Planting A Three Sisters Garden: Corn, Beans and Squash
Three Sisters Garden
Whether you are looking to save on space, increase your vegetable harvest, deter weeds or create an amazing garden plot planting a three sisters garden is the way to go.
Do you know who the three sisters are and why you should plant them together?
Three Sisters Crops
The three sisters are three different vegetable crops that benefit from being planted together. They are corn, beans and squash. As companion plants they help each other during the growing season.
Does Variety Matter
No, you can plant peaches and cream corn or super sweet corn or popping corn with bush beans, scarlet runner beans or pole beans. Add in your favorite squash whether that be acorn, butternut, spaghetti squash, zucchini or summer squash. The variety doesn’t matter.
Why Plant A Three Sisters Garden
Planting a three sisters garden helps you maximize on space. So even in the smallest of garden areas you can grow three amazing crops to help feed your family.
Corn provides a stock or trellis for the beans and squash to grow up. Squash with it’s large flowers attracts pollinators to all three plants increasing harvest yields. Beans are a nitrogen fixer plant. Meaning they add nitrogen back to the soil. All three plants depend, rely and work with each other to the maximum benefit.
How To Plant The Three Sisters
No matter whether you are planting your three sisters garden in a raised bed, container garden or in a large garden the key is all in the timing.
You will want to plant the corn first and then 2 weeks later plant the beans and the squash. This will give the corn time to establish and grow with the beans and squash following closely behind. This will help create the reliant relationship between trellis and vining vegetables.
Planting Beans and Corn Together
If you are not wanting to squash but still want to plant corn and beans, plant them together. They will still compliment each other. Beans will provide nitrogen to help the corn grow and the corn will provide a trellis for the beans to grow up.
Companion Planting
The 3 sisters is based on companion planting principles. Planting flowers, vegetables and fruits together that will assist each other in the growing process.
Other great companion planting groups include tomatoes, marigolds and basil. Marigolds help keep the pests away and bring the pollinators. Tomatoes provide a great harvest and are generally a taller plant providing a bit of coverage to basil during the hot summer. Basil acts like ground coverage keeping moisture in the soil. Basil and tomatoes also go very well together in food recipes.
Marigolds and cabbage or brassica plants are great companion plants. Marigolds help deter the cabbage moth and other pests.
Three Sister Garden Supplies
The Fourth Sister
The secret is out there is a fourth sister and a great companion plant for your squash, corn and beans. Sunflowers are a great addition to any garden and they provide a sturdy stock for beans to grow up and their large floral brings in the pollinators.
Related Articles:
- May Garden Guide
- 7 Amazing Tomato Growing Tips
- 21 Perennial Vegetables To Plant Once For Years Worth of Food
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