Three Sisters Garden: companion planting
by FigTree
In the Native American tradition Three Sisters Planting was a way to garden to create a beneficial ecosystem between three plants that all help each other grow: Corn, Squash, and pole beans. Start your very own kitchen garden with these three beneficial plants and watch the bounty of your garden grow.
Keep your vegetable garden simple. That's what I always have to remember when my tiny brain gets overwhelmed by all of the possibilities for planting raised vegetable beds . I have been trying to organize and ponder what vegetables I will plant this year and sometimes it is just too exciting and overwhelming, so here I am reminding myself to just keep it simple!
This year I am going to try to go with the simplest plan of all- The Three Sisters (corn, pole beans, and squash) are planted together, creating a beneficial relationship between the three- the corn is the stalk that helps the pole beans climb, the roots of the beans release nitrogen into the soil that the corn needs to thrive, the corn and beans together create the shade needed for the squash to grow, and squash provides the vines that capture moisture for them all. Ahhhh, so simple!
To make certain that the corn does not get overwhelmed by the pole bean plant the corn first until it is 4 feet in height and then then the beans and squash can be planted.
MORE INFORMATION:
- For a 10 X 10 space you can go to Renne's Seeds and see this great plan for a Three Sister's Garden written by Alice Formiga or buy her Three Sisters Bonus Pack of ready to go seeds!
- For a kid's gardening project with a Three Sisters Garden check out this really cool plan from kidsgardening.com.
- Or you can watch this video from Shauna Coronado on planting a Three Sisters Garden.
Tags
Three Sisters Garden, Corn, squash, pole beans, companion planting, kitchen gardening
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