Bean Teepee Project for Kids

Consider the joy you receive from cultivating your own little patch of soil, the satisfaction you feel when healthy seedlings pop their heads out of the ground -- not to mention all the edible rewards you enjoy from your garden!

Wouldn't it be nice if you could share some of the fun with your little ones? Reserve a little space in your vegetable garden (or flowerbed) for a bean teepee. This simple project allows the kids to garden right alongside you. And who knows, your more finicky eaters may change their habits when they begin to grow their own green beans.

Bean teepee ingredients include garden string, bamboo stakes, a bucketful of compost and runner bean seeds. Here are the steps:

1. When days grow warm and there's no longer any danger of frost, prepare the planting spot by loosening the soil and mixing in compost thoroughly.

2. Push five bamboo stakes into the ground to form a 3-foot wide circle. Gather the stakes together at the top and tie them with the garden string to form the teepee.

3. Plant two seeds approximately 1-1/2 inches deep at the base of each of the five stakes. Water the seeds thoroughly. The seeds will germinate and begin to climb the stakes. When the runners reach the top of the teepee, pinch them back a few inches.

4. Finally, harvest the beans every few days and your plants will continue to produce all summer long!

Runner beans grow fast -- your kids should have their very own homegrown green beans in about seven weeks. In the meantime, the whole family can enjoy the blooms that decorate the garden.