Get Healthier Garden Soil With A Tasty Vegetable That's Easy To Grow

If you want to grow healthy plants and flowers, healthy soil is essential. One way to boost soil fertility is by growing beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) that can improve nitrogen levels in the soil, which will better nourish plants and help them grow. Legumes are so good at doing this, that farmers used them regularly before the invention of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers to help balance out the soil.

How does this work? Legumes and peas have the super power of sucking in nitrogen from the air and then depositing it into the soil with the help of a special bacteria, called rhizobia, that lives on its roots. If you look at the anatomy of a bean plant, its roots have little nodules where the rhizobia live. From its seat on the roots, it pulls nitrogen gas from the air and turns it to ammonia, which the plant can then use.

When you're ready to cycle new crops in and switch out your green beans, make sure to keep the roots in the ground. That's where the nitrogen lives, so leaving them continues to help feed other plants. Some legumes are better than others at generating usable nitrogen in the soil though. While fava beans, soy beans, and peanuts are slightly better than common green beans, common green or pole beans can still do this nutrient magic trick. Plus, they're easy to grow!

Green beans are a versatile warm season vegetable that need plenty of sun with six or more hours a day and well-draining soil. They need about 6 to 12 feet to grow. Pole beans will want to climb upward and will need a trellis, but bush beans won't. You can also grow bush beans in a container with no problem.

To start, make sure you have the right kind of bean seeds. With a little practice, you'll learn how to identify bean seeds to distinguish one from another. As a rule of thumb, don't soak pole bean seeds, as that could damage them. Also, know that green beans don't like to be moved, so don't try to grow sprouts from seedlings inside. 

Plant your seeds directly into containers or flower beds outside. Make sure the ground is fairly warm and you're beyond the last frost before planting green bean seeds. They germinate faster in temperatures above 70 degrees. Put them an inch below the topsoil and water regularly. Pole beans need about an inch of water a week. Try to water the base of the plant, and not get the leaves too wet, as this can encourage some kinds of diseases, like bacterial blight. Bush beans take about 50 to 60 days until harvest time, and pole beans need a little bit longer at 65 to 75 days. After that, you'll be ready to harvest green beans.