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3GARDEN
HOW TO GROW THE
SISTERS
How To Grow The
3 Sisters Garden
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A Brief History
What are the Three Sisters?
Benefits of the Three Sisters
Nutritional Aspects
The Practical Steps
Plant Selection
The Location
The Layout
Planting
Further Reading
A Brief History.
What are the Three Sisters?
The traditional planting of the Three Sisters garden,
consisting of corn, beans, and squash, creates a selfsustaining ecosystem that balances the needs of plants and
animals.
Three Sisters gardening serves as the model for a wide
variety of inter-cropping systems that thrive throughout the
world. The successful system augments agricultural
productivity in areas that face acute food shortages,
without requiring the use of environmentally harmful
pesticides and herbicides.
A small experimental three sisters garden.
Photo: Abri le Roux, CC BY 2.0
Benefits of Planting the Three Sisters
In addition to eliminating the use of harmful chemicals that
destroy the soil and damage the living environments of
other plants and animals, Three Sisters planting provides
you with an efficient way to grow crops on less land.
The interconnection of each of the Three Sisters reduces
the amount of row cropping that takes up most, if not all of
a planter’s land. Farmers who use the Three Sisters method
of planting report they use the saved farmland to plant
other crops or raise livestock in areas that were once
covered with crops.
A Three Sisters garden in early May. “I think I may have over planted this bed.”
Photo: Phil Calvert, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Don’t have much space?
No problem.
The Three Sisters garden can get by with
very little space, yet still produce an
abundance of food.
It can get a bit crowded though, so
watch out so you don’t over plant the
bed as this example illustrates.
Photo: Phil Calvert, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Nutritional aspects
Growing your own vegetables also ensures you reap the
benefits of land to table nutrition.
•
Fresh corn kernels burst with antioxidants and vitamins
that ward off illnesses, as well as comprise a vital source
for minerals.
•
String beans represent one of the best food sources for
dietary fiber, vitamin C, and folate.
•
Squash contains the highest level of vitamin A and
carotenes.
Together, the Three Sisters fill the nutritional void
experienced by a vast majority of Americans.
See the Three Sisters at the bottom right of photo. In this example he uses a trellis in the middle.
Photo: net_efekt , CC BY-NC 2.0
The Practical Steps.
Plant Selection
Corn: Most gardeners grow sweet corn
simply because it’s delicious, but you
can also grow popcorn or any other
corn variety.
Beans: You’ll want pole beans, rather
than bush beans. As their name implies,
pole beans are ready to run up trellises
and corn stalks. Common pole beans
include pinto, black, kidney, and navy
beans.
Squash: Summer or winter squash both
work well, as do pumpkins. Summer
squash are ready to eat in six weeks.
Winter squash take longer, from 2 1/2 to
four months.
A three sisters garden in July. “So far it's working good. I'm just worried about the
beans outgrowing the corn.”
Photo: Sarah Braun , CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The Location
Plant the corn in several mounds that span several rows
within a 10 by 10 foot garden space.
Your Three Sisters should grow in a space that receives a
minimum of six hours of direct sunlight every day during
the growing season.
You must plant corn in several rows to encourage sufficient
pollination, and creating mounds is preferred because they
drain better than flat soil.
Enhance the soil by adding compost to negate corn’s
propensity to devour nitrogen. You can mark off the corn
rows with strings to provide you with more clarity.
The Layout
To illustrate how you can plant your Three Sisters garden
we’ve included two example layouts on the next two pages.
However, there are no fixed rules so if you want to
improvise then feel free to do so.
When you search around the web for examples you’ll find
that not many Three Sisters gardens are alike, and all are
adapted to their specific location and circumstances.
So experiment, try new things, and if it fails try again!
Source: Cornell University
Source: Cornell University
Planting
You should plant the seeds of the Three Sisters when spring
nighttime temperatures consistently remain above 50
degrees. Next lets look at how to plant each of the three
vegetables to maximize your yield.
Plant the corn about one inch deep. Once the corn attains a
height of four inches, clear the garden of any newly arrived
weeds and plant the bean and squash seeds.
A young Three Sisters garden
Photo: macdonalder , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Further Reading
Harvesting the Three Sisters Garden for Self-Sufficiency
http://waldenlabs.com/three-sisters-garden/
Growing a Three Sisters Garden
http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/recipes/growing-a-threesisters-garden
How to Plant the Three Sisters
http://blogs.cornell.edu/garden/get-activities/signatureprojects/the-three-sisters-exploring-an-iroquois-garden/
how-to-plant-the-three-sisters/
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