Green Beans in a Raised Garden Bed

We already have two raised beds of green beans going in our garden, they are doing so well this year and producing a high yeild that we decided we better get another one going.

I  can already imagine it being winter, snow on the ground and then sitting down to supper and tasting a garden fresh green bean.

If you have never had a garden fresh green bean I challenge you to get a hold of some and do a taste comparison between one directly from a garden and one out of a can. I don't care how much you pay for a canned green bean the taste difference will amaze you. .

This picture shows our 4x4 Raised Garden Bed. Please note these do not have to be fancy, however, they can be as fancy as you like. We prefer these pine boards because by next summer they are a touch weathered and fit in to our "farm/country" theme both in our garden and in our home. Aside from that we just don't see the sense in spending a lot of money on them as these will last a long time. One very important note, if you purchase lumber to make your boxes be sure you DO NOT PURCHASE TREATED LUMBER, there is the possibility of that leaching into your soil and plants.

The box is filled with compost, garden soil, peat moss and regular peat. Once the box is finished for the summer we will continue to add compost to it over the winter so it is refreshed and ready to go for the next planting season.

One other note I would like to make about the raised boxes is these work out well for elderly or handicap people, or people who have a difficult time getting down low due to bad backs or people who just don't want to crawl on the ground to pull weeds. :)


If the box is for a handicap person or someone with a bad back this would be my recommendation. I am disabled due to a back injury and while the two layer box as seen below is many times better than getting down on the ground I'm finding they just are quite high enough to keep from causing me pain. Hubby will be adding a third layer to the boxes that house small plants for me next year to make it easier. I have also see where some people do these boxes and put them up on legs so they are waist height, that is a consideration but since we live in tornado alley I don't want the strong winds to possibly knock all my hard work over.

We started this box 5 days ago. The box was built, filled with our compost mixture and the seeds were planted. After that we gave it a good soaking and have done so each evening since.

As you can see here, on day 5 we have sprouted Green Beans beginning to push through the soil. This is what they looked like when we saw them this morning, by evening there were several that were already about an inch tall. One they start growing they are amazingly fast. Just for reference these are Blue Lake Bush Beans

On the left side of this picture you can see one of the bean plants already standing up nice and proud. I was pretty impressed that they came up so fast. We have had really good luck with this brand of green beans. Last year and the year before we planted a different type and didn't get a single bean plant. That could have been the brand we bought or just a bad year. I would suggest researching to see what grows best in your area or what friends have had good luck with. Result will vary drastically sometimes depending on the region you are in. We are in Missouri.