Hi. I'm not in your climate zone but I'm also aerating and overseeding this spring. I used a manual aerator several weeks ago, in between rain storms. I also spread a thin layer of compost to prepare the surface for seeding. We've had several inches of rain since then, which helps to break down the aerator cores. When daytimes highs stay in the 60s - maybe this week - I'll spread seed and cover it with a little more compost.

I don't know anything about the safety, so can't comment, but others here will :). Personally, I like my beans very well cooked! I usually cook grocery beans for about 8 hours, after soaking them overnight. So I would not worry :). I am intrigued at the idea of growing romanos for shell beans. I grow them, but I eat them all as green beans, with the pods. Thanks for bringing me a new idea!

I'll second Fusion's recommendation for "Goose"; I have often posted about the closely related "Ma Williams", which I obtained from SSE. Highly productive, outstanding quality as a shelly, but just OK as a snap. I tried a few "Blue Marbut" raw, but never tried them cooked as snaps. It was very productive as a black-seeded dry bean, I made some good refried beans from them. As a rule, I tend to use dual-purpose beans as shellies, rather than dry. Most shellies are usable for snaps as well, although varieties bred for snaps will generally outperform them. The best dual-purpose varieties I've tried (including the two above) are heirlooms: - "Brita's Foot Long" (pole) closely resembles the white-seeded version of Kentucky Wonder, but with more flavorful seeds. They are roughly the size of Great Northern. The pods are tasty as snaps, but should be picked very young, before strings develop. - "Bert Goodwin" (half-runner) has long, straight pods that have great flavor as a snap. If allowed to ripen, they will form large, deep red seeds that are tasty also. Probably the best multi-purpose bean I've tried. - "PI 507984" (bush) is an otherwise unnamed bean from the USDA, collected in Hungary. The young pods are OK as snaps, but its best use is as a shelly. The beans are borne in great numbers on very vigorous bushes, and are easily shelled. They are deep red w/white spots, and extremely large in shell stage, close to 1" long. The flavor is very rich, and the shellies keep much of their color when cooked. The red turns to nearly black when dried. To the best of my knowledge, the last three are unavailable commercially; Salt Spring Seeds (Canada) carries "Brita's", but will not ship to the U.S. If you are interested in trying any of them, I'd be happy to send you some seed, just contact me through my member page if interested. Oh, and lest I forget... the best dry bean I have grown is "Soissons Vert", a pole "flageolet" variety with light green seeds roughly the size of Great Northern. It is not usable as a snap, but the shelly is gourmet quality, and it makes a great dry bean.

I shy away from resurrecting old threads, but this is the best discussion I've found anywhere on this. So here I go. So I'm a weirdo and do beans in a system of semi-raised beds, two being 3'x18' on either side of a center one being a large mound that's 5'x18'. My strategy has been to plant pole beans in the middle of the rows, and bush beans densely around the sides. The mound has pole beans in the middle and then a lot of space for a jungle of bush beans on the slopes. I felt like I was doing pretty good until I read the above. Those yields are great! Mine aren't quite as high, but after everything else is added in I'm looking at probably 27 lbs of dry beans from around 200sqft of space. I grow Ireland Creek Annie and Rockwell bush beans, and Annie Jackson and Scarlet Runner pole beans. That garden is nicknamed "Jupiter". Hoping to construct "Saturn" in coming years and add a few more varieties. Wealth is burying your hands into a massive bowl of dry beans. :) Phil Whidbey Island WA