Pole Bean Teepee {A photo on Friday}

A photo on Friday, because sometimes all you need is the picture. (But I have a little story this Friday too …)

Last year I shared a snap pea trellis fort I had made in the garden for my little ones. Not all of my ideas are fabulous (or in fact even good) and unfortunately this turned out to be a not so good one.

The idea, I suppose, was just fine. But my planning and instruction reading was lacking. I planted “bush peas” all around the outside of the fort reaching a staggering height of 8-12 inches. The fort was perfect for my little ones to hide in — well, to hide their ankles in.

This year, I read the package more carefully and ensured the word “pole” was front and center. Low and behold I did not focus on the second word and have planted pole beans all around my teepee. So this year we will have a heck of a lot of beans, and no snap peas at all. Good grief. But it doesn’t really matter because look!!

It is actually working! We used great big sticks that we had laying around (due to our great big trees and great big storms we always seem to have those great big sticks available for projects). We arranged the sticks like a teepee and buried the very bottom 3 inches of each stick. Our sticks stand about 6 feet tall.

Next, we wrapped twine all around, leaving a gap at the front of the teepee so my little ones could get in and out.

And boy do those pole beans grow tall. They seem to be weathering our drought filled summer too, which is more than can be said for most of my poor garden.

The kids are properly thrilled this year – and so am I.