Kia hora te manno
Kia whakapapa paumamu te moana
Kia tere te Karohirohi

May the calm be widespread
May the sea glisten like the greenstone
And may the glimmer of summer dance across your pathways

Friday, August 21, 2009

Beautiful flowers and the bonus of tasty vegetables

In many parts of the world the Scarlet Runner Bean is cultivated both for it's flowers and the vegetable. My grandmother had a trellis which must have been about ten feet long and at least seven foot high especially for scarlet runner beans. When the beans were in flower the whole trellis was a mass of gorgeous red blooms, and the flavor of the beans I have never forgotten. This is why I decided to plant some this year, and even though they did not do as well as my grandmother's did, I still have had enough beans to satisfy my yearning for a taste of them.
The beans are easy to grow but do prefer a rich soil, and I am thinking I could have added more compost to the spot where I planted the beans. There is always next year to improve.



6 comments:

Autumn Belle said...

Yes, I do agree with you on this. Lovely vegetables that can beautify our gardens too. That's great, isn't it. I love the bright red flower of this plant.

RURAL said...

I love scarlet runner beans, I remember the first time I saw them as a kid. Amazing, and that memory stayed with me forever.

But sadly I forgot to plant beans this year, the first in a long long time.

And we had the perfect long hot summer for them....

Jen

Bonnie Story said...

The hummingbirds adore the Scarlet Runners, don't they! Next year when we aren't so busy trying to finish the house we will have some trained up strings somewhere - hummingbird feeders that don't need cleaning! Cheers, Bonnie

Caroline said...

I just made a notation in my garden journal to plant some of these next year.

Corner Gardener Sue said...

I didn't even realize what the beautiful red flowers were until reading the post. Cool beans! ;o) I just bought some seeds, but haven't gotten any planted yet. I figured even if it is too late to get a crop, I can still get some nitrogen fixed into the soil. I'll have to be sure to plant some next year.

Thank you for your comment on my camera critters post.

Tiesha said...

Interesting post! Flowers are truly nice!! I just love them!!