Three Sisters Garden - 2005




During the summer of my fifty-second year, I grew a garden in Ohio, patterned after what I learned in the Cherokee Museum of North Carolina.

In this garden, three species work together to help the soil and to grow in conjunction with one another. 

The three sisters are corn, beans and squash. 

Here I have prepared a plot for planting the three sisters - sixteen mounds into which I have dug several shovelfuls of well weathered manure.

Into the center of the mound, I planted 5-7 corn seeds.  In my case, it is sweet corn. 

The date of the picture is from the last day of Grass Moon.



14 days later, near the full planting moon, I planted a circle of beans and then a larger circle of squash seeds around each emerging clump of corn seedlings.

I planted a circle of 8 seeds of each type on each mound, in each of the cardinal directions. 

It might be noticed that I move a small windmill around the garden from time to time to make the garden less inviting to birds and small animals that might want to eat the seedlings. 

At the same time, I planted 4 tomato plants and a bed of onions.

Just past the new Long Day Moon, I took this picture of the three sisters garden.

The corn has come up nicely and the beans and squash are doing well.  In the two nearest rows, the squash is Zucchini variety for summer use and the back two rows are butternut squash for winter storage. 

Some animals have nibbled several of the bean and squash plants and some of the seeds did not germinate.  The number of seeds I planted seems just about right for the plot, given this natural decrease in the number of plants.

It seems proper to plant enough that animals have some harvest of the garden as well. This way, I am not worried about loosing the entire harvest. 



This is what one of the hills looks like at this stage.  The corn is in the middle, ringed by heart shaped bean leaves, and the more irregular squash leaves are in the outer ring. 


By full Long Day Moon, the three sisters garden is well established. 

the corn is supporting the beans as both grow up into the hot summer sky.  The squash plants are spreading their large leaves, shading out weeds and providing some protection against drying out of the soil. 



A hill with corn, beans, and zucchini squash is now merging with the hills next to it.  The corn is having trouble climbing into the sky as fast as the Zucchini.  The beans are enjoying the wrapping of their tendrils around the corn and the squash. 


The hills with winter (Butternut) squash are much less exuberant in growth.  The corn is much higher than the squash. 

Zucchini squash matures in 45 days and is now blooming.  Butternut squash matures in 95 days and is just now a good sized seedling. 



The tomato plants are doing well and the first green tomatoes are visible.  The pepper plants are holding their own, though they are being threatened with shade from the nearby zucchini plants.






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