Shell out on some brilliant beans

FRENCH beans are one of the easiest vegetables to grow from scratch. Sow a few seeds between late May and early July, and you’ll be picking handfuls of tasty pods within eight weeks or so. Their flavour and crisp texture will be far superior to supermarket offerings.

French bean is actually an umbrella name for a host of different types, including haricot vert, fine, string, cannellini, flageolet, kidney and borlotti beans. Most are grown for their young pods, but some pods are allowed to remain on plants until mature, and then shelled for the seeds inside.

There is great diversity among them. Scan the range offered by online seed companies and you’ll find climbing and dwarf varieties, with pods that are flat, round or oval. Not all are green. Some have yellow, purple or mottled pods, along with showy flowers that will brighten up veg patches. Of the climbing French beans, ‘Cobra’ has mauve flowers and 7in long, green cylindrical pods, while ‘Pantheon’ boasts white flowers and flat, juicy pods. ‘Blauhilde’ is an old German variety that bears attractive purple flowers followed by large bunches of 11in long, purple pods.

Among the best dwarf beans are ‘Purple Teepee’, with its magentacoloured flowers followed by cylindrical purple pods that form on bushy, 18in tall plants, and ‘Sonesta’, whose 5in long pods are yellow. ‘Supremo’ is a borlotti bean with flat, red and cream pods containing several fat, speckled beans.

Climbing French beans need support. One of the most attractive ways is to build a wigwam from 7ft long bamboo canes. Place five in a circular pattern about 3ft in diameter and then lash the tops together with twine. It’s possible to put together a similar structure in a large container filled with multipurpose compost.

Make a 2in deep hole at the foot of each cane, drop in two seeds, fill with soil and water. If both seeds germinate, remove the weaker of the pair and allow the other to climb upwards. They’ll twine around supports by themselves, but do help the young plant on its way by securing gently to a cane with twine.

Dwarf French beans should be sown in the same way but there’s no need to build any structures, as plants only grow to around knee height. However, if your garden is exposed to strong winds, it helps to push a few twiggy sticks among plants to provide them with a bit of support.

Water plants sparingly until they’ve established, increasing the amount after the first flowers appear. Harvest beans when they are small, young and tender.