The public library in our town shares flower and vegetable seeds every year. They call it the seed library. I think you can usually walk in during the springtime and make your selection.
The library was closed earlier this March due to the pandemic, so they spread seed packets around town instead, placing them inside sidewalk libraries. Do you have a sidewalk library in your neighborhood?
We happen to live very close to a couple of sidewalk libraries. So Ian and I took a walk to check it out.
There was one seed packet left! It was Christmas lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus). They are large purple beans with white speckles. Apparently they taste like chestnuts.
The packet had four beans inside and a slip of paper with instructions: plant in soil, one inch deep and two inches apart. They thrive in hot weather. It takes around 75 to 120 days before they are ready to harvest.
I didn’t think to take a photo of the beans at the time, but here are the beans freshly planted. I used a mushroom container from the produce aisle as the pot. I think they are a nice size for seeds and small plants. I put a layer of rocks at the bottom and covered with potting soil.
I added toothpicks so I know where the beans are located. It helps with watering.
After nine days the first sprouts appeared! I didn’t realize the bean part would pop up. I learned that you should the plant beans with the eye and inner curve facing downward.
Days 10 and 12. They grew fast! I was so impressed with the large leaves. The lima beans sat beneath a grow light in my home office. Throughout the work day I could swivel around and notice the differences. They would grow a couple inches within the span of a day. The change was dramatic.
I added disposable chop sticks as stakes. You’ll notice that the bean part is still on the plant. My guess is that the plant uses the bean as an energy source. That’s why they grow so fast.
Ian says it would have been cool to set up a camera to take a photo every 15 minutes, then compile the shots into a video. It was a neat idea, but we never followed through.
Day 14, I moved the beans to a bigger pot with taller poles. We conveniently have a lot of sticks in the yard.
While re-potting I noticed that the two other lima beans germinated and had roots, but didn’t sprout out of the soil yet. So all four lima beans from the packet were viable. For whatever reason they grew slower than their siblings. I added them to the big pot, too.
Day 35, over a month passed. All four beans sprouted. I replaced the sticks with tall dowel rods from Ian’s workshop. The tallest plant was about three feet tall.
I still kept them inside at this point because the weather was too cold at night. I planted them too soon in the season. Mid-April would have been a better time to start.
Ian’s coworker is growing green beans inside her home. She suggested taking the bean plants outside during warm sunny days so they can acclimate to the weather and the transition won’t be such a shock.
The lima beans are sitting next to their future home. Ian built a beautiful cedar planter (see his post). It’s big! We filled the planter with compost from our bin in the backyard. This is the first time we’re using the compost like this.
I picked up a tomato cage from the hardware store. The vines need something to climb. I like the square shape. It seems very sturdy. I hope it’s tall enough though. These plants can grow taller than people. My plan is to thread them around the horizontal bars, so they spiral up eventually.
Day 78, the lima beans have been in the cedar planter for a few weeks. They really like growing on the cage and are very tall. I threaded them up, down, and sideways, around the cage, but they are still growing. They grow a few inches every day. Shaping them into a spiral didn’t work out because the plants have a mind of their own. At first I was concerned because bugs were eating the leaves, but I don’t see nibbled leaves anymore. Now they look green and healthy. I’m hoping to see flowers and pods soon.
A friend gave us a zucchini plant last week, which I added to the cedar planter (you can see it in the bottom left corner). To the right you may notice a maple tree growing in a red pot. A squirrel planted an acorn in that red pot last year and I’ve been tending to it ever since. It’s getting big and strong. It’s a red maple tree so the leaves and stems take on this lovely reddish hue in the fall time.
I’ll post an update when we have a lima bean!
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