The quick bean crop

One of our raised beds sits between two structures and lies east to west, which means that it becomes pretty useless as the fall progresses and it gets draped in shade. The first year we had the bed we watched to see when it would lose all of its light. It gets half light from early march to mid october, and full light from late march to early september. That's enough for two crops in my book, so after the peppers were cut down, we set in this half bed of green beans to get a quick few side dishes before the bed went to sleep for the winter. It's worked well, as you can see, and the beans are still happy despite the shady situation they now find themselves in. Good for a side of boiled, buttered beans every other day or so. YUM.

We decided to do beans because they are considered a refresher crop and fast to produce. And being nitrogen fixers (inoculated at that), leaving the root nodules in the soil over the winter will do good things for this bed. We planted half of the bed because when the seeds went down, the shade was already beginning to take the southern half of the bed. It doesn't look apparent in this picture, but the beans did most of their growing in full sun.

There are also a few sweet turnips hidden in there that go great raw on salads or boiled with the beans. Plus, the pepper stumps are at it too, giving us a few last chance seranos and maybe some jalapenos too.

Oddly, this bed has not been affected by the pill bug massacre I suffered earlier this year with the spring green beans. With that in mind, the green beans will be back in this bed for the spring run. I think corn will follow after that to close out the season next year.