i'll second christine. they are DELISH, grow in straight-up sand, and they're pretty rust resistant. grow them in the spring. in the summer, i'm partial to eating mississippi silver crowders when they're young. i think they're tastier than green beans. both those are available from southern exposure. and, as christine says, once you've bought them, you'll never need to buy them again.

I have tried two types. Type #1 was 1.5" pvc pipe supporting "rabbit" fencing (vinyl coated 3' grid fencing --I used two strips for a 6' high fence). This worked real well through the season, but in a fall storm the plastic bent. I will abandon this method. Type #2 was 2- 2x4x8' put in 30" deep fence post holes, with a third 4' long 2x4 used as a top piece. I drilled 1/2" holes every 6" inches in the boards. I then used apple and pear branches ("water sprouts") and grape vine pieces left over from pruning to make a trellis inside the 2x4's weaving them between the holes in a random pattern, occasionally tying as needed with wire. It is funky, sturdy, looks good, and the beans liked it. I will build more of these to replace the plastic pipe as soon as I prune this spring. Sorry no pics.

**Do you put a piece of wood/bamboo across the bottom...?** No, I gave up on twine and now use Trellinet/Hortonova from Johnny's. It has six-inch holes, so hands fit easily through when harvesting. 1. Cut a piece of netting to size. 2. Weave the top pole through the netting. 3. Pull the netting taut and fasten it with cable ties to the side poles. No need for a bottom pole. In the fall/winter after the vines have dried, they are easily removed from the netting. The netting is left up year-round and reused season after season. Since cable ties deteriorate/get brittle and need replacement every year, I remove them when I do soil prep for the next season. It's easier to work the soil if the netting is out-of-the-way, that is, detached from the side poles so it can be held out of the way (with a clothes pin) while you work. Don't remove the netting from the top pole (too much work getting it reinstalled.)

I just tried yard long (brown seeds) and Fortex for the first time this year. In years past I have grown Lazy Wife. And earlier than that I grew Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake because my parents always grew KW and I noticed the canned green beans that I bought were always Blue Lake, so I figured they'd be good to can. I was new enough to gardening that I didn't know there were SOOOO many kinds of beans to choose from. A home grown bean is always so much better than the canned ones you buy, whatever kind it is. I don't remember much about the Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake. Seems like the Kentucky Wonder got woody pretty fast. Lazy Wife was a good bean, the pods grow two or three together and so they are easy to spot and pick (hence the name). The flavor is good. They are climbers, will climb 8 feet or more. Beans are stringless and meant to be enjoyed when young. Once the seeds begin to bulge, they are stringy and tough, though. And when the weather gets hot, just pull them up because the beans after the hot spell is over are short and fat and get woody before they're any size worth picking. The Fortex that I grew this year have been a disappointment. The pods are really small and picking is time-consuming. I haven't noticed the flavor being better than Lazy Wife was. The Yard Long bean has been fun and prolific. Even through the heat of summer, they produce. I have them growing on an arch made of a long stock panel and the long beans hang down and are easy to see and pick. The beans are flavorful, tender and stringless. I can't tell you how tall the vine grows because it has gone to the top of the arch and mingled with the vines coming from the other side so I don't know where they end. I tried to grow Dragon Tongue, which is a bush-type yellow string, but I only had 4 seeds and only one germinated. I hadn't planned to eat any of them as I was growing the plant for the seed, but I mis-judged when to pick and ended up eating them because they hadn't made a seed big enough to plant. They were tender and good, but I didn't get anything I could plant next year and the bean beetles or something got the rest. I garden pesticide-free so I end up letting the insects take what they intend to take most of the time. I have noticed something's drilling holes in the Fortex, but they don't bother the Yard Long. However, I seem lately to have an infestation of black aphids on the Yard Longs that tend to all gather on the same bean and its stem, covering it like sequins on a ball gown. I've been waiting for the ladybugs to notice them and that hasn't happened, so today I just went out there with a wet paper towel, folded it over the bean and went the length of it, smushing every bug along the way. I also planted some Tiger Eye, I didn't know if they'd be pole or bush, and I GUESS they're bush but they tended to want to climb a little bit. This apparently is a dry bean as the pods filled out really fast and were really easy to open to get at the bean. So my favorite this year is the Yard Long. That Red Noodle sounds fun. I'm trying George's Tennessee Cutshort next year. I've never had a bean that was still tender once it got fat so it will be a new experience for us. George may have a convert! I might see if I can get some Insuk's Wang Kong beans to try next year, too. So Jim if you have some to share send me an e-mail. --Ilene