I love black eyed peas too, but I've only ever had them reconstituted from the dry, bagged, grocery store ones. I will say, though, that pretty much anything that you simmer with smoked pork products, and especially bacon, is going to taste pretty spectacular. ;) I'm going to start another couple tubs of cowpeas this weekend, and maybe crowd them a little bit more, since I've read some differing things on spacing, and see which ones produce more. Since it's more or less just an experiment, I won't be too terribly heartbroken if I don't find myself drowning in a sea of peas.

If you want to improve the soil structure then something like Nature's Helper (fine, aged bark chips) or another 'soil improver' would be better than vermiculite. The vermiculite is a permanent solution, so in one way, it's good, but it will NEVER break down and will be there for years to come. The benefit from adding OM, which will eventually be broken down by the microherd in the soil, is that it will all eventually improve your soil, making it more permeable and more fertile. The vermiculite will most likely do nothing, long term, for the improvement of your fulvic and humic acids. I would check to see if there is a municipal source of compost, and see if they will deliver - if they won't, then borrow a pick-up truck, if you don't own one, and get a few loads. It should be free, or nearly so, esp. if you pick up. I know there is a commercial operation near here where a freind got a pick-up load of mushroom compost and top soil for about $30 (about 2 cu. yards). Have you been adding the manure and compost to your garden beds for the past few years? I repeat what I wrote earlier - if you have been adding 4" or more of OM each year for a number of years, then you probably should have pretty good soil by now. If, however, this is only the second year or so you have been adding, then, yes, you could probably add more. One source of free or nearly so, OM is the local tree services, and the companies that trim the powerlines - they end up with truckloads of chippings, and are usually happy to dump one or more loads if you ask. The main draw-back is that the chippings are fresh and pretty coarse, so you have to be able to let them sit for at least a year - 2 is better - before using them. They do make a decent mulch, 'though you have to pick out the bigger pieces. If nothing else, it's a good "brown" additive to your new compost pile. You might also see if you can get the "spoiled" hay or straw. If nothing else, and for the future, see if you can get the bales people have used for fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations. By the time that they have sat out in the rain for a few weeks, they aren't really usable for either feed or bedding. Most people would probably give them to you, rather than have the garbage collecter take them, if their garbage service will even do so. I kinow nothing about the cotton by-products, they aren't locally available, so will let someone else comment on that.

from own experience and a lot of reading from tests state agricultural agencies (similar to extension offices in the USA - they are run by the states here in Germany): bush bean yields are 2 to 2.5 kg per sq meter over a period of 3 or more weeks. I always grow rows 1 foot apart 3 seeds per foot, either 1 every 4 inches or in groups of 3 every foot. In 1 pdf I read that commercial growers like 34 plants per square meter, my pattern is at 33.3, so not that far away. The 20 feet row fusion_power suggested would (with that yields) give you 8 to 10 pounds of beans over let's say 3 weeks. A rule of thumb: pole beans give 3 times the yield on the same space as bush beans over a longer time. There might be some higher yielding beans like sandyman's - 2 bowls a week on nine plants would my pole beans make very proud, my bush beans cannot even dream of this. And fusion_power has the best plan: stagger bush beans, every 3 weeks another crop and there will be beans galore. And snap beans freeze so easily: blanch a few minutes, chill with water, let them cool down and into the bag they go ---> deep freeze. good luck and a big harvest Michael

No. Pole or bush... no. Back when we were a family of two, we used to grow roughly 120 feet of bush beans for fresh eating and freezing for winter. Spacing the bean seeds every four inches, that's 360 plants. Nowadays, we're a family of four and this year I'm planting 80 feet of bush beans (240 plants) plus 22 feet of pole beans (44 plants, higher yield per plant). We still blanch and freeze for winter as well as eating fresh. We really love green beans, though. ;)