Three Sisters

Supposedly the Native Americans grew corn, beans, and squash together and called them the "Three Sisters". Corn is a hungry plant, and benefits from the nitrogen fixing capabilities of the beans. The pole beans grow up the stalks of corn and use them for support. The vining squash acts as a living mulch and helps shade the soil, conserving moisture while deterring weed growth. Raccoons detest the prickly leaves of the squash and avoid the corn patch which has squash growing amongst the corn.

Supposedly.

We'll see.


We tilled up a patch of ground about 30x30. Normally I would try for raised beds rather than tilling but time was running out and I wanted to do the traditional mounds rather than beds. The area we tilled is clay and rocks so we threw some peat out there and tilled it in. We put a blob of composted manure about every four feet, to mark where our mounds will be and to enrich the soil a bit. My husband was in charge of east-west alignment and he did a fine job.


I was in charge of north-south alignment and, well, let's move on to the next photo, shall we?


We mounded up the dirt with a hoe, then held the hoe horizontally and used the handle to flatten the top of the mounds. This pretty much sums up the prep work we did for our Three Sisters garden. I'll talk about the planting in another entry, and we can check in on the garden from time to time as the growing season progresses.