Hi LL, I made one for the little- folk this past season. I found some nine foot bamboo poles which should have been quite adequate for my Emerite pole beans. The problem was, the bean vines grew so thickly, the kids had a hard time finding a way to get in. They had much more fun picking the bush beans from my raised beds. I am going to use the same poles to make a Sun Gold and Sun Sugar cherry tomato teepee this year. The kids love picking and munching the garden candy. Have fun. Victor

Thanks for all the responses. I went with some bought bamboo poles, and some connect-a-pole little ball thingees, and some bird netting. I can make a little house, 5 feet by 5 feet by 5 feet. Or I can make a temporary long fence 5 feet high. I decided a little bit too late to do this project during this summer, but will start some vine seeds early next spring and have it next summer.

My pole bean teepees are six feet high and have wire wrapped around them to give horizontal support to the vines. I plant my seed in a perfect circle around the entire teepee with the plants spaced about 4 inches apart. The teepees get completely covered with the vines and they are beautiful as well as very productive. I planted two teepees like this last summer and we ate beans and ate beans all summer (April to November) plus I put 10 gallons in the freezer. I was happy. (It was an unusual summer that never got so hot the vines shut down. It was Rattlesnake beans. My first time. Winners.) Yes, you can grow different types of beans on one teepee, but I don't think you'll like it. The reason being, you will likely never have enough beans of one kind to make a mess, and you will get tired of keeping them separate, and when they are cooked, you won't know which is which anyway. The point of growing more than one variety is to see which not only grow better, but which TASTE better to you. Maybe you can grow two teepees? Or two crops at different times? My growing season is very long....maybe yours isn't. Just a thought. Peas and beans on the same poles? Yes. You plant what we in the south, call English peas (shelling peas) early, when it's too cold for snap beans anyway. Then sow your snap beans (green beans) around the pea plants at the right time. By the time the beans need the space, the peas are burned up by hot weather anyway. This technique is called succession planting. If you Google the term, you can read all about it. As stated above, a chain link fence is also ideal for English, Sugar Snap, or Snow peas. I rather suspect that you would have a hard time with Limas in Zone 5, mostly because your growing season may not be long enough. They need really hot weather for a really long time. But then, I have never gardened in Zone 5, and if your grand daddy did it, who knows? Personally, I would go for easy successes the first couple of years and work into the hard stuff. You'll be less likely to get discouraged. Carrots and radishes, as stated above should have time to grow and be harvested before beans get going, because they are Cool weather crops. You can plant them much earlier than beans. Before your last frost date even. I'm thinking you would find it very helpful to Google "Planting Guide" for your state and/or county. It will have the best planting dates for your area. Look at the seed packets (or catalog descriptions) for the number of Days to Maturity. Then start counting from the suggested planting date on your Planting Guide to the DTM on the packet. This will tell you when that crop will be ready to be pulled out. Do the same with your beans. There will be some overlap, which is fine. This technique is called intercropping. Google that term and you'll learn some more! Good Luck! We'll love hearing how it goes for you.

Any one living near the Huntington Gardens be sure to visit the new Childrens Garden. They have a large cement bowl of sand that has a lot of iron ore inside, beach sand has Iron ore. They also have a large magnet to gather it up. Children can play with this by the hour. They have a pebble stream, a fog forest. A TeePee make believe, fake Ravens sitting on the bench, I rainbow tunnel, many other clever things for children to explore. Visit and it will give you some great ideas. I wish I could come and help you with your garden. Use a lot of bushes with texture. Pansy's for color, miniature persimmons, miniature Peaches to be picked. Bean Poles shaped like a TeePee for the beans to climb, and Tomato cages to keep them off the ground, the more you plant up, the more room you will have, peas climb up, Japanese egg plant takes little room, and you can eat them. Stubby carrots are great tiny and grow in poor soil and pots. My children's garden was all in pots set in space on the driveway that wasn't used for other things, miniature tomatoes in 3 gal containers and Luffa sponge in 5 gal. clay pots. A row of pot for herbs, I had a weeping willow bottle brush tree, hummingbirds just loved visiting. Miniature squash, which grows fast in a five gallon glay container, and up a tomato cage, and the old standby a row of radishes with germinates in three days. Have the childen make a scarecrow with your help of course. I started growing food at four and a half. Be sure to tuck in some parsley and rosemary for you. A large tall Sunflower plant, one is plenty and grows tall about (8ft). It will attract birds. Gourds, grow up and make a fine trellis plant for a lath house. Just ideas, Norma