Make a Bean Teepee.

Time for a little honesty here... the truth is my kids struggle to eat vegetables. Let me tell you, we are a relatively health conscious family... I have offered sweet carrots, delicious corn and even frozen peas from the time my children were mere babies and yet, would you know, they often refuse to eat anything green, orange or yellow. The old adage of offering a food option 20 times before it is accepted has been surpassed long ago in our house... try 978 times! Still, healthy greens are rejected in favor of other, less healthy, foods. But, and it's a BIG but, my children will eat anything we grow in our garden... green, yellow, red and even purple! If only we lived on a huge farm where I could grow all the food we needed to survive... my children would be the healthiest kids on the block!

Alas, we don't... we live in the middle of one of the busiest metropolises in the world and my 'vegetable growing' land is very minimal. So, when my friend suggested that we concentrate on growing easy and prolifically producing vegetables, I wondered why I had tried to grow exotic and unusual vegetables for all these years? Why not grow the things I know my children will eat straight from the bush?

So, tomatoes and green beans it is!

Beans need to climb which is great if you don't have much horizontal space... onto the tools we got to make a bean teepee.

We needed;

* Bamboo sticks,

* Bendy wire (galvanized so as not to rust)

* Pliers (or, if you are like me and cant find yours, old garden scissors will do)

* Bean plants

*A nice big pot

*Soil

Place the bamboo sticks in a teepee shape and fix by wrapping a length of wire around them.

Cut another length of wire, larger this time, and fix a loop around the teepee frame for the climbing bean plants to attach to.

Repeat until you have 3 or 4 wrungs on your bean teepee.

Sink the bottom of the teepee into the soil - an old whiskey barrel in our case.

Plant bean plants and water profusely. Beans are very hardy... these particular plants were pulled out and replanted several times by an overenthusiastic little garden helper (Mr T has found a new passion to add to his love of playing his pink guitar, fishing in the fountain and riding his sisters scooter).

Look at our bean plants now, a few weeks later...

I wonder if we'll ever get to eat them at dinnertime as a bean is picked each and every time someone from my family walks past this lush-looking planter. They are super delicious - who says you have to eat your vegetables at suppertime??

Happy planting!