When it comes to saving beans like Zebra Pole and Scarlet Runner beans, patience is required. In order to save these beans to store much longer in jars, you need to wait for the pods to completely dry. For us this usually happens right at the end of the season. Pole bean pods are best harvested when it is young and tender. You can also wait for the beans to form and allow the pods to completely turn brown and dry. If you harvest in between when the pods have developed and still green, it will be

Don’t Pull Up your Runner Beans! 🌱🫘 I am always looking for ways to simplify gardening, and for practical ways to save time in the garden. So any plants that I can sow once and then harvest from for multiple years are always very welcome! 😊👍🏻🌱🌱🌱 And runner beans are one of those plants that are generally grown as annuals, but if protected, they can grow back each spring, and produce a crop of runner beans for several years from the same planting. 🌱🫘 I’m in zone 9a and it works well for

Runner beans. Save time and energy next year. No need to sow runner beans seeds next year if you already have them planted this year. Runner beans are actually tender perennials so will re-grow next year from their underground tubers if kept protected from the frosts. So this autumn, instead of pulling up your runner bean plants you can cut your runner bean plants back to ground level, and cover them with a lovely, cosy, warm mulch such as compost. Hopefully the underground tubers will survive t

I’m back home in gorgeous Brixham, Devon on the stunning English Riviera this weekend. My kitchen garden is in need of some TLC but I’ve recycled an old parasol to use as a training structure for my runner beans. You can also recycle old rotary washing lines. Thanks for watching. | Simon Akeroyd Garden Writer