I grow both bush beans and climbing beans in a bed, one row of bush and one of climbers.

The bush beans fruit more or less all at once, so I get a huge pile of beans in about 10 days, then they’re done. We eat quite a lot, but I’ve also made 11 jars of dilly beans for later in the year when we want a crunchy dill-full bean to remind us of summer!

The climbing beans fruit as they grow, so they’ll keep fruiting for many weeks, until the weather turns cold.

The bush beans have finished fruiting, but they still have two important roles at our place.

First, the tops go to the #goats, who really love them. They’re still very green and full of fibre and protein.

Second the roots stay in the #soil and as they break down their little nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria in their roots will die and release the nitrogen into the soil.