Posted in Creatures, Plants

Scarlet Runner Beans and Hummingbirds

I first learned about scarlet runner pole beans (Phaseolus coccineus) in The 2 Hour Garden book by Roger Grounds. I honestly did not research them much beyond his mention, and rather impulsively fit them into our $20 seed  budget instead of kidney beans.  Back then, I knew very little other than they were a pole bean with at least 6′ vines (I’ve seen up to 15′ listed), and should be one of the first things in our kitchen garden once they arrived.  I read in that book that apparently most Americans don’t like the beans, while others consider them a gourmet legume.   (Apparently the shell is a bit tough for some, and at least one site recommended cutting the pod before serving, other sites say forget the pod and shell the beans.) Continue reading “Scarlet Runner Beans and Hummingbirds”

Note to future me #4

Don’t forget to actually utilize the data you’ve collected.  Look over it from time to time, especially if you are doing something similar to what you’ve recorded before.  (Use that search function on this site too for when you didn’t record things in the plantings list that are relevant to whatever you need to know.  It’s easy to forget it’s there some days.)

You’ll be less impatient if you remember maybe you haven’t waited long enough for results because our memory isn’t always as good as we want it to be.