Three Sisters Garden - Part I

On the weekend, I was talking gardening with my daughter and daughter-in-law.  I told them about a long Three Sisters Garden that Jollity Farm had planted.  A Three Sisters Garden is a native indian creation.  It combines corn, beans and squash in a harmonious companion planting.  The corn is planted first and when it's about 4" tall, the climbing beans and squash are planted.  Corn provides the framework for beans to grow on and the beans provide strength to keep the corn from being blown over.  Beans add nitrogen to the soil which corn needs.  Squash covers the ground, crowding out weeds, keeping in moisture and repelling marauding raccoons with its prickly vines.  Similarly, corn and beans together are almost a perfect food.  This garden can continue in the same place for many, many years without crop rotation, maintaining its fertility with the happy blend of plants and their products composted and put back on the soil.

This got me thinking.  I'd grown corn and beans together many years ago when I was just getting started gardening. The experiment wasn't particularly successful but I think in light of some of the things I've learned about gardening and soil health over the years, I'm ready to try it again.

This kind of garden needs some room and the kind of raised bed gardening I've been doing doesn't quite fit.  I do, however, have the oldest section of my garden which has two wood framed 4x6 raised beds that are nearing their end as the wood is finally rotting.  If I take them over, I can turn this whole area into my Three Sisters Garden.  Eventually, I'll remove the wood from the beds and face the area with rocks, but for now, I'll just make do.

Before

Here's the "Before" picture.  There are still leeks growing in one bed and for the time being I'll leave them be.  This is February, after all, and I won't need the bed for a few months yet.  In the meantime, I can tidy up!

After tidy-up

Now the beds are dug over (except for the leeks).  The tires in between the beds are filled with soil and were used to grow cherry tomatoes in.  I'll take them away and fill in the area between the beds with soil as well.  This weekend, I have a yard of SeaSoil coming and some of this will be generously added to the beds.

For more information on Three Sisters Gardening, check out the Renee's Garden website, which explains it clearly, offering plans and seeds.

All that's left for this post is to show the latest signs of spring!

Salome Narcissus

Purple Hellebore planted in the forested area of our property