All winter long I made grand bean-growing plans. Come spring, I was going to have an abundance of fresh tender green pods.  After looking over my seed stash, I made my choices.   My planting list  both bush and pole flat Romano beans as well as pole yard-long beans .

Beans generally have one of two types of growing habits: bush or pole.  Bush beans grow with a bushy habit, usually no more than 2 ft tall.  Bush beans will occasionally send out tendrils, but don’t need the support of a trellis.   Pole beans, on the other hand, can easily grow to 6 to 8 ft tall- even more if growing conditions are optimal. Pole beans feature lots of vining tendrils that will grab whatever support it can find to help it climb.

In late winter I erected a cattle panel trellis for the pole beans.  I prepared the soil at the foot of the trellis for planting.  Soon it was warm enough for bean germination.  I planted pole Romano beans on one side of the trellis and pole yard-long beans on the other side.  And then I waited. Nothing.  In the meantime I planted bush Romano beans.  The bush beans germinated and popped through the soil.  Pole beans, nothing.  After amending the soil a second time, I replanted another set of both pole  beans, thinking perhaps I had used seed that was too old.  I waited, and again nothing.  I planted one side a third time with pole Romano beans.  Still nothing.  Strange!  Meanwhile the bush Romano beans grew quickly, began to flower and produce beans.

I planted a fourth packet of beans on one side of the trellis, this time a packet of traditional green beans- Blue Lake pole beans.  On the other side, I planted an old packet of cucumbers.  For fun, I threw out a few nasturtium seeds.  Amazingly, everything in the 4th planting germinated!

In a few weeks my trellis will be filled with a wild mix of edible flowers, cucumbers and beans.  I think I will like this crazy mix even more than what I originally had planned.  What if I had given up after the first packet of seeds did not come up?

I wanted something to grow on my DIY trellis so badly that I just kept planting and planting until I achieved success.  I just kept going.

This experience with pole beans has given me much food for spiritual thought.   I need to have this same determination in my walk with Christ and my witness for Him. My quest for a Christ-like character can’t stop at the first sign of discouragement.  I must keep going, keep trying, keep persevering!    I need to keep planting seeds of His Love everywhere I go.  Amending the soil of hardened hearts in those I encounter with kindness and unselfish service.  This is not the time to quit.  Keep planting!

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

-Galatians 6:9