Dried beans cooking lessons

Like you SC I'm a relative novice when it comes to dried pulses, homegrown or bought. Only this morning I used some saved dried coco blanc a rames(lazy housewife) beans in a veg dollop. They were this years dried beans kept in a sealed plastic bag, stuffed in an available corner in the cupboard. I soaked them last night in unsalted cold water, boiled them for something like 20 minutes, again unsalted, until they were tender then added them to a tomatoey vegetable base and brought the whole lot to the boil again. Now its sitting on the stovetop cooling before freezing for another day. The other half of the veg base has sausages in for tonight's dinner.
I wasn't going to grow this variety again, but have changed my mind and will, I like the beans. My problem is how much space to dedicate to dried beans.