Planting a Three Sisters Garden...
Although native peoples from different parts of North America used a wide range of agricultural techniques, perhaps the best known is the inter-planting of corn, beans, and squash: a trio known by many groups as "The Three Sisters." This well-conceived planting system features three crops that benefit one another and together nourished the people who planted them. The corn supports the bean vines as they grow upward and the squash covers the soil, helping control weeds and deter predators who might feed on the corn. The beans can convert nitrogen from the air info a form that plants can use. (The nitrogen remaining after the beans have grown will be available for the corn, which requires a good deal of nitrogen, the following year.) And the sisters complement each other nutritionally, with the corn supplying carbohydrates, beans contributing protein and additional vitamins, and squash offering lots of vitamin A.
It is the symbolism of the three sisters however, that runs deep in the hearts of many Native Americans, as we understand that we do not stand alone, we support each other, and we can only grow with the assistance of one another.
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The Three Sisters all work together. Critters will find it harder to invade your garden by interplanting your corn, beans and squash. The corn stalk serves as a pole for the beans, the beans help to add the nitrogen to the soil that the corn needs, and the squash provides a ground cover of shade that helps the soil retain moisture. |
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1. In late May or early June, hoe up the ground and heap the earth into piles
about a foot high and about 20 across.
The
centers of your mounds should be about four feet apart and should have flattened
tops.
2. First, in the center of each mound, plant five or six corn kernels in a small circle.
3. After a week or two, when the corn has grown to be five inches or so, plant seven or eight pole beans in a circle about six inches away from the corn kernels.
4. A week later, at the edge of the mound about a foot away from the beans, plant seven or eight squash or pumpkin seeds.
5. When the plants begin to grow, you will need to weed out all but a few of the sturdiest of the corn plants from each mound. Also keep the sturdiest of the bean and squash plants and weed out the weaker ones.
6. As the corn and beans grow up, you want to make sure that the beans are supported by cornstalks, wrapping around the corn. The squash will crawl out between the mounds, around the corn and beans.
Enjoy your harvest!!!
