Easy grow vegetables.

I've been gardening vegetables for quite a while now, and I've learned some lessons the hard way. Vegetable gardening offers some great rewards - the pride and satisfaction of cultivating gorgeous edible plants and the savings on the weekly grocery bill! Here are some tips that ought to help you plan and grow healthy fresh vegetables in your vegetable garden.

The Versatile Legume

There are two basic types of beans - bush beans and pole beans. Bush beans do not need support, and pole beans are climbers. In my garden, I normally grow bush beans because they need less work. Call me lazy. Call me well-fed.

But I've discovered that pole beans are best in my vegetable garden are nice because they can climb along old fences or up the stalks of taller plants like sunflowers. I've also used pole beans to beautify my vegetable garden. I've planted these tall bean plants at the end of each row of the vegetable garden, making arches from tree limbs sure to make arches from row to row. The pole beans grow along the branches, making an attractive frame for the vegetable garden.

Beans are a warm-season crop and are easy to grow. They like rich, warm, sandy soil. They need full sun and well-drained soil. Also, I've discovered that they grow better when I rotate them with other vegetables every other growing season.

For the best tasting beans, I wait until all danger of frost has passed and dig the vegetable garden deep. Generally, I work the garden several weeks before I plant the beans because birds will eat the insect eggs and larvae that might damage my plants later. Then I work some lime into the soil to give the beans a nutritious start.

I plant my bush beans from one to 1-1/2 ins in the surface and about eighteen ins apart. My pole beans need more space with rows three feet apart for best results. Bush limas need more space than most dwarf bean plants - as much as pole beans. Remember to plant the beans edgewise with the eye pointed down.

Generous spacing allows for easy cultivation with a hoe through the rising season. And if my bean plants get to high, I just pinch off the ends of the rising plants. This encourages outward, in preference to upward, growth.

Bush beans include dwarf, snap or string, wax, limas, and what is called brittle beans. Pole beans include pole limas, wax, and scarlet runner. The scarlet runner is a fantastic decorative addition to my vegetable garden. Its flowers are deep red and look great against my old fence. Scarlet runners are nice additions to flower gardens and anywhere you want a vine. The nicest thing about the scarlet runner is that you get both beauty and food.