How to Grow Bush Beans in your Home Vegetable Garden

The bush bean family has a lot of options to choose from. They range in different shapes, sizes and yes, even color. They make for a nice addition to the home vegetable garden because they are fairly easy to grow, do not take up that much space and are determinate plants meaning you know exactly how much space each plant will consume. Here are some steps you can follow to add these great tasting vegetables to your home garden.

The first step is to always make sure the site where they will go is at its optimal condition. Since it’s not recommended that you start bush bean seeds indoors, we want to pay extra special care to our soil. Start by making sure the pH level in your soil is in the 6.5 to 7.5 range. This can easily be done by using a home soil test kit available from any home or garden center for just a few bucks. Make adjustments as necessary to get your soil in that range.

Bush bean seeds will germinate best when the soil temperature is 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also pick up a soil thermometer at the local home or garden center for a couple of bucks as well. If the soil needs to be warmed up, just put down a layer of landscaping plastic or cover to bring the temperature up.

Now that your soil is ready, plant your bush bean seeds no closer than 4 inches apart to make sure they have enough room to grow and thrive. Keep your watering low in the early stages and when the beans are at harvest stage water them heavily to help retain their flavor.

Follow the instructions on your seed packet to determine when they are ready to harvest. Because each variety of bush bean can be harvested at different times there is no one technique that fits all.

Bush beans get along with beets, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, corn, cucumber, eggplant, leek, parsnip, radish and sunflower so make sure you optimize the space in your garden by implementing good companion plantings with any of these.

Also, bush beans get along real well with marigolds. With marigolds planted close by the bush beans, insects are less likely to go after them.

As you can see adding bush beans to your home vegetable garden is not that hard and since they produce a high amount of return, they are a vegetable that will be well worth the time and effort.

About the Author
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