Bean Plants

Organic bean plants - a quick guide

Beans are a garden staple and grow wonderfully well here in the UK, with lots of great, tasty varieties from which to choose. If you're new to gardening or planting beans for the first time, here’s a quick guide to growing organic beans to help you achieve the great results you’re looking for.

When to plant beans in the UK

Get your broad beans sown under cover in February and ready to plant out in the spring so that you’ll get a nice early crop before most other veg is ready to harvest. Other than that, April and May, once the risk of frost has passed, are the months to get your beans into the ground and slightly later for more tender varieties, like French beans, which need the soil nice and warm before they go in.

How to plant beans

For the precise planting instructions, check the packet your plants came in. Beans love rich, fertile soil, strong supports to grow up, and plenty of water. For best results, prepare the ground in the weeks before planting by digging plenty of organic matter into the soil – compost or well-rotted manure is ideal. Position your canes in a double row, crossing at the top with a longitudinal cane to add stability. The rows should be about 18” apart, with 9” between canes. For smaller plantings, make a wigwam by pushing canes into the ground at 9” intervals and securing them together at the top.

Which organic bean plants should I grow?

Because beans grow so incredibly well here in the UK, there are hundreds of varieties and lots of excellent organic plants to choose from. Here at the Organic Gardening Catalogue, we do our best to bring you a great selection of vegetable plants which are well-suited to the needs of organic gardeners. For a broad bean, try Luz de Otono for an autumn crop of delicious beans. For runner beans, Scarlett Empire is heavy cropping, disease-resistant, and stringless. For a French bean, try our colourful Climbing Mix for crops between June and October.