I think your limitations in space warrant you starting with pole beans. The above postings are right in that everyone has their own taste. I started with strictly pole beans & have some experience with them. "Emerite" is the best pole filet bean, yields are very good and early in my northeast PA garden (get from Pinetree Garden Seeds). I also like the purple-pdded varietes, and have great luck with "Trionfo Violetto" (get them from Pinetree Garden Seeds). I am also heavy shell bean grower/eater. I grow "Wren's Egg" (from Heirloom Seeds), "True Cranberry" (from Seed Savers Exchange), and when i can find them cannellini and borlotto pole beans (Gourmet Seeds International). I also grow bush beans for shelling & drying, "Dutch Brown", "Flagrano" flageolet (the most tasty shell bean in my opinion), and "Black Turtle" beans, which have amazing yields for cuban black bean soup. For recipes, see the thread here called "How do you cook your beans?" Folks have posted some nice ones there. Well this should get you going. Happy gardening! Here is a link that might be useful: Pinetree Garden Seeds, perfect for small gardens

My own preferences are much the same as Hemnancy's; I prefer pole beans for their size, flavor, and yield... and for the enormous variation available in heirloom varieties. They require more space, but that is not an issue for me. Bush beans, however, have their advantages too... so sometimes (preferences aside) it's a question of which type is most suitable for the location & the intended purpose. It's also worth noting that beans should be considered for more than just snaps. Bush beans Advantages: - Easy to plant, require no support. - They mature more quickly. This makes them better suited for short-season areas, for late planting, and when they will be grown early or late as part of a succession planting. - Generally bear all-at-once, so good if grown for canning in large batches, especially with limited space. - Low profile, so better suited for high-wind areas. - Most popular dry beans are bush varieties. - More wax bean varieties available commercially as bush than as pole. Disadvantages: - Less suitable for kitchen gardens, where a prolonged harvest is preferable. Succession planting every few weeks can overcome this, if space is available to do so. - More vulnerable to damage by slugs and rodents. - Lower yield.* - Generally smaller pod size. - Fewer cultivars available for use as shellies. - Harvest can be uncomfortable, due to constant bending. Pole beans Advantages: - Higher yield*, sometimes enormous. - Generally larger pods as snaps, so less cutting involved for canning. - More varieties available for shellies, including most of the larger-seeded. - Prolonged harvest, good for fresh eating over a long period. Some varieties, though, will have large flushes in a relatively short period of time. - Pods are higher, making them easy to see & pick, with minimal bending. - Less damage from rodents, snails, & crawling insects. Disadvantages: - Require erecting a pole/trellis. Not too tough for a 20-foot row, but 500 feet of trellis can be a chore. - Take longer to bear, making them less suitable for short season areas. (There are, however, fast-maturing varieties like "Goldmarie" and "Early Riser"). - Except for very long-season areas, they occupy the ground for the entire season, so not suitable for succession planting. - Not good for high-wind areas, where poles & vines may be snapped. - While the over-all yield is very high, the yield-per-plant for a given period may be relatively low, so smaller daily pickings. This is only an issue where space is limited. - Few varieties commercially available for dry beans (but many heirlooms). I have also observed that many bean diseases are either caused or aggravated by soil being splashed on the leaves; bush beans seem to be more vulnerable to this. I used the (*) for yield, because with different planting strategies, either bush or pole can be high-yielding: - Pole varieties have a higher yield per plant, and often the highest yield per row foot... but much of this advantage is lost with multiple rows, because of the greater row spacing required due to shading. They are at their best if planted in a single row, at the North side of the garden. My largest yield per row by far was from a row of "Pole 191" snap beans. - Bush varieties, while yielding less per plant, can be spaced more closely... and since shade is not an issue, the rows can be closer together as well. Succession planting can also help overcome the yield gap, since it allows bush beans to time-share a given space with another crop. I think that the best bean strategy is a single row of pole beans on the North side - with a row or two of bush beans directly adjacent on the South side - so as to form one wide row. This gives the best of both worlds, in a relatively small space. Those pole beans, by the way, can include limas or yardlong beans. As for strings, I think there is little difference; there are both pole beans & bush beans, with- and without strings. However, since most breeding going on now is for bush beans, there will eventually be more stringless varieties available as bush. I don't necessarily see "stringlessness" as an advantage, since many varieties that develop strings are stringless when picked young, and have outstanding flavor. "Kentucky Wonder" is a great example of this. Most of the new bush varieties, while stringless, are of the petite style now popular in Europe... takes a lot of picking to get a basket full. No thank you. Give me the 11" pods of "Fortex", or the long pods of "Goldmarie" or "Garafal Oro", any day.

Happyday- I do see some nice plump voles that might have a squeeze, but I suppose you're right, and 1/2" hardware cloth is very expensive. I have 2 cats plus a stray that is here daily, one cat is quite a hunter and I saw her catch one, came back in about 5 minutes, and all that was left was a skull. Ewww. I like to plant carcasses (and spoiled meat) down the tops of vole and mole holes in hopes of spreading some disease, or at least stopping the tunneling in that area. But the vole damage has been getting worse. They nipped off about 5 large squash plants at the ground, like they do the pole bean stems, I think because they don't like stems in their way, not to eat them. I put a 4" galvanized nail (warning: danger) and sprinkle cayenne pepper in each pole bean hole so I can get any plants up at all, then wrap each stem in aluminum foil after that. It actually works pretty well. But bush beans are harder. I may try thickly interplanting with greens, that may slow them down. I tried trapping voles with mouse and rat traps under inverted tubs. They work a time or two then I stop catching any, maybe they smell suspicious. I tried poison bait in pop bottles with the ends cut off, as I don't like the idea of the stuff in the soil and didn't want the cats to get into it. I have no way of knowing if it succeeded at all. I'm going to try getting a fertilizer wand you poke into the ground and hook up to a hose to put water into their holes and drown them some. It might slow them down a little. I also tried planting some gopher purge and encourage garter snakes by building up some piles of brush near my beds and putting down some tarps or newspaper (which can also encourage voles unfortunately); I've seen a lot more snakes since, it seemed the cats were wiping them out at first. Or maybe the cats lost interest. Thanks, Nancy

Peterpotato, I see from your bio that you're in the 'hood. I got my seeds from a neighbor as well, the same passed-down story, and I've been growing it now for 10 years, its far and away my favorite bean. Seed Savers Exchange had someone offering seeds some years ago from Cortez. I've done my best to send seeds to other bean connoisseurs, and they all think highly of it. Why, just yesterday I got an email from some guy who was snarfing away at 'em! They also can well, and make great dilly beans. Re growing it, I plant seed in early June, and then again in early July, and the later catches up with the earlier. It's most important not to let the soil dry out - then they get tough in a hurry. If you can keep the soil moist, they stay tender until they're a foot long, seeds are formed, and the pod is starting to turn yellow - at least 2 weeks hanging there, pick-able and edible. They get hit with what I *think* is curly top virus, so plant plenty. Once they get hit, the plant doesn't do all that well. Selling at the market, you'll notice folks who know the bean will clean you out. Enjoy!