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While purchasing seedlings from your local nursery is a good way to get a head start in your vegetable garden, there are some crops that will grow so much better if you sow the seeds straight into the ground. Some varieties just don’t transplant all that well, while with others, there’s generally not that much benefit from buying seedlings, because they grow just as easily from seed. One popular veggie you should grow from seed instead of purchasing seedlings, is the humble green bean. You’ll find that if you grow these from seeds, you’ll end up with a much better harvest.

There are many advantages to growing from seed. Firstly, seeds are relatively inexpensive when you compare them to a tray of seedlings. You also have a much wider choice as to the different varieties you can grow. In fact, there are numerous types of bean plants that are easy to grow, making your choice of varieties almost limitless if you decide you want to plant seeds. Plus, you’ll generally find that beans really don’t like being transplanted due to their weak root system, and direct-seeded plants will grow more vigorously and produce a bumper crop of delicious pods on a continuous basis right through summer. Luckily, bean seeds are a manageable size and easy to handle, which makes them ideal for direct-seeding in the garden.

Sowing green bean seeds in the garden couldn’t be easier. All you have to do is choose a sunny location and make sure all danger of frost has passed. Ideally, you want to wait until daytime temperatures are over 70 degrees Fahrenheit consistently, and your soil temperature has reached at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit. You can easily test the temperature with a soil probe, like this backyard compost thermometer from Reotemp. This usually means that the best time of year to plant green beans is spring and summer.

Bean seeds should be sown around 1 to 2 inches deep, depending on the size of the seeds. Essentially, you want to plant the seeds twice as deep as they are wide. The easiest way to do this is to grab a pencil, or a dibber if you have one, and just poke a hole where you want the plants to grow, keeping a distance of about 2 to 3 inches between each one. Drop two seeds into the hole and cover with soil. Press the soil down a little to ensure it has good contact with the seed. Keep the ground moist until you see tiny bean sprouts breaking through the surface. At this stage, you’ll want to ensure you protect these shoots from slugs and snails, using whichever method you find most convenient. Now that you know how easy bean seeds are to sow, you’ll want to explore plants and veggies that will thrive alongside green beans in the garden.