In July there is still lots of time to plant beans

In the South, a “coke” is any flavor of soft drink, and in Massachusetts the same drink is a tonic. In Wisconsin if someone wants a bubbler it isn't a soda, a coke or a tonic; a bubbler is a drinking fountain. Wisconsin is also America's No. 1 green bean-growing state.

And in July there is still lots of time to plant beans. Beans grow best in warm weather, so your bean seeds will germinate quickly in the summer heat.

Green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), often called snap beans, are America's favorite. Besides deciding whether you want bush beans or pole beans, you can decide how you want to eat those beans, as a fresh snap bean where you eat the pod and all, or as dried beans.

Almost all beans are perfectly fine eaten raw, except lima beans. Lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus), also called butter beans or sieva beans, actually contain poisonous cyanide compounds which need to be cooked to make them safe for eating.

As far as planting beans, well, use your 'bean' (or head) to find a sunny spot in soil that isn't too rich in nitrogen. Beans are legumes that capture nitrogen from the air and use it as their very own fertilizer.

If your soil is too rich or you use lots of fertilizer, you will get lots of foliage, but few beans. Plant beans directly in the garden, spacing seeds about two inches apart in rows three to four feet apart.

Some faster-growing bush beans include Purple Peacock with its gorgeous purple pods; it is ready to pick in just two months from planting. For a flat or Romano bush bean you can plant Roma or its yellow counterpart, Roma Gold. The Dragon Tongue bush bean is green streaked with purple, and is known for high yields.

For pole beans try Blue Lake, which is also available as a bush bean. A beautiful bean that is often used as an ornamental, yet is perfectly edible, is the pole bean Scarlet Runner (Phaseolus coccineus), which will give you delicious beans and bright-red flowers in just 65 days.

Beans used in soups and stews are called dry beans. Try Black Turtle beans that mature in just 85 days.

You don't have to be an accountant or 'bean counter' (someone who literally used to count beans but today refers to a joyless sort who is only interested in efficiency) to know that getting double duty from one plant is a winner. The colorful tan streaked with maroon bush dry bean Tiger’s Eye takes a bit longer to mature, so get it planted no later than the end of July.

If you can't decide whether you want snap beans or dry beans, you can have both from one plant such as the Painted Pony Bean. It has stringless pods when young, or you can let the beans fully mature to use as soup beas.

Plant beans in July for string beans in September or baked beans in November. And that, as they say, is no small hill of beans.