After this first full year here in the Valley, I'm truly grateful for all the learning opportunities with this new garden layout, from doubling the stock tanks as raised beds, to learning to make my own peat-free organic garden soil, to building a new kind of trellis to embrace the vertical growth that beans love while maximizing space.
And with that, we have some clear winners. While I tried to grow squash on the trellises, they did not thrive this first year due to soil challenges, but the Cobra Pole Beans were tough AF, growing quickly, and the Scarlet Runners attracted hummingbirds galore with their orange blooms and made a good number of purplish beans - but not enough of the latter for anything but a small meal and seed saving.
The dark horse? A late-growing heirloom called the 1500 Year Old Cave Bean (which yes, really did originate with a New Mexico cave discovery and some amazing carbon dating). While it's VERY slow to dry on the vine compared to the scarlet runners (not helped by the fact that they don't get to drying size until fall, and ours ended quite abruptly this week), I absolutely loved its humongous leaves as you can see at the top photo, then its wee white flowers and ultimately, some big ass pods with super cool looking chocolate splotched beans.
And with this, a bonus lesson - based on how the sun hits in late summer and its dense foliage, they provided a brilliant amount of late afternoon shade for greens that would rather not bolt, or any veggies I plant next year that can deal with a break in the afternoon...like carrots!
Haven't tried these beans yet, but as far as productivity goes? This is definitely the best producer for the shell bean category and with these homemade trellises, a gorgeous addition to the garden.
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