Three Sisters
Three Sisters Gardens are a Native American tradition. Corn, beans, and squash work together, helping each other grow to be their best. The corn provides a natural vertical trellis for the beans to grow up. The squash shades the ground and keeps things cool and more-or-less weed-free. The beans fix nitrogen in the soil, feeding both the corn and the squash.
We have always been fascinated by this idea, so we planted a three sisters garden at a friend's place. Since the property was located across town, we wanted to be as efficient as possible, so we started our corn in paper pots.
Our pots were made out of newspaper, formed around small bottles and folded over at one end to make a bottom. We filled them with a seed starting mixture, pressed the seeds into the mixture and kept it watered. Within just a few weeks we had six to eight inch baby corn plants with roots pushing out of the bottom of our pots. We had nearly 400 plants ready to go by our scheduled planting day. Our corn seed of choice was Kentucky Butcher. We are looking forward to the corn meal this beautiful mix of corn will make.
For the beans, we planted 'Rattlesnake', and we used a mix of butternut, acorn, and spaghetti squash for the final sister. All of this was planted in three foot wide raised rows with two foot isles between them. Corn at 18" on center, beans at 30", and squash were planted down the center of the isles at 36" intervals.
Like I mentioned previously, we were trying to be as efficient as possible. We thought that giving the corn a head start would allow us to plant it, along with the bean and squash seeds at the same time.
What happened is that the corn had some transplant shock (in spite of the fact that it was planted in the paper pots), and by the time it really started growing, we had been forced to prune back the beans twice, just to keep them from taking over the whole place.
Once we got everything rolling though, it was pretty easy: we just let nature take it's course.
Here's a short video of the saga...
We have always been fascinated by this idea, so we planted a three sisters garden at a friend's place. Since the property was located across town, we wanted to be as efficient as possible, so we started our corn in paper pots.
Our pots were made out of newspaper, formed around small bottles and folded over at one end to make a bottom. We filled them with a seed starting mixture, pressed the seeds into the mixture and kept it watered. Within just a few weeks we had six to eight inch baby corn plants with roots pushing out of the bottom of our pots. We had nearly 400 plants ready to go by our scheduled planting day. Our corn seed of choice was Kentucky Butcher. We are looking forward to the corn meal this beautiful mix of corn will make.
For the beans, we planted 'Rattlesnake', and we used a mix of butternut, acorn, and spaghetti squash for the final sister. All of this was planted in three foot wide raised rows with two foot isles between them. Corn at 18" on center, beans at 30", and squash were planted down the center of the isles at 36" intervals.
Like I mentioned previously, we were trying to be as efficient as possible. We thought that giving the corn a head start would allow us to plant it, along with the bean and squash seeds at the same time.
What happened is that the corn had some transplant shock (in spite of the fact that it was planted in the paper pots), and by the time it really started growing, we had been forced to prune back the beans twice, just to keep them from taking over the whole place.
Once we got everything rolling though, it was pretty easy: we just let nature take it's course.
Here's a short video of the saga...
It's getting to be about time to harvest the corn and the squash. We'll post an update of the bounty when it happens.
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