Cukes and Beans Bed

Last year this bed contained summer squash, basil, and scarlet runner beans. The squash didn't do much because I had started it from seed too early and it didn't transplant well. However, I had a great crop of basil, some pretty zinnias, calendulas, and nasturtiums plus the beautiful vegetable ladder bursting with red blooms and dripping with scarlet runners.

This year, the cucumbers and beans are my "anchor plants" for this bed. I planted radishes near/around my cucumber hills to keep flea beetles away (or rather munching on the radishes instead). I interplanted nasturtiums with everything because they're beautiful, edible, and attract pollinating insects.

I have 3 different types of beans planted in this bed: "green" beans, Dragon Tongue beans, and Kentucky Wonder pole beans. We always like to have a nice mix of green, yellow wax, and purple bush beans so I planted ~6 sq ft of a mixture of those on the ends of the bed. I threw a short row of cosmos and dill seeds in the center of each of the "green" bean plots as well as some randomly thrown nasturtium seeds and kale. I wanted to try to do some sort of dry bean this year so I also planted ~ 3 sq ft of Dragon Tongue. We can eat some fresh and dry some to eat in the winter. I also tossed some pansy seeds among the beans. Last, I had some pole bean seeds from 2006 but didn't want to use another vegetable ladder. Instead, in the center of the Dragon Tongue plot, I interplanted mammoth sunflowers with the bean seeds to act as poles for the beans. If that isn't sufficient for the beans to climb, I can always tie some strings from the veggie ladders to stakes and let the beans go crazy. Technically, beans and sunflowers are "bad companions" so I'm considering this an experiment to see what happens.

I didn't want to leave the space under the vegetable ladders empty, so I searched for something that would go well with beans and cucumbers. Kale lists both as a good companion so I planted some Russian red kale, along with parsley for fun. Kale is a cool season crop and will do well with the shade from the cucumber plants, sunflowers, and beans once they really start growing.