Conduit for Climbing String Beans

It's time to get the garden ready! I get so excited this time of year because I get to plant my favorite crop: string beans!

Years ago when we first started our garden we tried growing bush string beans. Unfortunately these felt like backbreaking work to bend over and pick them all.  They also took up a tremendous amount of space in our small garden that we really wanted to put to better use.  That led us to finally trying pole beans and that was the best decision we ever made.  

Here's why pole string beans are my absolute favorite vegetable to grow:

• You literally put a seed in the grown and they grow like crazy with little to no care (maybe water sometimes). Yes, almost like Jack and the Beanstalk!
• They take up relatively little space because they grow "upward" freeing up a lot of space for other vegetables.
• ​They are easy to pick. It's great exercise to reach up a little, bend down a little, but mostly just stand there and fill your basket!  It's so relaxing :-)
• If you pick the beans regularly they will continue to produce more and more.
• We are able to harvest so many beans in a small 10'x 1.5' area that we even have some to share with friends and family!
• They are delicious to eat fresh right off the vine, cooked, grilled, and even canned or frozen for the winters!
• We save the beans from year to year to replant so we never need to buy new seeds!

We grow two, soon to be three, pole beans varieties for different reasons:

• Kentucky Wonder (about 70 days to harvest) - grow about 7 - 9 inches long. They tend to get a little tough and very stringy if you don't pick them young, but they grow like crazy so you will have a tremendous surplus!
  
• Blue Lake (about 65 days to harvest) - grow to about 6 inches long, rounder and darker green, and not as stringy as the Kentucky Wonder.

The third type of bean will be grown for the first time this year! We are so excited because it is supposed to be a perennial. Yes, that's right, a bean we should never have to plant again because it will come back on its own year after year! We can't wait to try it! Read all about the Perennial String Beans here!  Now we just need to figure out where to plant them so that they never get disturbed!

Growing pole beans is so simple that the hardest part about growing them is the poles! Yup, sounds silly, but the poles can be a pain in the neck. The beans can pull them down  they can rot, etc. After years of minimal success we finally decided to make something more permanent. After a lot of research (of course) about growing pole beans, we finally decided to try building a pole built from electrical conduit, rebar, and twine. Yes, it was a small investment but the poles are still as good as the first year we built them, even with being moved around!

Supplies For 10' long by 5' high Pole Structure:

• Quantity 2  OF 1/2 inch x 10 foot electrical conduit 
• Quantity 2 OF 1/2 inch 90 degree elbow
• Quantity 2 OF 24 inch long rebar 
• 24 hooks (if you have a raised bed garden where you can screw them in - if you don't then you don't need hooks or string and can get a netting instead)
• String to attach to the poles (for the beans to grab ahold of as they grow)

1/2" Conduit x 2

90 degree elbow x 2

24" Rebar x 2

Instructions: 

• Cut one of the 10 foot conduits in half (these will be the 'legs')
• Attach the elbows to each end of the 10 foot conduit (the uncut one).  
• Insert the two five foot cut sections (legs) of conduit to these.  
• Measure a width of 10 feet in your bed, and hammer one rebar at each end about a foot deep into the ground (leaving a foot sticking up).  NOTE: This should be approximately 1' (one foot) away from the edge of your garden bed.
• Slip the open end of each 5 foot piece of conduit onto the rebar to hold the pole contraption upright.  
• Insert the hooks approximately every six inches along the edge of the raised bed garden. If you do not have a raised bed garden you could use a netting here instead.
• String the string up and down between the hooks and the pole at the top to create a climber for the beans. If you can't do the string, netting will also work. I like the string because the beans really grab on so we simply cut it off and restring each season. 
• Plant bean seeds about 3 - 4 inches apart along the base.  Water and wait!  You will NOT be disappointed :-)

See the smaller pole structure in the back bed? That ones for growing peas!

Thanks for visiting!
If you have time check out our other gardening ideas!
We also have several gardening boards on our Pinterest Page!
And of course we share lots of great ideas on Facebook too!
Sincerely,