Like others say, trellis will work for pole beans and can be made free-standing. Last year I grew my climbing beans up some plastic trellis that I got for free(about 2 inch mesh, I think) that I threaded onto long bamboo stakes. I had a stake at either end, and then stakes in the middle about every 2 feet. By the end of the season it was a bit top-heavy because the bamboo has some flex in it, so I may use heavier stakes next time and possibly tie the trellis on with garden twine or light wire. But it definitely works.

Like Justaguy, I use tall T-posts, spaced 5 feet apart, as support for trellises. I then top each pole with a 1 & 1/4" PVC "T" fitting, through which I run a 3/8" rebar rod between the poles as a top wire. I tie a second rebar rod about 12" from the bottom, and tie vertical strings between the two rods as necessary. The rebar not only prevents sagging at the top, but keeps the strings from sliding together in strong winds. You can see the construction in the photo below: "Pole 191" beans The trellis is about 6 & 1/2 feet tall. I usually run a few horizontal lines of plastic baler twine between the poles as well, and wrap the vertical strings around them as I run them down. The vertical strings are sisal baling twine; beans prefer to climb organic materials. The whole system reinforces itself - I have never lost one of these trellises to strong winds. You can even grow squashes & melons on them... but to do so, use a stronger top support, and a sturdier mesh than string (such as clothes line, or concrete reinforcing wire). Baler twine is very economical for string trellises; it comes in very large rolls, and is highly weather-proof. You can find it at Farm & Fleet stores, or at farm coops. Most of the beans in the photo above were eaten by rabbits, so the spacing was much wider than normal... but it allowed me to show the structure. This is what the trellises look like when fully covered: "Tucomares Chocolate" runner bean (left), "Blue Marbutt" snap bean (right) Yardlong beans "Insuk's Wang Kong" runner beans The reason pole beans are often in their own area is that they create a lot of shade... plus, you need room around them to harvest. If you run trellises only on the north side of the garden (or of each plot), then you can plant other veggies much closer, so the leaf canopies touch at the base. I've done this with tomatoes, and both plants seemed quite happy with the arrangement.

Ditto on Farmerdilla's comments. When we in the U.S. say "pole beans", "bush beans", "green beans", or "snap beans", we are generally referring to P. vulgaris. I often refer to them as "common beans", which is an English translation of the Latin vulgaris. In the U.K., they would be referred to as "French beans". Runner beans (P. coccineus) are mostly climbers, hence the name. There are only a few bush varieties. They are also good as snaps... in fact, "snap beans" in the U.K. are almost always runner beans. As Farmerdilla mentioned, runner beans thrive in cooler weather, where common beans struggle. In the U.S. they do well in the Pacific Northwest and areas with cool maritime climate. They do not like hot weather, so common beans are better for areas with warm summers. Some runner beans (especially white-seeded ones) are often misidentified as common beans or limas. When in doubt, observe the cotyledons (the seed halves). For runner beans, these stay below the ground during germination. The cotyledons emerge for common beans & limas.

This year I'm trying a new thing - no mulch around the beans. The voles love the mulch, and they avoid open areas. So far so good, but it's hard to know what the pressure is this year. It feels very wrong not to have mulch and makes watering and weeding frustrating, but at least the plants are living. I have also used small water bottles with the bottoms cut off and slit up the side to cover over the bottom of the vines (worked reasonably well, but sometimes they would just snip off the top above the water bottle). I string natural twine for the beans to climb up and use bicycle spokes as garden stakes for them, but it doesn't seem to matter to the voles to have the stakes in the ground. I think that was because they just travelled under the mulch, above the soil. When I use traps I always catch at least one unwanted creature - even with traps right in tunnels and covered. There's a brown wren around here that really likes to go into tunnels and it makes me so sad to trap one that I have stopped trapping. Sometimes if I get the timing right, during a winter thaw the tunnels are very visible and I can trap some voles then - they are more desperate for the bait in the traps in winter, as well. But I'm not sure how much good winter trapping does, since more probably just move in during springtime. One last thing I tried - pile up deer netting all around the base of the plants, like a huge tangle. It seemed to make the voles reconsider entering the area.