worth noting that beans, like people, enjoy companionship. Mixing different varieties not only brings visual and culinary delight but can also mitigate risk should one variety not flourish as expected in a given year. Diversity strengthens resilience, a lesson well taught by nature.
The Art of Planting
When the earth begins to warm, and the days stretch luxuriously into long evenings, you know it's time to plant your beans. The planting of seeds is always a ceremony filled with hope and anticipation. As you sow each seed alongside its hazel pole, take a moment: a pause to visualise the transformation that will take place over the coming weeks.
Plant your beans in a sheltered, sunny spot, spacing them comfortably to allow air circulation and prevent moisture issues. A depth of about an inch should do, a gentle pat of soil a reassuring embrace to send them on their journey.
Caring Through Consistency
Like any relationship, the bond between beans and their supports flourishes with a bit of care and attention. Ensure they have consistent moisture; too little and they may wither, too much and they might succumb to mildew. Mulching can help maintain this delicate balance, offering both moisture regulation and a moderating barrier against weed intrusion.
Observe with gentle eyes how your beans respond to care, adjusting as necessary and always with an eye to sustainability. The rewards, both in growing and feasting, are well worth the effort.
Harvest and Celebration
Harvest time is a glorious period of abundance and gratitude. Check your beans every few days, gently picking them when they reach their full size but before they bulge with rebels against the pod. Frequent picking encourages further production, allowing your garden’s performance to crescendo into the late summer days.
As you gather your beans, relish the thought that you are not just feeding your family. You’re nurturing your soil, supporting biodiversity, and perpetuating a legacy of heritage gardening.
A Tangible Legacy
When the seasons turn, and your garden seems to fall into its slumbering beauty, recall the bounty it brought with a warm heart. The heritage beans and hazel poles have enjoyed their shared symphony, enriching both earth and spirit. Leaving the bean roots to decompose into the soil provides continued nourishment, a final gift to the world that embraced them.
As a gardener, you become a custodian of this legacy, passing on not just crops but stories of sustainability and respect for our environment. Heritage beans, with their rich past and promising future, are more than just a plant: they are a celebration of resilience, biodiversity, and tradition that we are honoured to partake in and preserve for those who follow.
With this in mind, may each seed you sow bring joy and wisdom, for gardening is not just a pursuit but a way of life imbued with purpose and peace. Thus we find ourselves grounded in the glorious connection between earth and sky, where each hazel pole stands steadfastly, a testament to the quiet strength and beauty of our natural world.