Sunday was Three Sisters Day

Unusually we drove to the plot because there were about five boxes full of plants to carry, plus a hoe, spade, gardening bag and longwave radio for the cricket (not for my benefit, you understand, although I find listening to cricket commentary rather relaxing, apart from when Geoff Boycott is on).

Rick finished clearing the top end of the plot where we'd trench composted over the winter, and where I had planned a Three Sisters planting scheme of corn, beans and squash. This involves following the Native American way of planting these three crops in a mutually beneficial way - the beans grow up the corn, the squash covers the ground and suppresses weeds and stops pests such as mice reaching the corn, and the beans help to fix nitrogen in the soil to help feed the squash and corn. Clever, eh?

There are various ways of planting (just Google it for lots of ideas) but I used "mini mounds" each planted with one sweetcorn plant, one or two beans, and a squash (either summer of winter) planted to one side, as the pic on the left shows. You can sow straight into the mound but I grew seedlings in pots first to evade the slugs and get a head start on the weather.

A plastic bottle with the base cut off was incorporated into each mound so that I can water direct to the roots, which is more efficient and prevents erosion of the soil surface (important on a gradient!). Each bean and squash seedling was also armed with a slug sleeve - a ring made from another plastic bottle with a jagged top rim to discourage slugs from sliming over and eating everything.

Although the theory is that the beans climbs the squash, you can tell that I am not 100% convinced by the presence of the stakes ... I have a feeling the beans will romp away quicker than the corn.

You can see the finished set of mounds on the right. Given how rampant the squash always are, all that bare soil will probably be covered in a fortnight or so ...

If you're interested in what varieties I've sown, here's a list (seed firm links are on the left-hand side of the page):

Mr Brooks Blue bean (Heritage Seed Library)
Bean Cosse Violette (Real Seed Company)
Bean Hutterite Soup (Heritage Seed Library)
Sweetcorn Ashworth (Real Seed Company)
Sweetcorn F1 Applause (Suttons - I never usually buy F1s but these were a gift and they are actually a lot less sturdy than the Ashworth, interestingly)
Squash Harlequin (Heritage Seed Library swap - also available here)
Squash Green Bush (just a bog standard green courgette, can't remember where these seeds were from)
Summer Squash Mystery Mix (Real Seed Company)
Pumpkin Rouge Vif D'Etampes variants (own saved seed - bound to be a very mixed bunch!)
Rainbow Squash (Real Seed Company)
Pumpkin Jack Be Little (Organic Gardening Catalogue)

(Sadly, the Butternut squash didn't germinate so I am trying again with a late sowing - fingers crossed!)

Comments

[lilymarlene]

I tried the "three sisters" method last year....all went well until I wanted to pick the sweetcorn heads. By then the beans had wrapped themselves so tightly around the corn heads that I had to break the bines to harvest the corn. So I ended up with no beans at all.
I think your idea of poles is a winner!

[HelenHaricot]

we are semi doing the 3 sisters - squashes and corn. I couldn't decide over the beans - may do some for the full experiment for my daughter.
will pop some of our piccies on our blog when i've uploaded them to flickr

[Judith Schwader]

Good timing to read your post. I'm planting three-sisters this year for the first time, and would already have them done if it weren't for being rained out this weekend.

I appreciated the images of how you arranged the mounds. One thing I hadn't visualized was how to work the squash transplants.

How many rows have you altogether? I think four is the minimum for successful pollination of the corn.

[Jane Perrone]

I've only got the three staggered rows you see in the pic. Ideally corn should be in more of a block shape but I've grown it this way in previous years and had no problems with germination. The nature of the space available only allowed me to do it this way so I hope it's enough!

Ideally the mounds should also be bigger, but again, space was limited ...

[kelly]

i have planted squash for my very first time. my plants have really gotten big. i went to a nursery and got 2 packs of squash. the same as you have with those big golden flowers. i beleive i got them at the begining of summer. well i am wondering when the flowers will become a squash? it is just about the end of august and i dont have nothing that looks like a squash. i have lots of buds and flowers, and some flowers have a green ball that i know it going to be a squash but when? the fall is coming and i dont want nothing to come and then the snow. can you let me know how long and what to do with this squash thanks kelly.