How to Grow Beans Year After Year | Perennial Runner Beans. Runner beans are a staple food in our diet. I show you how to grow runner beans.
Watch this next https://youtu.be/TOX2wtKqMLM to see my autumn treatment of runner beans in 2018.
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Chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:56 My favorite bean
1:51 Where to buy Greek Gigantes bean seeds
2:22 How to sow runner beans
2:54 New book – The Seasoned Gardener
3:35 Perennial beans
About Us.
Byther Farm is a small organic homestead, being designed and managed using permaculture practices. We aim for self-sufficiency in fruit and vegetables for increased self reliance and better resilience to the modern world. I recognise that we are unlikely to be truly self sufficient, but do the best we can. I share our home with my loving husband, Mr J and our cat, Monty.
We are a fifty-something couple who live on a smallholding in Carmarthenshire, Wales. We are going green and creating a gentler, cleaner and more healthy life for our family.
Having had a highly successful smallholding in Monmouthshire, we hope to recreate the abundance at our new home. There will be a large organic kitchen garden with no dig gardening raised beds and young food forest in which to grown our fruit and vegetables.
We keep a few sheep and Aylesbury ducks.
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34 Comments
Watch this video https://youtu.be/TOX2wtKqMLM to see my autumn treatment of runner beans in 2018. You can pre-order a signed copy of The Seasoned Gardener at https://bytherfarm.com/books or without signing at Amazon https://amzn.to/3g7XfgR (affiliate link).
Thank you. I have made the mistake of pre soak. Half rotted in days. Plant dry now lol 😆
Thank you very much. I will try those Greek beans in my garden. Does your method of leaving the base of the bean in the ground,ready for next year work for broad beans too?
Thank you for your video. enjoyable as always! I have collected this week mine (UK, Oxford) with the pods looking like the ones you collected. After a few days though the beans became grey and I suspect I should have left the pods drying first. How do your gigantes beans look after taking them out of their pods? many thanks!
I didn't know that you could do that with runner beans always removed and dug a trench to fill with composting materials and putting the cut down beans back into the trench. Next year I'm building a 6ft x 6ft greenhouse frame I picked up in a B&Q clearance sale cheap £15 and covering it with steel mesh fencing, and creating a greenhouse climbing frame area in my allotment, for things that like to climb, Cucumbers, Luffa, Gherkins, Climbing French Beans, Runner beans etc. Idea is I can walk into it, and everything will be hanging down for me to harvest easily.
'slimer beans' 😆
I planted Greek gigantes and several other pole beans this year. All flowered, but not all produced beans. And I didn’t get any Greek gigantes pods. Has that ever happened to you? Do you know the cause?
thanks for the video, I learned something y'all have a wonderful day and a better tomorrow 🍻
Interesting….I don't have those exact beans, but I have Alabama Blackeyed Butterbeans growing now. (Texas)
I will be trying this to see if they will come back from the roots next year. Just as an experiment, because they are a runner bean and after researching, it says overwintering is possible in mild winter climates.
What happens on an allotment with many types of beans? Can you keep the seeds for next year? Or keep buying them.
Curried bean chutney Liz?😋
Great video as always!
Just wondering though, how many years do you get from a single plant? I accidentally left one in the ground last year that came back this year, but not as productive as it's first year, am I likely to get a third year from it next year or will it be even less productive so not worth it? I'll definitely cut back and leave a few more this year to get an earlier start for next year though.
Are the Greek beans like butter beans when cooked because I can't stand the texture of them and many other dried pulses
Hi Liz,
Really enjoying these videos and giving me lots of plans for next season. I'm just up the road from you in the Rhondda and great to have someone who understands Welsh weather.
You mentioned in a previous video about Babington or Perennial Leeks and i like the idea of the perennialoption as well as annuals. . Where would you purchase them from please as I'm struggling to find them available anywhere.
Thanks
Geraint
I can't overwinter beans in my zone in New England but I'm excited to try the Greek Gigantes beans as we aren't yet self-sufficient in potatoes and we'd love to find a potato substitute for soups and stews. I just pre-ordered your book from Amazon in the US. We appreciate all your great info.
Many thanks for the videos, I always learn something. Is it possible to retain climbing green beans from year to year? Slugs are always a problem here in West Wales – they love young beans and I'm thinking over wintered plants would be a bit woody and less attractive to the slugs. I grow Blue Lake green beans. Thanks.
I read your book and must say it is one of the most beautiful and so full of great information! I am a newbie gardener and though I live in a very different climate than you do, I feel I have gained so much knowledge from your channel and your book. Thank you so much for all your efforts, and I'd never heard of this kind of bean before and will definitely see if my seed supplier carries them and if not, where I might be able to find them! I think they'd grow well where I live too. (Southern GA, USA)🌱
congrats on the new book, will buy one after Christmas and fingers crossed I'll be able to read both books then .
Amazing info I've got some Greek gigantes beans for next year from real seeds can't wait to get them going. Also I didn't know you could save the roots. Felt like such a real life video maybe you should do more videos together obviously time permitting. Thanks
I’ve grown Greek Gigantes beans for five years now and I love them, they are really hearty and filling in stews and soups or just as a plate veg. Simplest means of a repeat crop that I’ve found is to dry the mature beans for storage but to save a couple of dozen of the best and biggest to replant next May directly into the ground. Germination is usually 95-100% Late season immature beans are still perfectly edible but don’t dry well so these I freeze.
I planted Greek gigantes a couple of years ago, not realizing they were perennial. I cut them down to the ground (well, compost). Last year nothing came up so I planted some bush beans there. (I think the Egyptian walking onions were a bit too close and suppressed the
GGB.) This year in mid-June about a dozen stalks came up out of the blue. Even though I thinned it out by about 2/3 the thing is absolutely massive. Probably 16-18’ tall and 8’ wide, even after topping them twice. Still flowering like mad and when the temps came down a bit last month they’ve been producing beans. With the lower light levels (about 4 hours of direct sun a day at this point) we probably won’t see the really large beans you get but I am very happy, as are the hummingbirds. They prefer the bean flowers over everything else, including the echinacea, comfrey and the feeder.
I’m in zone 8 just west of Seattle so we typically get a lot of grey rainy days. The native soil is poor clay but 3 years of heavy mulching has helped quite a bit. The area this 8” deep bed is in sits in a boggy area so there is a lot of moisture available but this summer has been the hottest driest year since the mid-80s. Yesterday it was 88F with full sun. 😮 Our average first frost is 10/31. Only 2 leaves on this giant plant has turned color which happened this past last week.
Observation is key and I’m trying really hard to just be fascinated and not feel like I have to micro-manage everything. Having smoky air has helped with that quite a bit. 😂 It limits my time to work outside. There’s an up side to everything! 💚
Following Mr. J's disclaimer I did a quick search…"are runner beans perennial in zone 4"…apparently they're perennial to zone 6, BUT can be hardy to zone 4 with heavy winter mulching. I do believe the end of the 2023 gardening season is going to bring a new experiment to my garden! Now…if I can just find seeds in the US that don't cost a fortune, and then cost four times as much in shipping as the beans themselves!
Hi Liz, I only recently found that they come back year after year
Pre-ordered the book, honestly you have helped me immensely this year, I've just returned to veg growing after decdes away
Wow Liz! What an incredible view you have 😍
💖🍁💖
Well done Liz for telling us all runner beans are perennial I just put my runners in the green bin a few days ago, But next year will think again …
Liz sends them ducks to my garden in Wrexham to get rid of my Slugs, please …
Thanks, Liz, as ever both interesting and informative…….wish it worked with French climbing bean, my favourite!
i must try some liz
I've heard this mentioned before but never tried it. We had a super hot summer and the beans just wouldn't grow at all until almost September, so the plants are pretty small but I will leave them, or cut them back like you do (don't know if it's necessary). I do wonder how cold it can get before the roots are killed. We can get down to -20 C some winters, and no amount of mulch can really help there but would be intrigued to see how low they can go.
GREAT COUPLE! Oh my word- what a BEAUTIFUL VISTA and countryside! Heavenly!
So nice to see Mr J involved in the garden. My husband’s involvement in the garden was ‘where do you want the hole and how deep?’ He then got involved with helping turn the compost and now that is his baby and cares for it like a baby. I’m very happy about that.
What perfect timing.
I ordered Greek Gigante beans to plant after watching another video you posted on them.
Tomorrow our first frost is forecasted and six days early at that. So, I stopped your video and hurried out for a quick harvest of my beans.
I never grew beans before and it is SOOO helpful to pace myself watching your postings. Thank you very much!
Congrats on your new book, Liz.
I am 75 years old and have few funds. Maybe I can find a few extra dollars in the spring. In the meantime… I am tweeting out this link to 90+ countries 🌾🌻🌾
Thanks Liz! About a month ago I found some dry Greek Gigantes Beans at my local farmer's market, and with your previous video in mind I snatched up a pound of them! I can't wait until spring to get them planted. I've been cooking for my diabetic Dad, and beans are what keep his blood sugar numbers steady and low. Potatoes are just about the worst thing for diabetes, so I'm glad to have a tasty potato substitute, as well as simply a different variety of bean – because we eat beans every day we really need to mix things up!