Summer is such a wonderful time to be outside enjoying the warm weather. It’s also a perfect time to get the kids out of the house and playing outdoors .
So if you’re looking for a fun project to do in your backyard here’s an idea for you. Parents are creating pole bean tents for their kids to play in and it looks super cool.
If your child is a fan of Sharon Lovejoy’s “Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots” they will definitely appreciate this awesome outdoor backyard project.
Why not cultivate their green thumb young?
Some people have taken the inspiration for their pole bean gardens from this book’s Moon Garden and the Garden of Giants but just kept it a little bit more simple.
Apparently, you can DIY your own version!
No matter where your inspiration comes from you can make this project your own.
You can pick exactly how you want it to look and what to plant. How fun!
Here’s what you’ll need for this project: bamboo poles or wood poles (8-10′), twine or string, soil amendments, pole bean seeds, and annual climbing flower seeds (Heavenly Blue or Morning Glories).
It’s not too complicated to make these.
First thing you need to do is to pick the right location and size for your pole bean tent and loosely assemble it to see how it will look.
The frame will help shape your tent.
Then you will need to prep the soil by removing the sod and dig in some compost or composted cow manure and Nature’s Helper to loosen up heavy soil.
Good soil helps the plant stay healthy.
Now that the soil is ready you can permanently assemble your tent.
You’ll need to push the bottom ends into the amended soil, and tie the top ends together.
Now you’ll need to tie twine at the top of one of the poles and work your way around and down the tent’s framework to create a trellis system.
This will allow the plant to “climb” the tent.
The final step is to of course plant your bean seeds at the bottom.
Plant seeds 1-inch deep and about 3-4 inches apart and follow directions on the packet.
You can also plant morning glories, that will climb up or other low-growing annuals such as marigolds or nasturtiums.
They can form a pretty visual base to the tent.
Now all you need is to keep the seedlings well watered and help guide them along to the top of the tent if they seem to need it.
It’s pretty low-maintenance!
It might seem slow at first but once the seedlings start to grow, they will grow fast and you’ll have a wonderful covered up tent in no time.
Play time!
This is such an amazing idea to keep your kids occupied during the construction and growing process and then once it’s ready they can enjoy it all summer long.
Every kid should have their own secret garden kid!
I honestly never heard of this idea until now.
I think this would be a cool project whether you had kids or not. I actually want one of those. Haha!
