Growing your own green beans is one of the most rewarding gardening activities. The seeds are large and easy to plant, the plants grow quickly to flowering and fruiting, and even if you neglect them badly you'll still probably get something to eat. With a little planning you can have fresh beans from early summer until frost. The key is variety selection and succession planting.

The "green" in green beans doesn't refer only to the color, it also refers to when you harvest them. Green beans are picked while the seeds inside are still immature or "green." So let's dive headfirst into the world of the green bean.

The most common type of green bean is the bush bean. Bush beans tend to grow 18 to 24 inches tall and produce a plethora of beans over a short one- to two-week period. Most bush beans mature a few months after planting, so they're a quick reward for your efforts. Some of the tried-and-true varieties include 'Blue Lake', 'Contender', and 'Greencrop'.

If you're looking for bean varieties especially resistant to bean diseases such as viruses try 'Topcrop', 'Tendergreen', and 'Derby'.

Bush beans aren't limited to the color green. There are varieties of yellow or wax beans, such as 'Golden Wax', and purple-pod beans, such as 'Royalty Purple Pod', that can add color to your raw bean salads. While the wax beans stay yellow after cooking, the purple-colored beans turn green.

While bush beans are the simplest to grow, if you want to extend your bean picking season or have limited space, try growing beans vertically. Pole beans can be trellised up a pole, a tepee, or even a fence. They grow as quickly as bush beans, but start maturing a little later. Once the bush bean-picking season is over, the pole beans start coming on. The nice thing about pole beans is they produce handfuls of beans periodically until frost, so you'll have fresh beans until the weather kills the plant.

Some good pole bean varieties to grow include 'Kentucky Wonder' and 'Emerite'.

While the standard bush and pole varieties are easy and fulfilling to grow, you might want to try a different type of bean. French filet beans have become very popular the last few years. These beans are stringless, and more slender and tender than traditional bush and pole beans. When cooked, they're so tender they almost melt in your mouth. Some good varieties include 'Maxibel' and 'Nickel'.

Growing a bean variety from a different continent can add novelty to your garden. The yard-long bean is a pole bean that hails from a different family of legumes. It produces 1- to 3-foot-long beans in pairs. Although they mature later than other pole beans, the pods stay slender and taste great in Asian cooking. They grow best during hot summer weather.

For more information on bean varieties go to: http://willhiteseed.com/products.php?cat=8.