The three sisters of gardening are corn, pole beans, and squash. They work together to solve many of the problems of gardens. The stalks provide support for the beans, the beans add the nitrogen to the soil that the corn needs in order to grow, and the squash vines create a ground cover that keeps the soil moist, the weeds down, and the pests away.
Planting the Three Sisters
Started by Native American farmers, three sisters gardening has been practiced for hundreds of years. Here’s one way to plant a three sisters garden:
- Hoe or till the soil when it warms up enough to be worked in the spring.
- Pile mounds of soil four feet away from each other. Make each mound about one foot high and two feet across. Flatten the tops of the mounds.
- After the danger of frost has passed plant five or six kernels of corn in a circle in the center of each mound.
- When the corn is about five inches tall (in a week or two), plant seven or eight pole bean seeds in a circle around the corn, about six inches from the corn seedlings.
- A week later, plant seven or eight squash or pumpkin seeds in a circle about one foot from the beans.
- Make sure the beans are wrapping around the cornstalks as they grow.
You’ll find many variations on this method, including planting a three sisters garden in a container.
Harvesting the Three Sisters Garden
Harvest the beans when the pods are firm and crisp, before the seeds being to swell. Let squash stay on the vine until its skin has hardened. Cut the stem three inches from the fruit with a sharp knife; then let the squash sit in the sun for a few days to cure. Pick sweet corn when the kernels are smooth and plump and the juice looks milky when you puncture it with a fingernail. Look for drying and browning of the silks. To harvest an ear of corn, hold the stalk a few inches below the ear and quickly pull the tip of the ear toward the ground until it snaps off.
Want to learn more about the Three Sisters Gardening Method?
The Three Sisters gardening tradition is rich in history and folklore. Learn more at these fascinating websites.
Native American Three Sisters Gardens
Three Sisters: An Ancient Garden Trio
Legends and Myths: The “Three Sisters” Garden
Very helpful & look firward to seeing more article
Love this idea. I can’t wait to try this.
Brilliant, I’m a newb gardener, can’t wait to try this. Thankyou.
When I was school age, Dad planted 3 corn seed, 2 pole bean seed in same hole, hilled one foot apart. Later a squash seed can be planted in path, seeds 3 foot apart.
Time to break the myth : legumes DO NOT give nitrogen to neighbooring plants, only a tiny tiny amount. They work in symbiosis with bacteria that take nitrogen from the air to give it to the plant, and the plant only. Not the neighbooring ones.
“Hoe or till the soil when it warms up enough to be worked in the spring.” No, no and NO ! The native Americans way is NO TILL. That’s why they didn’t have a dust bowl unlike the Americans in the 30s. They just dug small holes, put a few seeds of corn, squash and bean in the hole, and that’s it. They did that directly in the great plains, in the forest, small meadows… Native soil, undisturbed, is rich enough as it is. What does the bean actually gives back ? CARBON. Why are living soil found in nature so fertile ? They eat carbon mulch. If you want to enrich a soil with legumes, you let them grow, and their leaves and stalks give back carbon to the soil, which microorganisms digest and stores, giving back N P and K to plants. Native Americans understood that 2000 years ago, and we’re only rediscovering it… Look up terra preta for example, a type of rich soil native Americans created by giving insane amounts of carbons to the soil, in that case coal and petroleum (crude oil). Nowadays it’d be too expensive to create these soils, but we can still mimic nature by giving chipped wood and straw to our soils. It’s the best way to grow crops.
I would be hesitant to try this if you live in an area that has squash bugs. They can literally wipe out your squash plants and if they are planted like this article suggests I would be worried about them feasting on the next veggie.