pole bean tunnel

I tried making a teepee for our son four years ago - I planted climbing black-eyed susan vine at the base of six bamboo canes and tied them together at the top to make the teepee.  It was the perfect two-year-old size.  He even helped plant the seeds.  BUT...they never came up.  Bummer.  It may have had something to do with the fact that I picked a shady spot of our yard to try it, and it may also have had something to do with the fact that I tried to plant my seeds in the middle of our lawn, so that the established grass quickly filled in the bare spots that I had cleared for my seeds before my little babies had a chance of survival.

So anyway, this year as part of our kindergarden fun, the three of us are doing "Take 2" - and making a pole bean tunnel instead.  This past weekend we put it together and then our son and I planted the seeds along the sides.  In my overconfident zeal over this project, I was sure I could handle doing everything on my own, but once we got into it, I was SO glad that we had waited for a weekend, when my husband was around.  Thank you, hubby!  Your muscles - and brain - were invaluable.

 (helping Daddy measure the fencing that has been sitting in a roll in our shed for the past 7 or 8 years)

 (we used old metal fence posts we found in our shed to hold the tunnel up, and then wrapped the fencing up and over them on the two ends of the tunnel.  We held everything together with cable ties left over from a project last year)

 (next we strung old kite string from one arch to the next to create the sides of the tunnel.  Then we patched together pieces of leftover landscape fabric from last year to keep down the weeds in the tunnel)

 (counting seeds)

 (and into the ground they go!)

We are eagerly awaiting this coming weekend, when we will get to see if any of our seeds have sprouted.  We are not big bean eaters, but we plan to pick them and take them to our church.  A couple of churches in the area have gotten together and organized a vegetable collection during the summers.  People can bring extra produce from their gardens to the church, and then volunteers truck them down to the city where they are given away or sold at reduced prices (I'm not sure which) to low-income families.  Hopefully there will be some bean eaters there who will enjoy the beans from our tunnel!