Wow, they really produced well for you! I see many delicious meals coming up for you indeed.
I had a small envelope of black beans I considered planting this year and thought I probably didn't have room. Turns out I was right since there's nowhere near enough room to grow that many in our garden!
I also thought they would be a pole-type bean and it's interesting to note they are much more a bush-bean kind of plant.
Seems like to get enough to last a good while you do need a big space. We planted them in our small raised beds and while they did very well, it just couldn't give us enough.
The large bed in the post belongs to my mother in law, she's about an hours drive away from us so with the gas money to get there I'm not sure we saved a penny by growing our own food! LoL
Worth it though 100% :)
I have two 4 x 8 beds that I'm using as schooling ground so I can learn one or two plants at a time before I start plowing up the rest of the yard. I'm thinking about setting up two more beds in the next few weeks since I think I've got the tomatoes and cucumbers well underway and need some room for things like black beans.
Hey, if you're gardening at MIL's, that means you have a good routine for seeing her too!
That sounds fantastic! We did it like that too, started planting this and that in the garden beds to test it before going all out with big rows :)
And yes, she appreciates the company at first, then she's glad the season is over hahaha