August 26th 2026
I checked on the four kidney beans I planted in the upper terraced garden today. What I believe to be Phaseolus polystachios – I bought them at the Pine Barrens Folk Festival that Lou was playing at with Dirthog Newton. The company was called Sandplains Meadows Nursery and they specialized in native New Jersey plants.
Apparently these are a perennial bean native to the area, but not spotted in the wild for quite some time. I set up a super simple system to help them stay off the ground for the rest of the year but what I really want is for them to establish strong roots and I will build something more permanent to support them next year.
If all goes well we can be a seed reservoir for the bean in the area, plus a perennial bean is very cool. Online it says that many of the plants in the Fabaceae family are perennials but most common garden crops are treated or grown as annuals. Really the only other one I can name off the top of my head are the white clovers, which I learned recently were apart of the legume family and perennial plants.
Should my plants survive their winter and flower in the early summer I’ll compare the flowers with the photos of the species online to try and confirm what I was told about its identity.
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