“Sally, I want to grow green beans,” said Diane, “but as you know we really don’t have much space to garden here.”

            “How about bean towers,” said Survival Sally as she lifted her tea cup for another sip.

            “What’s a bean tower?”

            “It’s a support tower made of galvanized steel wire,” Sally said.  “You can grow pole beans up it.  Our friend John uses one for supporting black-eyed peas.”

            “Mmm, now that’s something I like.”

            “So does Sam.  He likes anything that’s easy to grow and can take heat and drought.  He and I agree that beans are a great survival food, which everybody should grow.  You know what’s funny though?  Sam told me about a company in California that actually killed off some white tepary beans they were trying out because they watered them too much.  Those beans must really like dry conditions.  Wouldn’t it be great not to have to worry about watering your plants very much?”

            “Sure would,” Diane said.  “Now, tell me more about this bean tower.”

            “It’s a little over six feet tall once you’ve got it in the ground, but you can grow an awfully lot of beans in a one and a half square foot space.  In fact, Gardener’s supply says the bean tower in their test garden yielded 2,400 beans between mid-July and late September.”

            “They must have hired a real bean counter to figure that out,” Diane said.  They both laughed.

            “Well, it is a neat thing to have,” Sally said, tossing back her blonde curls.  “It’s easy to put together, and it folds up if you want to take it down when you’re done in the fall.”

            “You said I can get bean towers from Gardener’s Supply?”

            “That’s right,” Sally said.  “On John’s blog page all you have to do is click on the Gardener's Supply logo.  Type Bean Tower in the home page search box.  A page with a picture of the bean tower will come up.  Click on the picture for the description and order from there.  If you really want to have a lot of beans, get two or three towers.”