Vegetables - French bean

French beans are sown and harvested later than other legumes (peas and beans), because they are not hardy. A frost will kill the plants. So you must sow them after the last frost (start of May where I live). In fact, you can sow them later than that. I have two sowings, if I can find room! The garden is getting quite full by this point in the year, yet not much is yet harvested. So sometimes the second sowing is quite a bit later, once harvesting something leaves some room. But the garden dries out in the summer, so not too late.

There are different varieties of French bean, and I particularly like the yellow bean variety. It's easier to harvest them, as the yellow shows up well. Also the yellow colour stays when you cook them, to give a different colour to your cooked vegetables.

The seeds (which are just the dried beans) are easy to handle. You sow them outside in their final location, and they germinate well, so sow them well apart. Imagine the size of the subsequent plant! French bean plants aren't as big as aren't as big as broad beans, so I sow them in a row, but well apart., so I sow them in a row, but well apart.

I don't know of any pest connected with French beans, and they grow reasonably well in my garden. It's pleasant to have legumes later in the year.

French beans are eaten in the pod, like runner beans, rather than podding them and eating the seeds, like broad beans. I dislike runner beans, which grow so vigourously they need support, and then have a brief harvesting season before they go stringy. French beans don't need support, and they don't go stringy.

One reason why French beans (and all legumes, such as other beans and peas) are useful is because they fix nitrogen in the soil - see crop rotation.

To harvest, pull off the pods when they are large enough. Harvest them before the beans inside get too big. This is a mid summer crop. You can chop them into pieces, or even leave them whole if small enough. I boil them for a few minutes, not too long.

Seeds

Seedlings

Flowers

Beans starting to form

Beans

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